Beijing, China, 28 May – Portuguese company Euronavy Sunday opened a paint factory in Nantong, in Jiangsu province, eastern China, in order to sell paint to the Chinese navy, said a company representative.

“As well as the Chinese navy, we have also attracted several very good customers such as Sinopec [largest Asian oil company by refinery capacity] and the Qingshan nuclear power station, in the western province of Zheijiang,” the general manager of Euronavy China, Zhang Yongei told Portuguese news agency Lusa in Beijing.

Euronavy – Tintas Marítimas e Industriais is the only company in the world producing ecological paints for protecting steel against corrosion, and is also the only non-US supplier approved by the United States navy.

Turnover projections by the end of the year for the Chinese unit of Euronavy are of around 4.86 million euros, a figure which, Zhang estimated, would be ten times higher in 2010.

Zhang said that Euronavy wanted to concentrate on the Chinese market in the first two years of the factory’s life, and then focus on other markets such as Hong
Kong, Japan and South Korea.

The company’s first factory in China, covering 21,000 square meters, will employ 200 people, including 15 in the sales area.

Euronavy, which was founded in 1981, expects to end 2007 with turnover of 14.5 million euros and more than 2.5 million liters of paint manufactured, according to company figures.

The company, based on its factory in Setubal, already sells paint to the Singapore market.

In Brazil, the company has worked with oil giant Petrobras since 2002, to which it has sold paint for seven oil platforms. (macauhub)