SCORES WASTE IN ELECTRICAL INDUSTRY; PLANS TO INCREASE SOUTHERN COAL PRODUCTION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600300499-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 7, 2011
• Sequence Number: 499
• Publication Date: April 26, 1950
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/09/08: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600300499-5
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD NO.
CLASSIFICATION CONFIDENTIAL COMFIDENTIAL
COUNTRY China
SUBJECT Economic - Fuels, energy
HOW
PUBLISHED Daily newspapers
WHERE
PUBLISHED Canton; Hong Kong
RATE
PUBLISHED 25 Feb - 20 Mar 1950
LANGUAGE Chinese
TNU DOCUYNNT CONTAINS INI011ATION ANNSRINS rut NATIONAL 0111111
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Y. t. C.. 11 ANO lt.00 111.011. ITS TNANtxtUION oN Txt N11t4TIHN
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DATE OF
INFORMATION 1950
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
SCORES WASTE IN ELECTRICAL INDUSTRY;
PLANS TO INCREASE SOUTHERN COAL PRODUCTION
POINTS OUT DEFECTS IN ELECTRICAL SUPPLY -- Canton Nan-fang Jih-pao, 20 Mar 50
Peiping, 17 March (Hain-hua) -- There are many cases of waste in our electrical
industry. If these could all be corrected, the capacity for electricity production
could be increased by 150 percent with existing plants and equipment. While indus-
trial plants everywhere are short of current, the capacity of the power plants is
by no means being employed to the best advantage.
A preliminary survey by the Northeast Electrical Industry Control Bureau has
revealed that within the jurisdiction of that bureau there are idle production fa-
cilities capable of adding 45,000 kilowatts to the present output. This is equal
to the capacity of the largest plant in North China, the one at the Shih-ching-shan
(Ueda: 7954, 4558, 2528) Steel Works.
In 1949, in the Northeast, North China, and East China districts, where the
most experienced technicians are found, electric plants produced only 65.1 percent
of their actual capacity. In 1950, it is hoped to raise the output to 78.8 percent
of capacity.
The responsibility for this unsatisfactory condition rests largely upon the
cadres. They are not sufficiently progressive, or fail to obtain maximum production
from their equipment for fear of ruining it. They do not make the necessary re-
pairs to keep the machines up to capacity. Some of the cadres still have a capital-
istic view of management problems and believe it economical to operate equipment
only to a point somewhat below its full capacity. They do not realize that by so
doing they are holding back dependent industries and thus hindering the development
of the whole national economy.
Another defect is the low rate of utilization of power plant equipment. For
example, last year in North China where the utilization was most efficient, only
28.4 percent of the possible utilization time for the year was taken advantage of.
During 1950, it is hoped to raise this to 29.7 percent. This, however, falls far
short of what might be considered a reasonably efficient utilization, and is only
40 percent of Soviet standards. If the effective utilization of the present plant
W
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FBI
CONF JENTM.M!
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capacity of the publicly operated plants in the Northeast, North China, and East
China were brought up to the optimum, production could exceed by 130 percent the
plan for 1950, or the equivalent of the introduction into the system of a new
plant capable of producing several tens of thousands of kilowatts of current.
During 1949, there were 3,368 interruptions in electric production in the
Northeast and North China, of which 2,124 were in the Northeast. The resulting
loss of energy was the equivalent of 470,000 tons of coal, sufficient to operate
all the power plants in the Northeast for 6 months.
In 1950, interruptions in power supply have continued to occur. For ex-
ample, there was an explosion in generator No 6 at the Shih-ching-shan power plant.
After this was repaJXed, it was discovered that other machinery had also suffered
damage, indicating that the cadres at this plant were lax in conducting inspections
and in taking necessary precautionary measures. Damages to equipment and power
lines in other areas have also been severe, causing losses of more than 50 percent
in the total amount of power generated.
The Central Ministry of Fuel industry made a study of the situation and of-
fered several measures to cope with problems confronting the power industry. Meas-
ures to be taken include:
1. Complete survey of power-generation equipment, after which excess equip-
ment will be reported to the central government for centralized distribution.
