CHINAFEB20
Lots of Power Plant Projects in China
In McIlvaine World Power Generation Projects hundreds of Chinese projects are being tracked on a monthly basis. Here are some of them:
10 New Projects for Huaneng
China Huaneng Group, the parent firm of Asia's largest independent power generator Huaneng International, will build 10 new power projects. By 2010, generating capacity is expected to hit 60 million kilowatts, accounting for what will be 10 percent of the nation's total. On December 9, 2003, Huaneng issued 10-year bonds to raise four billion yuan (US$483.6 million) to fund construction and expansion projects at four of its power plants.
Huaneng purchased stakes in Shenzhen Energy Group and Haikou Fire Electricity, linked up with the Inner Mongolia government to set up the North Electric Power Co. Ltd., and implemented property right reforms in some subsidiaries. Last month, Huaneng agreed to pay US$227 million for a 50 percent share in OzGen, an Australian subsidiary of Boston-based InterGen, which is the first deal among Chinese companies seeking to acquire major overseas assets in the power-generating sector.
B & W Now Has 6,500 MW of FGD Scrubbers under Contract in China
There are two licensees for the B&W tray type limestone forced oxidation system in China. Wuhan Kaidi Electrical Power in Wuhan has had a license since August 2002. They have contracts for eight projects totaling 5,520 MW. They are also a licensee of Wulff and have a number of dry systems under contract as well. Wuhan Kaidi is a large organization operating throughout China.
Zhejiang Tiandi Environmental Protection Engineering Company in Hangzhou has been a B&W licensee since March 2003. They have three projects totaling 985 MW.
All these projects include rubber lined vessels. The licensees are purchasing pumps and many other components locally. They are presently purchasing demisters and nozzles from offshore. Stainless plate is also being purchased offshore. These are fast turnaround projects, with orders being placed within a few weeks of bid submittal and plants up and running within 24 months. Earlier we reported on the size of this market and the large number of plants that are being built
Four Thousand MW of Nuclear for China
Beijing has drafted a preliminary plan to quadruple nuclear power capacity to more than 32,000 MW between 2005 and 2020, or roughly two plants a year. China has built only eight nuclear reactors over the past two decades. Beijing is evaluating proposals to build four 1,000 MW plants costing an estimated $6 billion in east China's Zhejiang and Guangdong province, but no time frame has been set.
"There are strong signals from the government that encourage the nuke power sector. The sudden power shortage was the trigger," said Liu Changxin, deputy secretary general with the Chinese Nuclear Society (CNS). The expansion would boost the share of nuclear energy in China's power mix to six percent in 2020 from 1.4 percent last year, sharply below wealthy nations' average of 30 percent.
In early 2003, nuclear power was officially listed for the first time in the national power sector development plan and placed under the direct charge of China's super ministry, the State Development and Reform Commission, experts said. China runs 6,200 MW at eight nuclear generators all in the east coast and is building another three, which would bring total capacity to 8,800 MW by the end of 2005.
The country’s electricity demand surged at a sizzling 15.4 percent last year to 1.89 trillion kilowatt hours, driven by 9.1 percent economic growth, stretching the supply system and plunging 22 out of 31 provinces into brownouts. State media said shortages would worsen this year and supplies would not catch up with demand for another two years. This prompted Beijing to rethink its strategies and divert energy sources from coal, which fires three-quarters of the 384,500 MW installed capacity. Demand is set to expand about 11 percent this year. Analysts estimate China’s power demand would grow at an annual average of 4.3 percent between 2001 and 2025, the fastest in the world.
Marsulex to Supply FGD to Gaojing 5-8 in China
Marsulex will supply technology, engineering and selected equipment for Beijing Datang Electric Power Company at the 300 MW Gaojing 5-8 Power Plant in the People’s Republic of China. The company’s limestone-gypsum FGD system will be installed to reduce SO2 by 95 percent. The project is due for completion in early 2005.
ALSTOM Wins Orders in China to Supply Six Steam Turbine Generators
ALSTOM, in consortium with Beijing Beizhong Steam Turbine Generator Co., Ltd., has been awarded two contracts, valued at around €180 million – with an ALSTOM share of approximately €90 million – to supply six steam turbine generators in China with a total output of 3,600 MW.
The first order, placed by Guodian Hebei Longshan Power Station, is for the supply of two steam turbine generators of 600 MW each. They will be installed at the Guodian Hebei Longshan power plant, located in Hubei Province. The first steam turbine unit will be delivered in May 2006 and is scheduled to enter commercial operation one year later. The second steam turbine unit will be delivered in November 2006.
The second order, placed by China Electric Power International Corporation, is for the supply of four supercritical 600 MW steam turbine generators. Two units will be installed at the Pingwei power plant located in Anhui Province and two at the Huangang power station in Hubei Province. The first unit will be delivered in June 2006 and is expected to enter commercial operation one year later. The other units will follow in intervals of six months
GE to Supply Combined-Cycle Systems for Lanzhou Meiya Cogeneration Project in China
GE has signed a contract to provide power generation equipment for the Lanzhou Meiya Cogeneration project in Lanzhou, People's Republic of China. It is one of six projects that are part of a $900 million agreement for GE to supply gas turbine-based combined-cycle systems for China's Gas Turbine Power Plants Construction Project.
Asian Refiners Moving to Higher Quality
Asian oil consumers are buying lighter, cleaner fuels as more people buy cars and governments try to cut urban smog, requiring large investments and a changing strategy from the region's refiners.
"Demand for transportation fuels and other products is changing as the economies in Asia grow and recover," said Victor Shum, senior partner at the Singapore offices of energy consultants Purvin & Gertz Inc.
