August 2, 2007 -- On July 12th, 2007, Toshiba Corporation announced that it has signed a joint venture agreement with Xi'an Xingyi Technology Co., Ltd., a Chinese manufacturer of control and instrumentation systems for thermal power plants, and its parent company, Xi'an Xingyi Enterprise Investment Co., Ltd. The new joint venture, Toshiba Xingyi Control System (Xi'an) Co., Ltd., was established in Xi'an, Shaanxi province.

"The Tokyo-based Toshiba Corporation is one of largest integrated manufacturers of electric and electronic equipment, spanning information and communications equipment and systems. We are very glad to cooperate with the world's leading company, Toshiba," spokesman, Jianguo Hua, of Xi'an Xingyi Group told Emerging China.

"Xi'an Xingyi Group is one of China's leading manufacturers of instrumentation systems, with a very capable sales force that really understands the Chinese market, and with know how on the control of power generation. Therefore we chose Xi'an Xingyi Group," Hiroko Mochida, of Toshiba's Corporate Communications Office, told Emerging China.

She points out that that Toshiba and Xi'an Xingyi Group already have an established business relationship, since they supply distributed control systems to Xingtai Thermal Power Station, in Hebei province.

"We consider Xi'an Development Zone of High Technology Industries, in Xi'an, to be a good place to invest in," said Mochida. "The joint venture anticipates sales of approximately 310 million yuan (US$41 million) by the end of fiscal year 2010."

The new venture covers the development, design, manufacture, sale and after-sales service in the Chinese market of distributed control systems, as well as the control and instrumentation systems for thermal power plants.

It will be 50 percent held by Toshiba Corporation, 10 percent by Toshiba's China subsidiary, and 40 percent by Xi'an Xingyi Group.

"Potential clients of the joint venture in China are electric power companies, EPC contractors, and so on," Mochida added.

When asked about the future plans of Toshiba in China, Mochida suggested that Toshiba will further expand its thermal power plant equipment business of both steam turbine generators and information, control and instrumentation systems.

Besides the new joint venture, Toshiba Xingyi control System (Xi'an) Co., Ltd., Toshiba has five other manufacturing and sales sites in the field of power systems industry.