BIZCHINA> Top Biz News
|
BIZCHINA> Top Biz News
|
|
Related
Staying the course
By Yu Tianyu (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-04-21 14:08 China's energy industry had been appealing to foreign investors in 1990s. But their investments have been shrinking since 2003 largely due to increased competition, the soaring price of coal and relatively low profits. Indeed, an American-based investor, United Energy that had a stake in four electric companies under Banpu PLC pulled out at a cost of $84.3 million in 2006. UE's withdrawl was not an isolated incident, according to data by the Ministry of Commerce. The International Energy Agency predicts that China's energy demand will climb by 2.7 percent annually until 2030, when the annual demand will reach 3.19 billion tons of coal equivalent. The fuel crunch is increasingly consuming Chinese officials, scientists and energy-related companies striving to maximize the country's energy resources while also trying to improve environmental standards. One foreign company that has stayed the course is AES Corporation, a US-based electricity production company which has been engaged in China's energy sector since the early 1990s. AES has stakes in seven Chinese power plants with a total of 2,891 mW capacity, located in six different provinces and municipalities, ranging from Shanxi and Henan to Anhui and Hunan. Its diverse operations include gas-fired, oil-fired, hydroelectric and four coal-fired plants. Despite the difficulties and challenges, China's energy market has continued appeal for the company, says Paul Hanrahan, president and CEO of AES. "We started our business with traditional power and hydropower in China," says Hanrahan. "At that time, what China needed was investment and management experience, and these were the areas where AES had advantages." But since 2003, AES hasn't launched any new traditional power plants, but has invested in a wind power generating plant in Hebei province. "AES has been operating in 28 countries over 25 year and now China's power sector needs our operation and management experience rather than money," Hanrahan says. AES has also been adjusting its business focus towards clean and renewable energy solutions as well as changing from traditional power generation to technology exchange. Because China has become a promising market for clean and renewable energy, it is a promising new direction for AES in the country, says Tom Kunde, CEO of AES China. (For more biz stories, please visit Industries)
|
