KPL
(KPL) The Power Construction Corporation of China – POWERCHINA – is a group of companies owned by the Chinese government.
It was established in 2011 by merging 14 electric design and survey, engineering and equipment manufacturing enterprises, formerly affiliated to Sinohydro Group, Hydro China Corporation, State Grid Corporation of China and China Southern Power Grid.
POWERCHINA entered the Lao PDR in 1996 with the opening of its representative office. Twenty five years later, the Chinese corporation established its local company in the Southeast Asian country.
POWERCHINA headquarters, Beijing, China
By Sengthong Phasavath
(KPL) The Power Construction Corporation of China – POWERCHINA – is a group of companies owned by the Chinese government.
It was established in 2011 by merging 14 electric design and survey, engineering and equipment manufacturing enterprises, formerly affiliated to Sinohydro Group, Hydro China Corporation, State Grid Corporation of China and China Southern Power Grid.
POWERCHINA entered the Lao PDR in 1996 with the opening of its representative office. Twenty five years later, the Chinese corporation established its local company in the Southeast Asian country.
Over the past 26 years, POWERCHINA has plaid an important role in developing basic infrastructure in Laos. As of 2021, the corporation has completed 130 projects worth USD 4.38 billion with 24 other projects worth US$3 billion under construction.
Its major development projects include the 1,272mw Nam Ou River Cascade Hydropower Project, Khammuan Cement Plant with an annual capacity of 1 million tons, Laos Hin Luang Prabang II Power Grid of 230kv/164 km and the Laos-China Railway project where the company has invested 650 million yuan, accounting for 4.3 per cent of the total investment of the project.
Nam Ou 3 hydropower plant, Lao PDR
Since its inauguration in late 2021, Laos-China Railway, the landmark project of the Belt and Road Initiative, has transported over 5.3 million passengers and 5.9 million tons of goods.
POWERCHINA investment has also contributed to job creation, social development and poverty reduction in the Lao PDR.
This integrated construction group provides investment and financing, planning design, engineering construction, equipment manufacturing and operation management for hydraulic and hydropower projects and infrastructure. Its principal businesses include energy and power and construction engineering - including survey, planning, design and project contracting- water ecological environmental governance and development and operation of other resources, real estate development and operation, and the manufacture and lease of related equipment.
In addition, upon the authorization of relevant government authorities, POWERCHINA also undertakes functions such as national planning and review of hydropower, wind power, solar power and other clean energy and new energy sources.
Today, POWERCHINA is a transnational corporation represented in six regions including Asia-Pacific, Africa, Eurasia, Latin America, and Middle East covering 131 countries with contracts signed for ongoing projects worth more than US$100 billion.
As for Asia-Pacific region, POWERCHINA chose Laos, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam and other countries in the Southeast Asia as its first overseas markets after it launched its International Operation in 2004. The company has become a key driver in construction industry in the Asia-Pacific completing more than 200 large and medium-sized projects covering hydropower, thermal power, solar power, wind power, railways, roads and bridges, and real estate with a total contract value of over US$20 billion raising the role of Chinese enterprises in socio-economic development in the region.
Laos-China Railway Vientiane Station, Laos/Photo by Laos-China Railway
Major projects representing POWERCHINA include the 468mw Dao Tieng Solar Power Project in Tai Ninh of Vietnam, which is the largest of its kind in the Southeast Asia, the 2,400mw Bakun Hydropower Plant in Malaysia which has a sizeable reservoir of 44 billion m3 larger than the Three Gorges project reservoir capacity of 39 billion m3, the 1,360mw thermal power plant of GNPower in the Philippines, the 275kv Bakun-Similajau power grid (280 km) in Malaysia, and the multibillion-dollar Jakarta-Bandung High speed Railway, Indonesia.
In 2021, POWERCHINA was ranked Baa1 by the credit rating firm Moody’sInvestors Service, BBB+ by S&P and BBB+ by the international rating agency Fitch Ratings. All of which are of the higher rankings for the engineering construction industry.
So far this year, the Chinese corporation has ranked 1st in the global power construction industry in term of planning, design and construction capacity and performance, 100th in Fortune 500 Companies and 15th in 100 Chinese transnational corporations.
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