The city of Shenyang’s Northern Heavy Industries (Group) Co, one of China’s top-three heavy machinery producers, has signed a cooperation agreement with a company in Sarawak, Malaysia, on engineering construction, according to Shenyang Daily Aug 3 reported.

The agreement calls for Northern Heavy Industries to build a coking plant with an annual phosphate output of 90 tons, at a project cost of around 72 million yuan ($10.86 billion).

Wang Xueming, the Group GM, says it took them two years to win the project bid and it is their first overseas project of its kind and the first for them to be cooperating with a scientific research organization - the University of Science and Technology in Liaoning Province.

The company says it has been following a transformation and upgrading strategy for industrial development in view of the economic downward pressures and that this agreement is expected to benefit them with its cross-industry and field operations, and its overseas market exploration.