GERMANY'S Sud-Chemie AG, a specialty chemical maker, plans to spend about 100 million euros (US$138 million) to build up new ventures and expand existing ones in China over the next three years, according to its boss yesterday.
The budget could be even higher provided the coal-to-fuel liquids industry could boom in China, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Gunter von Au told Shanghai Daily.
The 100-million-euro expansion plan would help the firm to more than double its sales in China to 100 million euros in 2010, from 40 million euros last year.
Munich-based Sud-Chemie currently operates five production facilities and sales offices in China, with plants at two more sites to follow shortly.
It produces additives used in fields like foundry, construction and paper making in Jianping, Liaoning Province. It also makes catalysts for the manufacture of synthetic gases, artificial fertilizers and other chemicals in Shanghai and Panjin of Liaoning.
Au said that as a mid-sized specialty chemical producer, the firm is particularly well placed to tap future growth in China, where the chemicals market increased production by 20 percent in 2006 alone.
The company also placed principal emphasis on catalysts for producing fuels and chemicals out of coal.
"If the coal-to-fuel liquids could take off in China, we probably will invest much more," Au said. Currently, China is tightening approval on such projects over concerns of high cost and a water shortage.
Another opportunity Au sees is in the automotive industry, where more car makers are replacing gasoline engines with hybrids, which partly run on an electric battery. Sud-Chemie is providing technology to make the battery.