XINGTAI: Rising costs, falling prices, striking workers -- iron ore mine manager Song Denggan has a lot on his mind, and chain smokes as he faces the prospect of industrial stagnation in China.
Song's mine in Hebei, a gritty northern province surrounding Beijing, exemplifies the challenges the country faces as it seeks to move from the factory-driven, fast-growing economy of the past to a consumer-led future.
"There is no comparison between business now and a few years back," the grey-haired industry veteran said. "The best we can hope for is to remain stable."
Industries across China are struggling with massive debts and overcapacity, the hangover from credit-fuelled expansion which helped drive a decades-long growth party.
China's government says the world's second largest economy is expanding at its slowest for 25 years -- and according to analysts the real figures could be much lower -- and the slowdown has world markets rattled.
Miners at Song's firm have struggled to increase output in the face of dwindling prices, he said, and have gone on strike over lack of pay, holding a red banner outside the gate reading "We want our wages".
"We have to maintain production, and even increase it because prices are falling. But our costs are going up," grey-haired Song told AFP.
"We are feeling the impact of changes in the steel industry."
It is a pattern repeated across northern China, which is dominated by large, indebted and often state-run firms producing coal, cement and steel.
Prices in China's once booming real estate sector have remained largely flat over the past year, while overproduction has driven down prices and profits for its suppliers.
Some northern Chinese regions expanded by less than four percent in the first half of this year.
Manufacturing data has been dismal in recent months, with activity contracting in August, according to an official purchasing managers index (PMI) survey.
"A lot of the historical industries which China has built heavily on are in flat-out recession," said Christopher Balding, an economist at Peking University's HSBC Business School in Shenzhen.
"There are large amounts of industries that have enormous surplus capacity," he added.
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