Henan Tianguan eyes ethanol plant in Laos

Henan Tianguan Group Co. Ltd, China’s second largest fuel ethanol producer, plans to build plants in southeast Asia to produce the renewable fuel and send it to China, company president Zhang Xiaoyang said. Based in China’s central province of Henan, the company has been growing cassava in Laos on 50,000 hectares of farmland, large enough to support annual fuel ethanol production of 300,000 tons, Zhang told Reuters. “We’re only sending cassava back to China during the transition period. Next step, we will build a factory in Laos,” Zhang said in an Construction could start in two to three years, by which time he expects the Chinese government will be ready to scrap import tax on fuel ethanol, which has been reduced sharply to 5% this year from 30% last year. (March 10, 2010)