2. Institution of a planned system of periodic inspection and repair of ma-
chinery. In this way, equipment may be maintained at a high rate of efficiency and
a continuous flow of electricity guaranteed.
3? Establishment of an electricity supply-control system, by which agreements
will be concluded between the local electricity control bureau and consumers of
electricity. Amounts of electricity consumed and the period of time involved will
be systematized into a payment schedule designed to broaden the use of electricity
and encourage its use at appropriate times, such as night work in factories.
Through publicity, consumers should be impressed with the importance of planned
utilization of electricity.
4. Efforts should be made to stamp out all waste and inefficiency, and to
raise gradually the present level of equipment efficiency, so that increases in
production of 150 percent over 1950 plans may be realized in the future without ap-
preciable addition of new equipment.
A few examples of the application of these principles confirms that they are
capable of producing results. The No 3 boiler at the Tientsin plant had an earlier
capacity of 5,000 kilowatts, but after inspection and repair, its capacity was
raised to 10,000 kilowatts, the original capacity of the equipment. The Taingtao
Power Plant was also operating at half capacity until an organized system of inspec-
tion and repair restored its original efficiency. The Hsiao-feng-man plant mo-
bilized its workers in a safety and maintenance drive and succeeded in setting a
new record of 160 days of continuous operation without a mishap.
CCP AIMS TO INCREASE COAL PRODUCTION -- Hong Kong Wen-hui Pao, 25 Feb 50
Peiping, 23 February (Hein-hua) -- The decisions of the Conference on Coal
Problems conducted in December 1949 by the Central and South China regional author-
ities, and approved by the Central Ministry of Fuel Industry, call for a six-fold
increase in the coal production of the mines of that region in 1950, compared with
that in 1949.
Even at full capacity, the production of these mines falls 23.6 percent be-
low the needs of the region, which cnnsrnuently has to rely on the Northeast,
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North China, and other regions for the balance. Priority is to be given to com-
pleting the work on the new big shaft at the Ping-hsiang mines, and to surveying
the coal beds along the Hunan-Kwangsi-Kweichow railroad at Yung-shao (5957, 12147),
those at P11n
-ta
h
28
g
ng S
an (
99, 13296) in Ronan, and at Tzu-ao (11373, 2010) on
the southern section of the Wu-ch'ang--Canton railroad, in preparation for devel-
opment to supply the needs of canton and of the localities on the western section
of the Lien-yun--Lan-chou railroad.
Most of the mines in the Central and South China District had resumed work in
1949, but due to the fact that rail transportation bed not
t b
ye
een restored,
stocks of coal accumulated at the mines. Furthermore, since the rate of production
averaged not over 0.1 ton per man-day, the cost of production was much higher than
in the northern mines. The aims for 1950 at the Ping-heiang mines will be to in-
crease the production efficiency by 50-100 percent and to reduce costs by 27 per-
cent of the average cost in the last quarter of 1949.
EXPLOSION REPORT INCLUDES MINE STATISTICS -- Canton Nan-fang Jih-pao, 15 Mar 50
Pei-ping, 13 March (Hein-hua) -- According to a report carried by the Pei-
ping Jen-min Jih-pao on 13 March, a sev-re coal-gas explosion occurred 27 Febru-
ary 1950 in the I-lo coal mine in Hunan Province, and caused a large number of cas-
ualties. The blast took place at 1800 hours when all of the 300 miners were at
work below surface. The cause of the disaster is being studied by several central
and regional agencies and the All-China Federation of Labor.
The I-lo mine is located 35 kilometers southwest of Lo-yang. Formerly a pro-
vincially operated mine, it was placed under national control in December 1949.
The mine employs 300 workers and produces 200 tons of coal per day. The extraction
process is partially by hand and partially by machinery.
FU-SHUN KEROSENE ON SALE IN NORTH CHINA -- Hong Kong Kung-shang Jih-pao, 25 Feb 50
Hong Kong, 24 February -- A recent arrival in Hong Kong from North China re-
ported that kerosene produced from Fu-shun coal is being sold in Tientsin at a
price 30 percent less than kerosene imported from the US. A Communist newspaper in
Tientsin claimed that although this kerosene creates heavy smoke, its quality is
better than imported oil.
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