 The Qinghe Special Steel Corporation ltd , established in 1987 , had originally been a state @-@ owned enterprise , and had been restructured into a private business . According to the State Administration of Work Safety , the plant had about 300 employees at the time of the accident , although Xinhua gave the employment figure as 650 . In 2006 , the factory produced 70 @,@ 000 tonnes of steel and had hoped to increase production to 120 @,@ 000 tonnes in 2007 . 
