Chinese company officials meet with leaders of Idaho, energy firms. Submitted by Rocky Barker on Thu, 09/02/2010 - 12:27pm
Officials of the China National Machinery Industry Corp. met this week with Idaho state, utility and industry officials to show off their ability to design, build and maintain everything from power plants to high transmission lines.
The Chinese-government owned company, called Sinomach for short, is itself a sign of the growing economic and industrial strength China now projects worldwide. For Sinomadch the American West provides many of the same opportunities it already has tapped in places like Africa, India, Pakistan, Indonesia and even Iran.
Sinomach, is China’s third largest contractor with more than $14 billion in sales last year. Jeff Don, President of C3 of Eagle arranged the delegation's visit.
They talked to Idaho Power Co. and Rocky Mountain Power and the Mountain States Transmission Project about building the major transmission lines the two utilities have planned. They also talked with several other Idaho energy and manufacturing companies about projects ranging from coal-gasification, nuclear power to turning biogas into power.
Zhang Chun, director general of the company told state officials the United States represents a big market for Sinomach and that he was happy to get a chance to meet with the companies, arranged in part by Paul Kjellander, director of the Idaho Office of Energy Resources.
The visit underscores the changing face of energy development in Idaho, as well as the interest Chinese companies have in both business and investment here. China’s ability and interest to project itself economically worldwide is remarkable similar to the United States at the turn of the 19th Century.