The world's largest maker of freight containers China International Marine Containers Co agreed to pay about $565 million for a 29.9 percent stake in shipbuilder Yantai Raffles Shipyard Ltd.

China International Marine agreed to buy the stake through its Shenzhen-based company Sharp Vision Holdings Ltd, it said in a statement yesterday.

Nuclear plants

China's second biggest reactor builder China Guandong Nuclear Power Group plans to build two plants in Hubei and Ningxia as economic growth boosts electricity demand.

The Xianning Dafan project in Hubei province will be the first nuclear plant built in China's inland area, according to a statement posted on Guangdong Nuclear's website.

The company signed an initial agreement to develop the Ningxia project last week, it said in a separate statement.

Metals investment

State-owned China Metallurgical Group Corp (MCC) has signed an agreement with Huludao Nonferrous Metals Group Co Ltd to invest 2 billion yuan in the company.

After the deal MCC will take a 51 percent stake in the Huludao-based company.

It will further boost the metals smelting business of MCC. Last year, MCC's sales revenue was 131.8 billion yuan, with net profit of 7.2 billion yuan.

Office space

SAS, one of the world's largest intellectual business software providers, yesterday signed a deal with Beijing Oriental Plaza to rent over 1,000 sq m of office space.

The SAS deal shows IT companies' growing interest to find offices beyond the Zhongguancun district. Multinationals have pushed up Oriental Plaza's rent by 30 percent in the past year.

Plastics expo

Chinaplas 2008, the 22nd International Exhibition on Plastics and Rubber Industries, will be held from April 17-20 at the Shanghai New International Expo Center.

Chinaplas 2008 will display over 1,800 sets of machines plus a wide range of chemicals and raw materials for various industries.

Fuel oil tax

The government increased consumption tax on imported fuel oil more than fourfold on March 5 as part of efforts to limit energy use.

The levy rose to 0.1 yuan a liter from 0.03 yuan, Customs said in a statement on its website yesterday.

China will try to accelerate the pace of efficiency gains this year to meet a target of cutting the energy used in each unit of GDP by 20 percent in the five years ending 2010.

Share sale

The nation's biggest insurer in overseas markets, China Insurance Holdings Co, may sell shares domestically for the first time, according to its chairman Feng Xiaozeng. China Insurance, whose subsidiaries include Hong Kong-traded China Insurance International Holdings Co, will take the group company public in China when the timing is right, Feng said.

Scientists wanted

Barrick Gold Corp, a gold mining company based in Canada, invites scientists, engineers and other inventors in China to participate in the Unlock the Value program, which offers $10 million to anyone who can find an economically viable way to recover silver from the ore at Veladero gold mine in Argentina. The deadline is Aug 30.

Wuxi gains

Wuxi Pharmatech Cayman, a Chinese contract researcher for nine of the world's top 10 drugmakers, said fourth-quarter profit more than doubled on greater demand for its drug and medical device research services. Net income jumped to $16.6 million, or 23 cents a share, from $6.5 million, or 11 cents, a year earlier, the company said yesterday.

Agencies-China Daily

(China Daily 03/14/2008 page14)