Asia's climb up the oil quality ladder, matching evolutions in North America and Western Europe, is changing the types and quality of fuels used, forcing refiners to spend billions of dollars to extract those products from the same crude.
"All the new refiners that come up in Asia will have to have substantial cracking and conversion capability to crack fuel oil and to produce more lighter-end fuels. And the existing refineries will have to upgrade their facilities," said Hassaan Vahidy, Singapore-based analyst for energy consultants FACTS Inc.
Asia Pacific still relies on heavy, high sulfur Middle East crudes for about 80 percent of its oil needs.
Claude Mandil, executive director of the International Energy Agency, said emerging Asia would lead a global trend with about $120 billion in refinery investments needed over three decades.
"The bulk of the refining investment will come from non-OECD Asia, here," Mandil told reporters in Singapore.
Asia Pacific fuel oil consumption accounted for under 15 percent of all oil products in 2002, down from more than 21 percent in 1995, BP's 2003 Statistical Review of World Energy showed.
This shift is due more to rapid growth in transportation fuels -- gasoline, diesel and jet fuel -- than a decline in fuel oil, used in electricity generation and industrial plants.
China has led the shift, with middle distillates, including diesel and jet fuel, holding a 33.3 percent market share in 2002, up from 29.4 percent in 1995 as more cars hit the streets.
China's car output was up 87 percent in the first nine months of 2003 from a year earlier as a booming economy made it the third-biggest car market after the United States and Japan.
Countries such as Australia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka are introducing tougher fuel specifications in 2004.
"There is no doubt that Asia will move into clean fuels, and follow the European standards, particularly for a reduction in sulfur," said Tony Anderson, general manager and chief executive officer of Singapore Refining Co, owned by Singapore Petroleum Co , ChevronTexaco Corp and BP Plc .
These changes are pushing Asian refiners to run primary crude distillation units at below capacity while cranking up secondary upgrading units to produce lighter fuels.
"Most of the secondary capacity is trying to be run at full capacity by most refineries," said David Kinder, general manager, strategy and portfolio - manufacturing for Royal Dutch/Shell's oil products, Asia Pacific and Middle East.
He said secondary refinery utilization would grow by up to one percent a year, while demand for light products would grow by two to two and a half percent.
"There will have to be more upgrading and there will have to be more hydro-treating capacity in the region. But with refiners having had five bad years and then asking for money to upgrade, it has to be a very cautious spend," SRC's Anderson said.
Japan's Kyushu Oil Co Ltd plans to spend about 10 billion yen ($85 million) to upgrade its refinery to cut fuel oil output by 20-30 percent and produce more gasoline.
Shell is nearly done installing a new hydro-desulfurization (HDS) unit at its Geelong refinery in Australia, and has upgraded the HDS unit at its Clyde refinery.
China Sinopec Buys Oil Refinery Assets for CNY356 Mln
China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (SNP), or Sinopec, has agreed to buy two oil refinery assets in northwestern China from its parent Sinopec Group for a total of 356 million yuan (US$1=CNY8.28).
The two assets, Xi'an Petrochemical and Tahe Petrochemical, will be Sinopec's only oil refineries in the northwestern region of China. The acquisitions are expected to be completed six months from the end of March next year.
Sinopec said in a legal notice it will pay CNY220.8 million for Xi'an Petrochemical, and CNY135.2 million for Tahe Petrochemical. Both acquisitions will be paid for in cash.
Sinopec said that the acquisitions will raise its oil refining and asphalt production capacity, as well as further developing the Tahe Oilfield. Sinopec said it plans to boost the two companies' crude oil processing capacity "enabling it to lay the foundation in expanding in the northwestern market." Sinopec Group owns 55.06% of Sinopec.
Substantial Increase in Demand for Oil
China will see an increasing dependency on crude oil imports, with the amount of crude oil imported rising from 31 percent in 2002 to 50 percent four years later in 2007, according to official research released in Beijing Thursday.
Research by China's Ministry of Communications on marine oil transportation predicted that the country would import 100 million tons of crude oil in 2005, 150 million tons in 2010 and in 2020 the number would soar to 250 to 300 million.
China would become the world's second biggest oil consumer following the United States and third oil importer after the United States and Japan, said the research report.
The more than 6 percent annual growth of China's national economy and the readjustment of the economic structure are behind the country's higher demand for crude oil, but the oil production failed to keep pace with the economic growth and only registered 1.7 percent growth annually, the research report pointed out.
The shortage of oil supply forced China to become a net oil importer since 1993. Official statistics showed that the volume of imported oil has increased from over 20 million tons to 70 million tons from 1996 to 2002.
China imported approximately 1.4 million barrels of crude oil per day in the international market during the time, the report added.
The experiences of foreign developed countries proved that the oil consumption would increase at a low speed in an economy backed by industrial sectors, and during the industrializing process before the tertiary industry becomes the backbone of the national economy, the domestic oil consumption would undergo a rocketing growth, the report further explained.
China would be in a vital period of industrialization from now until 2020, stressed the report, predicting that China's average annual consumption of crude oil would secure an increase by 4 percent in the coming five to ten years.
With China's economy expanding rapidly and a recovery simmering in other countries, demand for oil will increase faster than expected this year and in 2004, the International Energy Agency has announced.
Demand has surged this autumn in the United States and several other industrialized nations, while Chinese demand appears to be advancing "at a breakneck pace," the agency said in its monthly oil market report.
Even with consumption on the rise, analysts said oil-producing nations should not have trouble supplying the market with enough fuel to maintain reasonable energy prices for motorists and homeowners.
