Sunpower eyes China's growing market for 'green' services

AS China gears up to battle against its smog problem, mainboard-listed Sunpower Group is hoping to reap a bonanza from being one of the first movers to offer environmental protection services in the country.

The group has in recent years widened its scope of operations to include the construction and operation of centralised steam facilities. These are a more environmentally friendly alternative to the small boilers local industries use in China.

Besides providing a steady stream of income for the group, this new business segment, which the group terms "green investment", also adds on to the capabilities that it has built up in the past 20 years, says its executive chairman Guo Hong Xin.

Meanwhile, its existing businesses continue to secure contracts. In an announcement on Friday, Sunpower said a subsidiary has been awarded contracts worth 116.3 million yuan (S$23.6 million) to supply equipment for Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refining and Chemical Co's refinery and chemical integration project, and spiral wound heat exchangers for a methanol-to-olefins facility in Zhong'an Union Coal Chemical Co's coalification integration project. This comes after the group won 270.68 million yuan worth of contracts i…