吉林省接管停产玉米加工企业

A provincial government in north-east China’s grains heartland has taken over a maize processor that had closed after a prolonged struggle with mounting debts, highlighting China’s unwillingness to allow local champions to fail in an era of slowing growth.

中国东北一个粮食大省的政府接管了一家在持久债务重压之下停产的玉米加工企业，突显在增长放缓时期中国官方不愿让地方龙头企业倒闭。

Provincial governments have stepped in to rescue companies in sectors from steel to solar, avoiding potentially painful defaults but adding to concerns over the quality of debt held by Chinese banks and the drag on the economy of unprofitable corporations.

从钢铁到太阳能，省级政府已介入多个行业拯救企业，这种做法避免了潜在痛苦的违约，但加剧了人们对于中国各银行所持债务质量、以及不能盈利的企业拖累经济的担忧。

Hong Kong-listed Global Bio-Chem, the third-largest corn refiner in the world and the largest in Asia, had racked up $1.9bn in debts to banks and local businesses, according to Chinese media reports. It had ceased operations at lossmaking production lines following protests by corn farmers who said the company had failed to pay them for their crop.

在香港上市的大成生化(Global Bio-Chem)，是世界第三大、亚洲最大玉米提炼企业。据中国媒体报道，该公司欠了银行和当地企业19亿美元债务。在玉米种植户抗议该公司拖欠粮款后，大成生化亏损的生产线已停止运营。

It has been taken over by Modern Agricultural Industry Investment Ltd, which is ultimately owned by the Jilin Provincial government together with a city in the province also named Jilin. Over the past decade Jilin Province, China’s largest corn producing province, has encouraged the rapid development of companies that process corn into feed, starch, corn syrup and biofuels in order to create an industrial base for its predominantly rural economy.

该公司已被现代农业产业投资有限公司接管，后者的最终东家是吉林省政府和吉林市政府。吉林是中国头号玉米大省，过去10年里，省政府鼓励把玉米加工成饲料、淀粉、玉米糖浆和生物燃料的企业快速发展，以便为该省以农村为主的经济创建一个工业基础。

“Historically, local governments don’t like any big employer to close. They’d rather see them bailed out and they also don’t like to see big investors lose,” said Michael Spencer, chief economist for Asia at Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong. “The process of imposing a hard budget constraint on Chinese companies is still in its infancy.”

“从历史上看，地方政府不希望任何大雇主倒闭。他们希望看到这些企业得到纾困，他们也不想看到大投资者赔本。”德意志银行(Deutsche Bank)亚洲首席经济学家迈克尔斯潘塞(Michael Spencer)在香港表示，“对中国企业施加刚性预算约束的过程仍处于襁褓阶段。”

Like many companies in China, Global Bio-Chem had expanded rapidly as the economy boomed but struggled as slowing demand from the livestock and food processing industries coincided with a state purchasing programme that elevated prices of corn, the company’s primary raw material. Global Bio-Chem is not alone in facing shrinking margins, as Chinese producer prices have fallen for 42 consecutive months.

像中国许多企业一样，大成生化在经济繁荣时期快速扩张，但后来陷入困境，原因是畜牧业和食品加工业的需求放缓，同时国家收储计划抬高了其主要原料玉米的价格。大成生化并非中国唯一面临利润率萎缩的企业，中国的工业生产者出厂价格指数(PPI)已经连续42个月下跌。

“Indebted companies at the local level risk a chain of repercussions. When local governments decide whether to save troubled companies, they will take into consideration the future prospect of the industry as well as the need for structural adjustment,” said Huang Weiping, economics professor at Renmin University in Beijing.

“债台高筑的公司在地方层面有带来连锁反应的风险。在地方政府决定是否救助陷入困境的企业时，他们会考虑行业的未来前景和结构调整的需要，”中国人民大学经济学教授黄卫平在北京表示。

Global Bio-Chem’s woes come as China’s north-east struggles with a triple-whammy of falling oil and coal prices, poor returns in the grains industry and a steep drop in property investment.

大成生化陷入困境之际，中国东北地区正艰难应对三重打击：石油和煤炭价格不断下降、粮食产业回报低下、房地产投资大幅下滑。