Baosteel needs money for Zhanjiang project

BAOSTEEL Group Corp., China’s biggest steel producer by output, may need to raise 30 billion yuan (US$4.29 billion) to fund construction of its recently approved Zhanjiang steel plant, a company official said yesterday.

Baosteel, the parent of Baoshan Iron & Steel Co., will likely use its own funds to finance the other half of the project, the official, who declined to be named, said, without providing further details. The National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planner, gave preliminary approval to start construction of the 10-million-metric-ton-a-year project in Guangdong Province last month.

China Railway orders up 58 percent

CHINA Railway Construction Corp., builder of more than half the nation’s railroads, said yesterday its order backlog expanded 58 percent last year as it won contracts overseas and gained the expertise to handle complex projects.

Orders on hand rose to 323 billion yuan (US$46 billion) last year, the Beijing-based builder said in a statement. The company won 287 billion yuan of new contracts in 2007, 35 percent more than the previous year. Overseas income increased 81 percent to 6.36 billion yuan last year, tripling the order backlog from outside China to 1.17 billion yuan, the firm said.