The global appetite for crude in 2003 will grow by a robust 1.9 percent, or 1.44 million barrels a day, and in 2004 by 1.5 percent, or 1.16 million barrels a day. The IEA raised its estimates for daily demand growth in the two years by 160,000 barrels and 90,000 barrels, respectively.
Crude supplies grew only half as fast in November as in October, due partly to a leveling off in production from oil fields in the North Sea, and tight oil inventories have contributed to swings in already-high crude prices.
Although OPEC members agreed to cut their production beginning Nov. 1, they still pumped 1.2 million barrels a day above their output ceiling, the IEA said. Analysts say this cushion of excess production has helped somewhat to moderate crude prices ahead of the peak winter demand for heating oil in the northern hemisphere.
Chinese demand for crude jumped by 11.5 percent in October, though this growth will slow as China becomes constrained by limits on its capacity to generate electricity, the agency said.
The pull from the Far East has taken over from the typical U.S.-centric focus as the key driver for the oil market.
The agency said it had understated the amount of crude that Russia and other ex-Soviet states have been exporting by rail and said it incorrectly classified these exports in the past as barrels consumed inside these countries. In its report, the IEA reduced its 2003 estimate of oil demand in former Soviet countries by 330,000 barrels a day.
Sinochem Eyes more Overseas Oil and Refining Projects
China's chemical trading giant, Sinochem, is looking to purchase more overseas oil exploration and refining projects in the years to come with several already entering the negotiation stage, a company official told Interfax.
Including the acquisition of a14% equity in Ecuador's Block 16 earlier this month, Sinochem has only two oil assets and no refining projects in foreign countries as of now.
The company purchased a 40% equity in the Isis Oilfield, operated by the Swedish independent oil company Lundin Petroleum, in offshore Tunisia in February this year, which entitles it to an annual production volume of 120,000 tons of oil, according to Zhang Shen, the deputy manager of the New Project Department at the Sinochem Petroleum Exploration & Development Co. Ltd.
"There are still more [overseas oil exploration] projects that we are doing appraisals on," said Zhang in a telephone interview with Interfax. The potential projects are mainly situated in North Africa, South America, Southeast Asia as well as the Middle East.
As is the case with Chinese oil companies, "North Africa and South America are where it will be easier for us to enter [the local market]," Zhang noted. "The domestic oil sector is already carved up by three companies, CNPC, Sinopec and CNOOC," added Zhang. "So other companies do not have a chance of gaining government approval to enter the sector as well."
Seeking new areas of growth to replace its conventional ones in chemical trading, Sinochem has been granted a permit by the Chinese government to conduct overseas oil exploration and development, enabling its expansion to upstream oil exploration and production. Additionally, the company has long ago acquired the other two licenses for it to trade oil on international markets and import crude oil and oil products into the Chinese market.
In the oil-refining sector, Sinochem is the largest shareholder in China's first Sino-foreign joint-venture refinery, the West Pacific Petrochemical Co. Ltd. (WEPEC) in Dalian, northeastern China. The refinery is to upgrade capacity from the current 7 mln tons per annum to 10 mln tons per annum by April 2004.
"We will also try to develop overseas projects [in oil refining]," said Zhang, "and some of them are being talked about now."
Sinopec building pipeleines with new bond revenue
Sinopec Corp., will issue RMB 3.5 bln (USD 422.7 mln) worth of domestic corporate bonds.
According to the company's previous announcements, the bond will primarily fund Sinopec's crude oil pipeline project on the east China coast as well as its oil product pipeline spanning four provinces and regions in southwest China.
The eastern Chinese pipeline, from the port city of Ningbo to Shanghai and then to Nanjing (where Sinopec has several refineries in operation), started construction in October 2002, and is designed to transmit 20 mln tons of imported oil to local refineries annually. The much longer oil product pipeline in the southwest, which runs a distance of 1,600 km, began construction last September. The pipeline will be sourced from China's second largest refinery Maoming in Guangdong Province.
Tougher laws on water pollution promised
China will crack down on water polluters and revise laws and regulations to give its environmental watchdog more clout, said senior environment officials here Monday. February 23, 2004
Chen Shanrong, deputy director of the emergency and investigation center of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), said a team formed by six central government departments will begin an inspection tour later this year to identify factories that illegally discharge pollutants into major waterways.
The SEPA said last week that China's major waterways were still severely polluted after years of cleaning. Many factories along the main rivers and lakes discharged more toxic and organic pollutants than the maximum allowed in the regulations.
"A crackdown action is urgently needed to stop illegal polluters. The SEPA plans to clean the major waterways before 2005," said Chen, who joined the 2003 campaign against small chemical plants and paper makers that used outdated technologies.
However, he admitted that the environmental watchdog was restricted by its limited powers.
China's environmental law and regulations state that the SEPA has no powers to close polluters, but must resort to local governments to do so. "When some local governments think Gross Domestic Production (GDP) is more important and thus shields polluters, the cleaning plan is halted," said Chen.
"The SEPA expects to have the powers to enforce decisions without the intervention of local governments," said Wang Suli, vice-director of SEPA's legislation office.
He said the country's legislative body was reviewing a law which endowed public service departments like the SEPA such rights.
"Another problem is that the fine stipulated in the current regulations is too small to deter the polluters," said Chen.
The solution is to eliminate industries that are highly polluting or using outdated technologies, said Wang.
