BRI won’t affect China firm’s India plan
New Delhi’s decision not to join Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) won’t affect a state-run Chinese corporation’s plans to expand its presence in India’s heavy machinery sector and branch out into oil and gas, a top official of the firm has said.
The decision will also not impact cooperation with China, said Chen Dangmin, managing director of Xi’an-based Shaangu Power Ltd (Shaangu).
Expressing confidence that India will join BRI when the time is right, Chen said Shaangu – which is part of Shaanxi Blower Group and has had a presence in India for nearly 15 years will continue to expand in India. Shaangu currently has an office in Gurugram that focusses on sales and after-sales services.
“Nowadays, we are only in the steel industry in India. Now, we are going to seek more opportunities in the oil and gas industries in India. We have some business opportunities (in new sectors),” Chen said in Xi’an durBRI ing an event to mark the company’s 50th anniversary.
Talking about the expansion of business despite diplomatic differences between the two sides, he said: “Although India hasn’t joined BRI, it doesn’t affect the cooperation between our two nations. And through cooperation we can make a better future together.
“We think that when the conditions are ready, India will join BRI. And it will act as a good platform for cooperation and friendship between our two countries and Shaangu would like to do its part for this development.”
India has stayed away from due to sovereignty issues because a flagship project—the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor —passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Despite such differences, Shaangu has established itself in India, Chen said.
“As we all know, India is a very important partner and neighbour of China. We entered into India to explore development in the region and for the development of our company,” he said. The company has supplied more than 100 industrial blast furnaces, blowers and coke oven exhausts – each costing about $3 million to $4 million – to several Indian companies since the mid-2000s.
“Entering the Indian market was a step towards making our company international and we want to cooperate with India to strengthen cooperation in economics and trade between the two countries,” he said.
In a separate statement, chairperson Li Hong’an of Shaangu group said the company “actively cooperates with the Indian government” and hopes “Shaangu products make a great contribution to the development of the manufacturing industry in India”.
“Shaangu is going to strengthen innovative research of key technologies in the distributed power energy field and to provide intelligent and green energy to the metallurgical, petrochemical and energy sectors in India,” Li said.
The company has sold its products to Turkey, the US, Iran, Germany, South Korea, Vietnam and Russia.
HT was invited by Shaangu to its headquarters in Xi’an to cover events marking its 50th anniversary.