Boiler firm expands in China

Foster Wheeler's Chinese subsidiary Foster Wheeler Power Machinery has embarked on a $3.5 million expansion at its boiler pressure parts manufacturing facility at Xinhui, Guangdong Province. Local Chinese banks are financing a portion of the cost of the expansion with the balance being funded from Foster Wheeler's own cash resources. The subsidiary is a Foster Wheeler majority-owned joint venture with China Huadian Engineering, Guangdong Electric Power Industry Development and Jiangmen Da Guang Ming Power Enterprise Group.

It is a Chinese Grade A licensed facility and received a Technologically Advanced Foreign Invested Enterprise award from the Commission of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation of Guangdong Province in 2005.

'This is a strategic investment for Foster Wheeler,' said Bernard Cherry, Chief Executive Officer, Foster Wheeler Global Power Group.

'Our Xinhui facility has been producing boiler pressure parts since it was completed in 1997 and has earned a reputation for achieving world-class quality and on-time delivery'.

'We are expanding its capacity by 40%, taking its total capacity up to one million man-hours per year, to support these rapidly growing markets, particularly for circulating fluidised-bed boilers'.