Pakistan's Saindak copper mine, which was built by MCC in the early 1990s, signalled the beginning of the company's overseas expansion.

Since then, MCC has clinched a large number of overseas projects including a US$670 million contract for the Ramu Nickel-Cobalt Development Project in Papua New Guinea signed in March last year, a pulp plant in Myanmar with an annual production capacity of 100,000 tons, a steel-processing plant in Louisville in the US state of Kentucky, and an EPC contract to build an international airport in Mauritania.

The group is also exporting its metallurgical technology and complete sets of equipment to India, Iran and Brazil, according to an unnamed MCC official.

Its overseas projects also cover investment and development of iron and steelworks, aluminium processing projects and open-cast coal mines.

The development of real estate projects in overseas markets has also been listed as a core business for MCC, with the firm already launching real estate projects in Pakistan, Russia and the United States.

The company posted a sales revenue of 69.1 billion yuan (US$8.5 billion) last year, a 30 per cent increase year-on-year. Its overseas business volume hit a record high of US$1.4 billion in 2005, with this figure expected to exceed US$2 billion by the end of this year.

According to a MCC plan, its overseas business is expected to increase from the current 5 per cent of its total revenue to 25 to 30 per cent by 2010.

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