TOSHIBA Corp is to tie up with GD Midea Electric Appliances Co to make refrigerator parts to capitalize on growing demand in China, the Nikkei newspaper said.
The companies agreed to form a venture in China's Anhui Province to produce compressors used in refrigerators, the Nikkei reported yesterday. The venture, 95 percent owned by GD Midea, will invest 490 million yuan (US$69 million) to build a factory, with commercial production scheduled to begin by October, the Nikkei said.
The new company, which expects to make 5 million compressors annually by 2010, will supply 60 percent of its output to GD Midea and the remainder to Chinese plants owned by Japanese home-electronics makers, including Toshiba, the newspaper reported.
The current market size of China's refrigerator-compressor market is 30 million units, the Nikkei said. The venture, to be capitalized at 325 million yuan, aims to take a 10 percent share of China's refrigerator market, the report said.
Zhuzhou Smelter GroupLower prices, higher output
Zhuzhou Smelter Group Co, China's biggest zinc smelter, plans to raise output by four percent this year to partly offset lower metals prices.
The company, based in Zhuzhou, Hunan Province, plans to produce 530,000 metric tons of zinc and lead, compared with 509,300 tons in 2007, it said in an earnings statement yesterday. The company forecast sales of 10.8 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) this year from 13.7 billion yuan.
Zhuzhou's net income fell 81 percent last year after metal prices plunged in the fourth quarter and the company wrote down raw material inventory. Zinc prices in London almost halved in the quarter from last year's May high as supplies outpaced demand.
The company had an inventory of 18,017 tons of zinc concentrate and 16,639 tons of lead concentrate, in terms of metal content, at the end of 2007, it said.