Hollow fiber membrane plant slated for Tianjin
Hong Kong Lam Group and Tianjin Motian Membrane Engineering & Technology Co. Ltd. of the Tianjin Institute of Textile Science and Technology have agreed on a joint investment of RMB 80 million in the hollow fiber membrane manufacturing base, a report from AsianInfo Services said. Plans are for the bases to produce 1 million square meters of membrane materials and 100,000 membrane devices that would bevalued at RMB 150 million. Applications for the membranes would include water treatment and seawater desalination. The first phase of the project was scheduled to be finished in November
China has offered Pakistan desalination technology to help sanitize sea water
"This technology can bring a revolution overcoming the problem of water shortage in the country," Ruan Guo, a senior official of Tianjin Institute of seawater desalination, said recently. He claimed that the seawater after its purification through the newly developed technology could be used both for drinking and agriculture purposes.
A package of this offer has been formally sent to Pakistan through its Embassy in Beijing. The Chinese company has already installed a seawater desalination plant at Gwadar seaport as its pilot project to introduce the technology in the country. This plant has been provided as a gift to Pakistan on the directives of the Chinese government.
Ruan Guo said, China is ready to cooperate in water desalination for which, a team of experts could visit Pakistan to negotiate the package. Three decades worth of effort has ranked China among the world's few countries capable of seawater desalination. He was of the view that the seawater could be used as a more sustainable resource to overcome water shortage on the long-term basis.
About the cost of the project, he said, "it is most cheap and reasonable as compared to other sources of water filtration." To Pakistan, he assured his company would extend a `special low cost package,' keeping in view their excellent friendly relations.
Veolia Environment has 8.5 billion euro contract in Shenzhen
Veolia Environnement, the world's biggest water company, has signed several contracts in China including a 50-year, 8.5 billion euro contract to distribute water in Shenzhen and a 20-year, 50 million-euro contract to operate a wastewater-treatment plant in Beijing.
ITT makes acquisition to boost Asian position
Hengtong, with approximately $8 million in annual sales, enhances Sanitaire's filtration business in the important Asian market. Already, the Sanitaire group has won a $4 million order to provide biological treatment equipment for a project in Singapore.
GE opens water chemicals factory in Wuxi
GE's first China-based water treatment factory went on-stream February 18, 2004 in Wuxi City, in eastern China's Jiangsu Province. GE Betz Water & Process Chemicals (Wuxi) Co., Ltd., a solely-funded company with an investment of 10.5 million US dollars, will supply specialty chemicals for water treatment for both China and other Asian countries, according to Steven J. Schneider, chief executive officer of GE China. The newly established company, covering an area of 30,000 sq m,has an annual output of 30,000 tons of reagent used for water and waste-water treatment, including water purification and fluid filtration.
To date, GE has opened water-treatment-related businesses in 20 of China's provinces and municipalities.
Billion m3 short fall in available water by 2008 in Beijing
Beijing will be facing a water shortfall of up to one billion cubic meters by the time it hosts the 2008 Olympic Games, state press has reported.
By 2005, the gap between water demand and supply would reach 794 million cubic metres and exceed a billion cubic metres in 2008, the vice minister of environment Pan Yue was quoted as saying in the latest issue of the Beijing Review.
The situation could become a major problem, impeding the sound economic development of the capital, the report said.
A population that has grown from eight million to 14 million in the last 20 years has boosted water demand, while a recent drought and growing water wastage and pollution have resulted in a fall in supply, it said.
The capital has been tapping non-renewable underground tables, with water bureaus drilling increasingly deeper to satisfy demand.
Beijing's current underground water level averages 13.65 metres below the earth's surface, two metres below the 2002 level and 7.2 metres under the 1980 levels, it said.
Despite billions of dollars in efforts to build treatment plants and implement conservation efforts, water management practices continue to remain lax or non existent, the report said
Qingdao to use seawater for toilet flushing
Residents of China's city of Qingdao will be first in the country to flush their toilets with seawater as part of a pilot project currently underway.
Residents living in the Nanjiang Development area, in the coastal city of Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, will only pay 0.5 yuan (6 US cents) per ton of processed seawater, or about one eighth the average price of tap water in major Chinese cities.
The government has authorized building the seawater flushing facilities for the Nanjing Development, and the site for pumping installation has been selected, according to officials in charge of the project.
Qingdao consumes about 60,000 cubic meters of water a day for toilet flushing while the city keeps struggling with a shortage offreshwater.
The project has become feasible since technological breakthroughs have been made in seawater purification, disinfection and biochemical treatment, and specified standards for water quality and draining, according to the officials.
It is still a common practice across China to use freshwater to flush the toilets, which accounts for 30 to 35 percent of the total volume of water for domestic purposes.
China's per capita freshwater resources are one quarter of the world's average. Nearly 400 of China's 600-plus cities are short of water, particularly in the more densely populated coastal areas.
10th Five-Year Plan in China Will Include Many Waste-to-Energy Plants
Fifty billion RMB will be put into construction of municipal garbage treatment plants, of which 25 billion RMB is for incineration plants, 20 billion RMB for landfills, 5 billion RMB for garbage compost; 20 billion RMB will be used to centralize treatment of hazardous waste and another 20 billion RMB is for comprehensive utilization of waste resources and industrial waste recovery.
Nearly half of the solid waste in Chinese cities goes untreated, polluting their water, soil and air, experts warn.
According to the New Technology Development Center under the China Association of Science and Technology, Chinese cities produce 120 million tons of solid waste annually and the amount is increasing by 8 percent per annum. Solid waste pollution affects the quality of the urban environment and sustainable development.
The responsibility for municipal solid waste collection and disposal rests primarily with municipal and district governments (districts are semi-autonomous sub-units of a city). The people involved in municipal solid waste management administration, refuse collection, street sweeping, refuse transportation and disposal are government employees.
