<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 3.0"> <title>1-99 News: Chinese coke producers use child labor, ACCCI charges</title> <meta name="Microsoft Border" content="none"></head> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <img src="../images/nshead.gif" WIDTH="232" HEIGHT="36"> Published January 1999 <div align="center"><center> <table border="0" width="600"> <tr> <td><big>Chinese coke producers use child labor, ACCCI charges</big><div align="left"><table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="100%"> <tr> <td width="62%" valign="top">Restrictions should be placed on imports of coke from Chinese producers that use unfair manufacturing and trading practices, the American Coke and Coal Chemicals Institute (ACCCI) says. Much of the imported coke continues to originate from Chinese producers that take advantage of child labor, government subsidies, and a lack of environmental controls, ACCCI says.</td> <td width="38%"><img src="../images/Nw990103.jpg" alt="Nw990103.jpg (26554 bytes)" WIDTH="142" HEIGHT="173"> This photo depicts a child sorting coke by hand in the Chinese port city of Tianjin, the ACCCI  says</td> </tr> </table> </div>A delegation from ACCCI toured several Chinese coke plants and a port in 1994. It was alarmed to find many children sorting and stacking coke by hand. ACCCI learned that children worked 10-14 hours a day and didnt wear respiratory-protection masks. The labor situation there is the same today, ACCCI says. American coke-production workers shouldnt be forced to compete with increasing imports of Chinese coke produced in that manner, says Martin Dusel, ACCCIs chairman. The U.S. must restrict the entry of coke and other goods produced by children, he says. The trade group also is concerned that Chinese coke producers still use beehive coke ovens, which were last used in the U.S. in the 1950s. These ovens have few environmental controls and send emissions into the atmosphere rather than to byproduct plants. U.S. coke producers comply with the worlds most stringent environmental regulations and shouldnt have to compete with imports that have much lower standards, ACCCI says. In 1995, the last year for which figures are available, China produced 135 million metric tons (mt) of coke. Of the 10.8 million mt of coke China exported in 1997, 1.18 million mt were exported to the U.S. Domestic companies produced 23 million tons of coke in 1997. The Chinese offer coke here in the neighborhood of $80 per ton, says David Saunders, ACCCIs president. Coke typically sells in the U.S. for more than $100 per ton.</td> </tr> </table> </center></div> <hr> <a href="newsmast.htm">Return to New Steel News Archives</a> <a href="../index.htm">Return to New Steel home page.</a> </body> </html>