China Guodian Corporation (CGDC), Vietnam Coal and Mining Industry Group (TKV) and Thailand Banpu Public Company Limited announced on July 26 that they would jointly invest 4.8 billion yuan to build a new thermal power station in Chunzuo, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region to meet the growing needs for electricity there.

CGDC is in charge of the project. Construction will start in 2008, and the new power station is scheduled to start operation in 2010. The new power station will make the most of the highway from Nanning to Youyiguan to import blind coal from Vietnam as major fuel. Its supercritical turbo generators are designed to be compatible with both blind coal and wood coal, the capacity of which will be 2,400 megawatts.

The completion of the project will go a long way towards improving the energy structure of Guangxi. It will also mean that China-ASEAN Free-Trade Area has registered a great leap from commodity trade only to a new stage of cooperative investment and trade.

(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)