Municipal solid waste management is funded directly by the municipal government. In many cities, residents are charged 1 to 2 Yuan (8 Yuan equals approximately $1 U.S.) per month for the service, or about 0.2 percent of the average family income. Waste collection fees only cover a portion of the cost of managing the waste. Commercial waste is managed in conjunction with residential waste, and industrial waste is generally managed separately by the industry.
Municipal solid waste composition in China is significantly different than in North America. According to the Qingdao Municipal Government, organic food waste makes up approximately 60 percent of municipal solid waste and inorganics make up approximately 30 percent.
Qingdao's municipal solid waste composition is representative of cities across China, except that the inorganic fraction varies somewhat from city to city based on whether cooking and heating are done with coal or gas.
Large areas of land are currently utilized in China for the uncontrolled disposal of industrial wastes. Approximately 600 million tons of industrial waste of which 50 to 70 percent are hazardous is generated in China annually. Estimates indicate that a total of 5.9 billion tons of industrial waste occupying 540 million m3 have been improperly stored or discarded in recent years. The majority of the waste is simply piled on unprotected areas, which causes leaching to surface in groundwater bodies, polluting the environment and thus damaging the health of surrounding populations. As a result environmental accidents are prevalent. For instance, a chromium residue disposal site in Jinzhou caused ground water pollution in a 12.5 km2 area; as a result, water from 1800 wells in nine villages is no longer potable.
The production and use of chemicals is developing rapidly in China. More than 30,000 classes of chemicals are now produced in the country, of which many are toxic. During production, transportation, storage and use, many releases and spills occur. For example, in 1993, the toxic chemical storage in Shenzhen exploded, causing significant damage to life, property and the environment.
China's environmental protection authorities have joined in the nationwide control of SARS transmission by strengthening management of liquid and solid wastes discharged from hospitals, which were feared to cause further contamination.
The State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), the environmental protection departments at all levels, were ordered to strengthen administration and supervision over medical sewage and wastes in the hospitals with SARS patients and suspected patients in a bid to stop further pollution and cross-infection.
The hospitals with SARS patients and suspected patients are, in particular, to be supervised and administered for the possible SARS transmission.
The environmental protection authorities are to offer assistance to those hospitals which are short of medical sewage disposal equipment and incapable of disposing the sewage. The medical wastes discharged from the hospitals should be incinerated locally. For the medical institutes without medical wastes disposal equipment, the environmental protection departments are expected to help build the equipment or designate temporary incineration spots.
China Will Build Large Incinerators
A gigantic incinerator manufacturing base, reportedly the largest in the country, is to be completed within the year in Changzhou in east China's Jiangsu Province, local industry sources revealed.
Located in Changzhou State Environmental Protection Industry Park, the 6.7-hectare plant, which comprises the latest Japanese technology, will produce various types of incinerators with daily rubbish processing capacities varying between 30 to 450 tons, according to the publicity authority with the park.
JFE Holdings Inc, Japan's leading steel industry group which occupies around 40 percent of the Japanese incinerator market, has signed an agreement to join the project by exporting a complete set of incinerator manufacturing technologies.
Wang Zhongliang, a publicity director with the park, told China Daily that the plant is expected to become "the largest incinerator design and manufacturing base in the country," meeting the country's increasing demand for urban solid waste processing equipment.
Changzhou Lucky Environmental Protection Equipment Engineering Co. Ltd, a Hong Kong-Changzhou joint venture, which is the main investor of the project, has poured an initial 10 million yuan (U.S.1.2 million) into the plant.
"The project will fill the gap in China's production of large-scale incinerators which can be used in cities like Beijing and Shanghai," said Chen Baihuai, general manager of the company.
The price will be cut by about a half, compared with imported equipment, he added.
Currently, most of the country's operating rubbish incineration facilities, especially large-scale ones, are imported, according to Chen. Domestic businesses can only produce incinerators with a daily rubbish capability of 100 tons or less.
Landfill, incineration and compost are the three major household waste disposal methods. Of the three, landfill is the most popular in China, with more than 85 percent of the country's household waste buried in rubbish plants after being treated.
To save the urban space, some big cities like Shanghai, Beijing, Ningbo, Zhuhai and Shenzhen have also built a few incinerators which generate electricity from processed waste. But most of that type of equipment is imported from Japan, the United States and Europe.
Project Title: China-Korea Micro-electronics Inc. (CKMI)
Revision Date: 2/1/2004
Entry Date: 2/1/2004
Startup Date: 2005
Expansion Date:
Country: China
City: Guangdong Province
Size:
Product: Ics on wafers
Address:
Telephone:
SIC Description: Semiconductor
Description: Shenzhen Hi-tech Industrial Co. and Elia Tech and Yongjin have set up a joint venture named China-Korea Micro-electronics Inc. (CKMI) in Shenzhen of South China's Guangdong Province. The joint venture will be the first one in China able to produce SiGe IC Chips. The first manufacturing line will have a capacity of 30,000 6-inch wafers per month. This line will begin production in 2005 with initial output of 5,000 units. In the second phase of the project, CKMI will set up another 0.25 micron SiGe IC chip manufacturing line with a capacity of over 30,000 8-inch wafers per month. The initial investment is $30 million to get a quick start on the development.
