GE Announces New Agreements with Chinese Partners Totaling More than $2 Billion

Jan. 19, 2011
Company projects 4,500 new U.S. jobs

General Electric Co. announced on Jan. 19 that it plans to sign five agreements with Chinese partners this week, totaling more than $2 billion in revenue for GE. The company is the nation's second-largest manufacturing exporter.

The five joint ventures, partnerships and orders in strategic sectors such as clean energy, aviation and rail transportation are expected to generate more than $1 billion in exports from the U.S. and create or support jobs in both countries, including more than 4,500 U.S. jobs.

"These multi-sector infrastructure-improvement deals will help strengthen the critically important U.S.-China bilateral economic relationship, expand commerce and increase employment in both the U.S. and China," said GE vice chairman John Rice. "We feel confident about this relationship and are encouraged by the commitment both governments are demonstrating to working together to advance common interests. This week"s announcements reflect the potential of continued and expanded U.S.-China cooperation."

The energy, aviation and rail deals capitalize on GEs advanced technologies to create solutions for customers. The deals include:

  • A joint venture between GE Energy and Shenhua Group Corp. signed on Jan. 18 to develop coal gasification technologies in China, key to commercial-scale deployment of cleaner coal solutions. This collaboration is expected to generate more than $150 million in revenues over five years and $100 million of U.S. exports in services, R&D and licensing. It will also support job creation in the United States and China, including hundreds of jobs in Houston, Greenville, SC; and Schenectady, N.Y.
  • A collaborative agreement between GE Energy and China Huadian Corp. to develop distributed energy combined heat and power (DECHP) projects, which are expected to become the most efficient natural gas solutions for China. GE forecasts at least 50 gas-turbine generator sets being sold and installed in China in the next five years, resulting in $500 million of revenue for the partnership and $350 million in U.S. gas turbine exports from Cincinnati, Houston, Colorado and Oregon. This will support more than 2,100 jobs throughout GEs domestic U.S. supply chain.
  • A joint venture between GE Aviation and Aviation Industry Corp. of China (AVIC) to develop and market the new generation of avionics systems with an immediate priority on supporting development of Chinas first home-grown big passenger jet. The joint venture will result in $300 million in exports from Michigan, Florida and Ohio and support at least 300 high-tech jobs in each of the United States and China.
  • A Letter of Intent signed by GE Transportation with the Ministry of Railways (MOR) to provide $350 million worth of U.S.-built locomotives, locomotive sub-assembly kits, service support and signaling systems for Chinas railway upgrade. The export order could support 2,000 U.S. jobs.
  • A Letter of Intent signed by GE Transportation with the MOR to reaffirm both parties intent to collaborate on High-Speed Rail (HSR) and electric rail opportunities in North America. The partnership represents a joint investment of approximately $50 million with the potential to support 250 U.S. jobs by 2012 for the first phase of the agreement.

These agreements build on a larger-scale commitment GE has already made last November when GE announced plans to invest more than $2 billion in China through 2012 to expand the company's R&D and innovation capabilities and create new local partnerships.

Additionally, GE has been selected as one of 10 founding U.S. companies to participate in a new U.S.-China public-private partnership on healthcare, which was also launched during President Hu's visit and aims to bolster bilateral cooperation advancing technology in and increasing accessibility to healthcare services across China.

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