IN BRIEF (Page 24)

New refinery set to start up next year

China National Offshore Oil Corp, or CNOOC, is expected to start operating a new refinery in Huizhou in the second quarter of 2017, with Saudi Arabia as the potential crude supplier, three sources familiar with the plan said on Dec 14. "The new plant is slated for startup around May or June ... with a configuration geared to process medium-sour grades, typically Arab medium from Saudi Arabia and similar grades from Kuwait," says a Beijing-based industry official.

ICBC ready to finance Bulgarian project

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the country's biggest lender by assets, is ready to finance a Bulgarian nuclear power project, Bulgaria's government said on Dec 15. The Balkan country plans to privatize the Belene project on the Danube River after it paid more than 600 million euros ($637 million; 507.6) in compensation to Russia's state nuclear giant Rosatom following the cancellation of the project. An international arbitration court ruled in June that Bulgaria should pay the compensation for nuclear equipment it ordered from Russia's Rosatom before canceling the 10-billion-euro project in 2012.

Honeywell introduces Mandarin language

Honeywell Aerospace has introduced the Mandarin language into a safety system for helicopter cockpits called an enhanced ground proximity warning system, the Asia-Pacific headquarters of Honeywell said on Dec 14. The US Federal Aviation Administration has approved the Mandarin use. Honeywell says it is the first company to obtain non-English-language approval for alerts in helicopter cockpits.

China sales at topof Audi's markets

German automaker Audi AG says the highest sales volume growth for an individual market came from China in November. Audi's sales figures in China rose by 6.6 percent to 52,776 automobiles in November. A total of 540,040 units were delivered to Chinese customers from January to November, up by 5.7 percent year-on-year.

Direct flight opens to Adelaide, Australia

China Southern Airlines' first direct flight from the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou arrived in Adelaide, capital of South Australia, on Dec 13. Adelaide Airport welcomed the major flight with a water-cannon salute. The Airbus A330-200, packed with more than 190 passengers, touched down on time at 9:30 am local time. This is the sixth flight of the airline that offers a direct link between Guangzhou and a provincial capital in Australia.

Bell Helicopter to build assembly line in China

US aircraft producer Bell Helicopter will build an assembly line in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi province, local authorities said on Dec 10. The project, with a total investment of 5.3 billion yuan ($767 million; 729.4 million euros; 611.23 million), will be located at Xi'an's national civil aerospace industrial base, according to the agreement concluded on Dec 9 between Bell and Shaanxi Aviation Industry Development, a subsidiary of Shaanxi Energy Group. The project includes an assembly line for Bell 407GXP helicopters, a center for helicopter training, emergency response and rescue, as well as research and development related to drones.

$120m in steel mill reconstruction planned

Chinese steel manufacturer Hesteel announced that it will invest $120 million (114.1 million euros; 95.6 million) in a steel mill in Smederevo, a city about 45 kilometers from Belgrade. Hesteel Chairman Yu Yong says that his company is satisfied with production at the recently purchased steel mill in Smederevo and decided to add the investment to develop it further. Yu Yong made the announcement after meeting Serbian Minister of Economy Goran Knezevic in Belgrade. Hesteel took over the steel mill in July.

China-Europe train brings German meat

A freight train loaded with meat from Germany arrived at Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, sources at Chengdu Qingbaijiang International Railway Port said on Dec 11. The train took 13 days to travel 12,000 kilometers from Nuremberg, Germany, to Chengdu, and was loaded with 21.9 tons of German pork. All the meat products will be put on the Chinese market after passing quarantine inspection, says the Sichuan Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau. The train saves 45 days of transport time compared with ocean shipping, and saves 10,000 yuan ($1,448; 1,377 euros; 1,154) per ton when compared with air freight. The China-Europe freight train marks the opening of the railway channel for China to import meat products from Europe.

Chinese fund invests $4 billion in Africa

The China Africa Development Fund, an equity investment fund managed by China Development Bank, had invested $4 billion (3.8 billion euros; 3.1 billion) in Africa as of the end of November, authorities said on Dec 14. Since its establishment in 2007, the fund has invested in 88 projects in 37 African countries.

SAP plans smart park for Chengdu

German software giant SAP announced it plans to spend 40 billion yuan ($5.8 billion; 5.5 billion euros; 4.6 billion) on building an industrial park in southwest China's Sichuan province. The industrial park, in Tianfu New Area in Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan, is scheduled to be completed by 2021. The park will include centers for data innovation, product R&D, talent development, global purchases, intelligent logistics as well as education and medicare facilities, said Liu Qiang, vice-president of SAP Greater China. After completion, the smart industrial park will have international influence, with intelligent manufacturing as its core industry, according to Zhou Siyuan, deputy director of the administration committee of Tianfu New Area.

(China Daily European Weekly 12/16/2016 page24)