Contractors
Project Title: Tianjin Zhong Huan Semiconductor
Revision Date: 2/1/2004
Entry Date: 2/1/2004
Startup Date: 2004
Expansion Date:
Country: China
City: Tianjin
Size: 355,080 sq. ft. facility
Product: semiconductors
Address:
Telephone:
SIC Description: Semiconductor
Description: CH2M IDC China was awarded a Greenfield design/construction project by Tianjin Zhong Huan Semiconductor. The project will include a production facility, office building, Central Utility Building and machine shop. The initial facility will be 355,080 sq. ft. with a potential expansion program of 530,000 additional square feet. The facility's phase 1 will include a mixture of front end and back end operations. Tianjin Zhong Huan Semiconductor is a division of Zhong Huan Electronics. With 34 years of experience, the company is the second largest high-voltage silicon diode manufacturer in the world, exporting 50 million diodes to buyers in Europe, U.S. and Asia each month.
| Contractors | Contractor Comment |
| IDC | |
| CH2M Hill |
41% Increase in chip market last year
China's integrated circuit market achieved sales of 200 billion yuan in 2003 with a year-on-year increase of 41 percent, the highest over the past three years
A February 2004 Report by the authoritative CCID Group said domestic integrated circuit industry sees increasingly marked clustering effect as up to 95 percent of the sales income comes from Yangtze River Delta, Beijing, Tianjin Bohai Bay circle and Zhujiang River Delta. Presently, a relatively complete integrated circuit industrial chain, including R&D, design, chip production and assembly test has been formed in the Yangtze River Delta.
Statistics show domestic sales income actually realized by the industry of integrated circuit design throughout the year reached 4.49 billion yuan, more than double from the previous year.
Despite the achievement, domestic integrated circuit industry needs improvement in its overall strength compared with developed countries. Sales income of domestic integrated circuit industry took up only 3.4 percent of the global total and 17 percent of the total demand in domestic market.
The design of chips remains in preliminary stage despite great progress. The advanced manufacturing technology has made 8 inches, and 0.25-0.18 micrometers possible but lags behind the high level of 12 inches and 0.13 micrometers overseas. In terms of standard, currently, products made by domestic integrated circuit enterprises are mainly of medium or low level. Products such as CPU (Central Processing Unit), DSP (digital signal processor), storage appliance and other high-end communication professional circuit are not available for batch production.
Hynix planning chip plant in China
South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor Inc. is considering plans to build a chip-manufacturing plant in China - a move that will likely help the chipmaker avoid steep tariffs in the U.S. and the European Union, and save costs, analysts say.
Hynix said it is considering plans to set up a plant similar to that of its wholly owned unit in Eugene, Oregon.
Company executives at an analysts' conference in Seoul provided few details on the new plant, only saying that Hynix is currently working to get approval from the Chinese authorities. The company is also considering moving some of its chip-production facilities in South Korea to China to take advantage of cheaper costs.
Hynix is now the world's fourth-largest memory-chip maker based on 2003 revenue figures, according to U.S-based market research firms International Data Corp. (IDC) and iSuppli Corp.
In a bid to further reduce manufacturing costs, Philips Semiconductors plans to be outsourcing half of its chip production to Asian foundries within the next five years, up from 10% currently, according to Rob Fletcher, a vice president and general manager of Philips Semiconductors in the Asia-Pacific region. In China, Philips and local foundry Jilin Sino-Microelectronics Company (JSMC) established a joint venture called Philips Jilin Semiconductor in November to develop, design and manufacture bipolar power products. Philips also holds a major stake in Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation Shanghai (ASMC Shanghai).
Cadence Design signs MOU on IC design
EDA tool supplier Cadence Design Systems Inc. announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China to provide extensive support for the development of China’s first national IC design training program. The MOU defines a framework for a new program called the China National IC Design Talent Incubation Project, which will initially be based out of nine universities. Cadence will provide support ranging from IC design and EDA courses to jointly developed design projects.
"The government has chosen Cadence as its sole partner to provide EDA technology and training," said Ray Bingham, president and CEO of Cadence, San Jose, CA.
"In terms of scale and complexity, this is the first IC design program of its kind in China," said Lei Chaozi, vice general director of the Science and Technology Department at the Ministry of Education. "It will bring both academic and practical training to approximately 3,000 students every year – and this is just the beginning."
"We have a long-term commitment to support and train China’s IC design talent, which means that we intend to both intensify our endeavors and extend the program to other universities in the future," he said. The government’s target is to train 300 students per year at the master’s and doctorate levels at each of the nine universities.
The following universities have been selected to participate in the program: Peking University and Tsinghua University, Beijing; Fudan University, Jiaotong University and Southeast University, Jiangsu; Zhejiang University and Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Hubei; Xidian University, Shanxi; and Chengdu Electronic Science & Technology University, Sichuan.
Cadence will provide input to the development of the universities’ curricula, and will provide advanced IC design and EDA courses plus practical laboratory sessions to cover the complete IC design cycle, from the initial concept to the realization of complete, automated electronic design solutions.
Courses will be offered in functional verification, digital IC design, customer IC design, design for manufacturing and silicon-package-board co-design. Teaching tools and aids, including course books, laboratory reference materials and related statistics, will be included.
Cadence will also provide "train the trainer" sessions, both in China and overseas to enable university professors to develop and teach advanced curricula and to take up overseas internship opportunities.
IPO will fund chip plant for SMIC
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.'s initial public offering will raise up to US$1.58 billion, riding on a perceived upswing in the global chip industry and robust domestic demand. With the proceeds of its IPO, SMIC will ramp up aggregate production capacity to 170,000 8-inch-equivalent chips by end-2005, about 3.5 times its output at the end of 2003.
A person close to the deal said pricing for the share offer by SMIC, China's largest maker of chips based on customer designs, has been set at an indicative range of between HK$2.41 and HK$2.72 per share, equivalent to a range of US$15.50 to US$17.50 per American Depository Receipt.
