The Japanese companies are seeking opportunities in China as urbanization and climate change pressures increase demand for the improved water supplies. Marubeni Corporation and JGC Corporation have agreed in 2008 with a Chinese partner to tackle the pollution at dams in the country and ease water shortages, according to a document released in November 2008 from Japan’s trade ministry and China’s National Development and Reform Commission.
“Tangshan is expected to be China’s largest industrial city, and there’s a huge business opportunity in water,” Atsushi Kato, a project manager said. “The market for sewage treatment in China will expand.”
Sojitz, which will also operate the proposed Tangshan plant, plans to treat the sewage and industrial waste water from homes and businesses and sell purified water to power stations, steel mills, and chemical plants. The company will also supply products such as water treatment membranes.
Tangshan Expansion
The companies including Shougang Corporation and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation are expanding in the Tangshan area as the government moves to transform the city into an industrial hub.
The proposed Tangshan water treatment plant may process 20,000 metric tons to 50,000 tons of water a day and could start operating in 2011, Kato said. Sojitz will jointly conduct the study for the plant with a Japanese maker of water filter membranes, Kato said, declining to name the company.
Kato said that over the next five years Sojitz may also operate the plants in the coastal cities such as Dalian, Tianjin, and Shanghai, as well as inland areas including Sichuan.
Sojitz said that a water supply shortage in the China is forecast to reach 100 billion tons in 2010 and rise to 450 billion tons in 2030, citing data from the Chinese government.
China’s shortage of water poses a serious challenge to its intention to expand agricultural output, the country’s Ministry of Water Resources said in 2008.
The industrialization and climate change have worsened the imbalance in China’s distribution of water resources which amid the increasing demand from irrigation, Vice Minister Hu Siyi said at an August 13, 2009 media briefing in Beijing.
Water resources in the major tributaries of northern China, including the Yellow River, reduced by 12% in recent years, according to a statement given to reporters at the briefing. The insufficient waste treatment of both industrial and urban water had worsened pollution, it said.
