French power and transport technology provider Alstom yesterday began work on an 850 million yuan facility for Wuhan Boiler Co (WBC), which it recently acquired for 339 million yuan.

 

WBC, based in the city of Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei Province, is a B-share company - its shares were formerly issued only to overseas investors.

 

Alstom bought a 51 percent stake in WBC, a State-controlled company that's been making boilers for power plants for 50 years and is expected to play a key role in the country's large-scale construction of energy-efficient, low-emission thermal power plants.

 

Local officials welcomed Alstom's move and said the company would support Wuhan's plan to become China's manufacturing center for heavy-duty machinery.

 

WBC's independent directors said the acquisition did not compromise the interests of the company's small shareholders, according to an announcement by the board yesterday.

 

The new WBC plant will provide 600mW and 1,000mW super-critical and super-super-critical boiler sets for China and the rest of the world, to be used by new thermal power projects and as replacements for older power plants, according to Philippe Joubert, executive vice-president and president of Alstom's power systems sector.

 

Thermal power plants are a major source of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. China's power plants emit more CO2 than the world average because they depend heavily on coal energy and use small power generators.

 

Beijing has decided it will cut the country's CO2 emissions by building bigger and better power plants.

 

WBC's new factory will have the capacity to make enough equipment to produce 4,500mW of power a year, of which 35 percent could be shipped outside the mainland.

 

The chairman of the new WBC board is Hong Kong-born Richard Yeung Kwok Wei, a veteran dealmaker in power projects and equipment since the early years of China's opening-up.

 

The new WBC site, located in the East Lake development zone of Wuhan, will occupy more than 40 hectares, house some 2,500 workers and research staff, and feature what is claimed to be "the world's largest boiler factory" equipped with advanced transport facilities, according to local media reports.

 

The cost of land for the new WBC site has not been revealed. But Alstom sources said the deal did not cover the value of the existing property, which is in a prime location near the downtown area. The site is still in use and will be reclaimed by the government when the company moves to the new facility.

 

Investment experts said this could help the French company negotiate favorable land terms for the new site.

 

Relocating the company from its existing site to the new plant is likely to take at least two years while the assembly line and new factory buildings are constructed.

 

(China Daily September 28, 2007)