China Industry: February 14

Posted by Reading Time: 4 minutes

Feb. 14 – This is a regular series of relevant industry news from around China.

Air transport
•Filipino airline Cebu Pacific Air said earlier this month it plans to boost its passenger traffic and add new services to Greater China in 2011.

“We are planning to grow our market to and from Greater China this year by 20 percent, after flying more than 980,000 passengers in 2010,” said Candice Iyog, the airline’s marketing and distribution vice president.

The company added that it will increase the frequency of its Beijing and Guangzhou services.

Cebu Pacific flies to Beijing and Guangzhou three times a week, daily to Shanghai and Taipei, 11 times weekly to Macau, and seven times daily to Hong Kong. It currently operates 80 flights weekly from the Philippines to Greater China.

•Sri Lankan Airlines said it has started a service to Guangzhou in China’s Guangdong Province.

The company also operates flights to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

•Air China will fly two times a week between Tokyo and Wuhan in China’s Hubei Province, between March 30 and October 29, Japan’s Kyodo News wrote, adding that the airline will also expand two of its other Japanese services.

The airline will also serve a direct route from Tokyo to Chengdu in China’s Sichuan Province between April 3 and October 27 and will include an additional flight in July. The direct flights, however, will not replace the company’s existing daily service through Beijing.

Between July 15 and October 28 the carrier will boost the frequency of its Sapporo-Beijing route from the current four to five flights a week.

•Filipino South East Asian Airlines, or Seair, will start flying from Diosdado Macapagal international airport (DMIA) to Hong Kong and Macau, Manila Bulletin wrote.

The new services are expected to commence on February 14. The Hong Kong service will be operated two times a day and the Macau route will be served three times a week. Seair may also start flying to Taipei, Taiwan.

Solar power
•US Amtech Systems Inc yesterday said it will acquire a 55 percent-stake in Chinese ion implant technology provider Kingstone Technology Hong Kong Ltd.

“This acquisition clearly demonstrates our commitment to the successful execution of our strategic goal to become a technology solution provider for our solar customers’ need for higher cell efficiency,” said Amtech CEO Whang.

Under the deal, which is slated for closing by the end of the month, Amtech, which makes equipment used in solar cell production and semiconductor devices, will pay US$5.5 million in cash and stock and up to US$4 million under a contingent promissory note for the stake in Kingstone Technology.

The US$4 million payment will be used to fund the development of a next generation solar implant machine by Kingstone Semiconductor Co Ltd, a wholly-owned unit of Kingstone Technology, which is specialized in ion implant solutions for the solar and semiconductor industries.

Following the agreement, Amtech also acquires exclusive rights to sell any solar ion implant machine developed by Kingstone Semiconductor, and commits to make additional funding for the machine’s development in the next two years.

•Hong Kong-based Renewable Energy Asia Group, or REA, said earlier this month it had got the green light from the government of China’s Inner Mongolia province to build a 10-megawatt solar photovoltaic facility.

The solar farm is part of a 285-megawatt green energy project in Zhenglanqi, which will also include a 250-megawatt wind farm and a 25-megawatt biofuel facility. REA got the concession for the park in May and plans to develop it in phases with the complex to be up and running in five years.

The solar power project calls for an investment of RMB190 million. REA plans to complete a feasibility study on the system by the end of this year and look for a local partner for the installation.

•Hong Kong-based GCL-Poly Energy Holdings has completed six solar projects with a combined capacity of 6 megawatts in California, funded by financial services provider Wells Fargo & Co.

Wells Fargo participated in the projects through a joint tax equity financing program with GCL-Poly that would provide funding of US$100 million for solar photovoltaic projects by the end of the year, the two companies said in a joint statement on Friday.

The six projects, a 1.2 megawatt installation at the University of San Diego and five others, ranging from 200 kilowatts to 1.2 megawatts each, at schools in the Antelope Valley Joint Union High School District, were the first to be completed under the agreement. The schools will buy the output of the solar systems through long-term power purchase agreements.

The Antelope Valley development is part of a series of projects at 10 schools in the Los Angeles area. The remaining facilities are expected to be completed early in the year.

So far Wells Fargo has invested some US$ 480 million in solar projects.

Wind power
•German certification body Germanischer Lloyd (GL) Group said last week it had awarded a shop approval for rotor blades production to Chinese Tianjin Dongqi Wind Turbine Blade Co.

GL Renewables Certification inspected Tianjin Dongqi and certified it as manufacturer of wind turbine blades made of fiber-reinforced polymers for manual lamination procedure and vacuum assisted resin infusion.

The approval confirms that the rotor blades are in line with the GL’s requirements for manufacturers, quality management, materials and production.

The certification expires at the end of the year.

The GL Group said Tianjin Dongqi was the only blade producer to receive GL shop approval in China.

Tianjin Dongqi is part of electric power equipment maker Dongfang Electric Corp.

•Wind turbine maker China Ming Yang Wind Power Group announced that in January it won orders for 1.1 gigawatts of wind power turbines from some of China’s leading wind farm developers.

The orders include 200 megawatts of the company’s 2.5-megawatt and 3.0-megawatt super compact drive wind turbine generators for both onshore and offshore projects.

Ming Yang participated in several tenders and became the successful bidder for projects developed by Huadian Power International, Huaneng Power International, Datang International Power Generation, Datang New Energy and China Longyuan Power.

This industry report brief is courtesy of AII Data Processing.