The IPO will consist of 4.545 billion shares in total, equivalent to 25% of SMIC's enlarged capital. Of that figure, the company will sell 3.03 billion new shares, amounting to two-thirds of the offer, enabling it to raise up to US$1.06 billion. The remaining one-third will come from old shares sold by existing shareholders.
The price range represents between 17.9 times and 20.2 times the firm's 2005 estimated earnings, or 2.0 times to 2.3 times its 2004 estimated book value, another person familiar with the situation said.
That suggests SMIC, the world's fifth-largest contract chipmaker by sales in the first half of 2003, has a higher P/E valuation than the world's top two foundries, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (TSM) and United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), both based in Taiwan.
Japanese chemical manufacturers are building plants in China
Major chemical manufacturers are preparing to begin production in China, industry observers say. They have been wary of making a major investment in China up to now because of the high risk of doing business there, but have apparently changed their minds in view of the country's robust demand for chemical products.
Tosoh Corp. will soon finalize a plan to make polyvinyl chloride resin in China, for use in water pipes, among others, company sources said. The firm aims to construct a plant with annual output capacity of 110,000 tons on the outskirts of Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, at a cost of some Y4 billion. The facility is scheduled to come onstream by spring 2006.
The project may be carried out jointly with Mitsubishi Corp., according to sources familiar with the matter.
Tosoh is also considering buying into a local PVC maker in view of brisk local demand for PVC resin, which is used to make pipes, construction materials, automotive parts and sundry goods.
Mitsui Chemicals Inc. is also close to making a final decision on a plan to set up a plant in China, said the firm's president, Hiroyuki Nakanishi. The company is considering producing bisphenol A, a material used in optical disks; phenol, from which bisphenol A is derived, and polyethylene terephthalate resin, which is used to make PET bottles. It currently produces these materials in Japan, Singapore and Thailand.
Mitsubishi Rayon Co. expects to have its plan to make MMA monomer, an acrylic material, approved by the Chinese authorities soon, said its president, Yoshiyuki Sumeragi.
The company intends to spend some Y10 billion to set up a plant with annual output capacity of 90,000 tons at a petrochemical complex to be built by Royal Dutch/Shell Group in Huizhou, Guangdong Province. The plant is expected to begin operations in early 2006.
Mitsubishi Rayon also aims to boost Chinese production of fiber, resin and other processed products.
Foster Wheeler has order for two CFBs from China Petrochemical International
Foster Wheeler has been awarded a contract by China Petrochemical International Company (SINOPEC)'s Maoming Petrochemical Company.
The contract for engineering and supply of two 100 MW non-reheat compact circulating fluidized-bed (CFB) steam generators is valued at approximately $25.5 million. The booking will be included in the fourth-quarter 2003 results. Foster Wheeler International Engineering & Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. will design the project and Foster Wheeler Power Machinery Co. Ltd. will fabricate the state-of-the-art CFB boilers at its manufacturing facility in Xinhui, China.
The Maoming CFB project is part of a major expansion by SINOPEC for production of ethylene. Maoming is located in southwest Guangdong Province, near the Xinhui manufacturing facility. The boilers will be similar in design to those currently in the initial stage of operation at SINOPEC's Zenhai II facility, located about 100 miles south of Shanghai.
Cabot will manufacture fumed silica in China
Cabot (China) Ltd., has signed a joint venture agreement with Bluestar New Chemical Materials Co., Ltd., a part of the China National Bluestar Group, to manufacture fumed silica in China. The new company will operate under the name Cabot Bluestar Chemical (Jiangxi) Company Ltd. Cabot will own 90 percent of the venture and Bluestar will own the remaining ten percent.
Cabot Bluestar Chemical Company will invest approximately US $30 million to build China's first world class, fumed silica manufacturing facility to be located near Nanchang, in Jiangxi province. Construction of the plant is expected to begin in spring 2004 and be completed in late 2005.
Kennett F. Burnes, Cabot Chairman and CEO said, "Our experience in China over the years has been very positive. We're excited about this partnership with Bluestar and the opportunity to provide a long-term, reliable source of high quality material."
Ren Jianxin, President of China National Bluestar Group said, "This new facility, which will be built in close cooperation between Cabot and Bluestar, will become the first state-of-the-art fumed silica plant in China, and a great help to the growth of the Chinese silicone industry."
Cabot has had operations in China for more than a decade and has carbon black manufacturing facilities in Shanghai. The new plant in Jiangxi will become Cabot's sixth fumed silica plant. The other Cabot fumed silica manufacturing facilities are located throughout the US and Europe.
Asia's biggest Expandable Polystyrene (EPS) producer, Loyal Group will build a plant in north China's port city Tianjin, the group's eighth company in China's mainland.
With 29.98 million US dollars of investment, Tianjin Longqiao Chemical will have 12 million US dollars of registered capital and180,000 tons of annual production capacity.
The company plans to start production within this year.
Loyal Group was set up in Kaoshiung county of Taiwan in 1974. At first, the factory only manufactured EPS for plastics, packaging and construction industries and then started manufacturing Phenolic Resins (PF) and Furan Resin (FR) for foundry industry two years later.
China's mainland started its economic reforms around 20 years ago and the demand for plastics has been increasing. Statistics show demand for EPS will grow by 10 percent each year and hit 1 million tons in 2010 in the mainland.
The launching of Tianjin Longqiao Chemical will make Loyal Group the top EPS producer in the world with 750,000 tons of annual production, said Y. C. Liao, chairman of Loyal Group.
Loyal Group has chosen Tianjin because the municipality is home to joint ventures of several multinationals such as Motorola, Samsung and Toyota, Liao said.
