The chairman of privately owned chemical business Dalian Shide Group has been detained over alleged involvement in economic crimes, it was reported Saturday.

Xu Ming, chairman of Dalian Shide Group. [File photo]

Xu Ming, who also sits on the board of the Bank of Dalian and was named the eighth richest person on China's mainland in 2005 by Forbes, was held by on March 15 by China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Economy & Nation Weekly reported yesterday, quoting unidentified sources.

Banks, including the China Construction Bank, have suspended lending to the group and started to investigate previous loans, the sources said.

Other people are also under investigation, according to the report. It said that commission officials have remained in Dalian City, Liaoning Province, for "a couple of days." The reports sources did not provide further details on the probe, and both Shide Group and China Construction Bank declined to comment.

Xu, famous for aggressive approaches, founded Shide Group in 1992 and started tapping the petroleum market in 1998.

The group now owns the world's largest factory for PVC materials and has expanded in the past decade into the financial and home appliance industries.

It ranked the 66th biggest private companies on China's mainland last year with an annual revenue of 12.1 billion yuan (US$1.92 billion).

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