New CSPC ethylene/propylene project is largest foreign joint venture project
Praxair, Inc. and CSPC, a joint venture between China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and Shell Petrochemicals Company Ltd., announced they are finalizing an agreement for Praxair to supply CSPC with its oxygen and nitrogen requirements for its new $4.3 billion integrated petrochemical complex in Daya Bay, Huizhou, in Guangdong Province, China.
The heart of the complex is a world-scale condensate or naphtha cracker producing 800,000 tons per year of ethylene and 430,000 tons per year of propylene, integrated with downstream products. It will be the largest capital investment for a Sino-foreign joint venture project in China.
Under the agreement, Praxair will supply high-purity oxygen and nitrogen from two new air separation units that will be built adjacent to the CSPC site in the center of the new chemical enclave in Daya Bay Economic and Technical Development Zone. The supply of these products is scheduled to commence in May 2005. Praxair will also produce liquid oxygen, nitrogen and argon and distribute these products to customers in the rapidly growing Guangdong region.
"CSPC will be investing approximately $4.3 billion in the cracker project and related downstream facilities and it is imperative that we have a high quality, reliable supply of oxygen and nitrogen to support these facilities," said Simon Lam Chung Kai, chief executive officer of CSPC. "After a very thorough evaluation of potential suppliers over a wide range of criteria, CSPC chose Praxair. Another factor was Praxair's strong history of reliable product supply in China, its global technology capabilities, as well as its commitment to safety and operational excellence."
"CSPC and Praxair have worked very closely together to assure the best possible supply systems for this major petrochemical project," said Mike Douglas, president, Praxair Asia. "The liquid products that will also be produced at this site will serve Praxair's customers in the high-growth industrial zones of Guangdong."
Production up 19% in 2003
In 2003, the production of pharmaceutical industry in China maintained a growth rate of over 15% for 25 years in succession, and each major indicator of industrial production shows a sustainable, healthy and rapid increase. According to the relevant statistics, the national industrial production of medicine in 2003 accomplished 387.647 billion Yuan of gross industrial output value(based on comparable prices), increasing by 19.86% over the previous year, and 113.318 billion Yuan of value-added of industry, up 17.11% than the year before, of which 44.039 billion was the output value of the new products, an increase of 22.91% over the previous year, and the export delivery value was 35.204 billion Yuan, which was 24.40% more than the year before.
Agilent to build a plant in Asia
AGILENT Technologies Inc plans to establish a life sciences facility with research and development, and manufacturing capabilities in Asia in the next five to 10 years.
Chairman, president and chief executive officer Datuk Ned Barnholt told a media briefing yesterday that some of the life science products were still new and the technology involved still immature
Barnholt said Agilent would explore investing in countries with chemists and molecular biologists that understood the life sciences.
“We will also look at the type of infrastructure facilities, life sciences activity, and the potential partners that a country has before considering investment, as we may want to outsource some of the operations to the partners,” he said.
Presently, Agilent has a plant performing chemical analysis work in China, servicing the environmental and petrol chemical markets.
It also has a centre in Singapore with technical support capabilities to service its customers in the life sciences business.
Last year, Agilent’s life sciences business contributed US$1.2bil to the group’s US$6bil revenue.
“About 40% (of life sciences' revenue) is generated from the pharmaceutical division of the life sciences business, and the remainder from the chemical analysis division,” Barnholt added.
He said the semiconductor test equipment manufacturing, information technology and the wireless telecommunication business would grow further this year, fuelling the demand for more automated test equipment that check the chip used in consumer electronic goods.
Meiji Seika Kaisha establishes joint venture to produce drug products in China
Meiji Seika Kaisha announced on February 19 that it has established a new joint venture, Meiji Lukang Pharmaceutical, with Osaka-based pharmaceutical firm Arysta LifeScience and Shandong Lukang Pharmaceutical of China.
Capitalized at $20 million, the new company is owned 50% by Meiji, 30% by Shandong Lukang and 20% by Arysta.
Meiji Lukang Pharmaceutical will produce and distribute ethical and animal drug products in China, beginning in April.
Shanghai Pharmaceutical Group to build antibotics plant with Vietnam Pharmaceutical
Viet Nam's Pharmaceutical Corporation is to boost cooperation in pharmaceutical and medicines production with China's Shanghai Pharmaceutical Group under a deal agreed to by both parties.
The two companies will focus on the transfer of technology, construction of an anti-biotic enterprise and a traditional medicine enterprise as well as drug research.
The Viet Nam Pharmaceutical Corporation has to date engaged in 28 projects with foreign partners for a registered capital of 100 million USD. One of the successful projects is a joint-venture with French Sanofi Synthelabo group, which generated 31,7 billion VND in profit last year.
The company also invested in a joint-venture with Lao partners with an investment capital of 1 million USD.
BlueScope, unveiled plans for a $280 million flat steel coating and painting plant in Jiangsu Province, 80km west of Shanghai.
BlueScope's biggest greenfields investment since being spun-off from BHP Billiton in 2002, the plant will produce up to 250,000 tonnes of BlueScope's iconic Colorbond range of coated steel sheeting a year.
BlueScope already operates four roll-forming plants in China, and markets its steel products through a 49-strong network of sales offices across the nation.
But with China's booming economy already devouring 250 million tonnes of steel a year, a figure set to grow more than 12 per cent in 2004, BlueScope believes the time is right to build a substantial manufacturing presence in the nation.
"This new investment represents another major step forward in further advancing BlueScope Steel's strategy to grow our downstream steel products in Asia," managing director Kirby Adams said.