Key Cigarette Factory Starts Project to Enlarge Production Capacity of Big Brand

Source from:  Changde Daily newspaper 10/16/2007

Changde Cigarette Factory in south central China's Hunan Province - a key Chinese tobacco manufacturer designated by the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration - has recently started a project of large-scale technical transformation to significantly enlarge the annual production capacity of its big competitive cigarette brand of Furongwang (The Hibiscus King). Presently, the principal part of the project of technical transformation is under full-scale construction. Construction of the main workshop building and the power center is expected to finish by the end of 2007. With a total investment of 800 million yuan (105 million U.S. dollars), the project of technical transformation is a priority project of Hunan Province for the 2006-2010 period. In the fulfillment of the project, Changde Cigarette Factory will newly install a 6,000kg/h leaf tobacco cutting line and manage to enlarge the annual production capacity of Furongwang to 600,000 cases (30 billion cigarettes) from the current level 200,000 cases (10 billion cigarettes). By 2010, Changde Cigarette Factory, in striving to turn itself into a first-rate tobacco manufacturing enterprise in China, will have met the targets of enlarging the annual production capacity of its Furong (Hibiscus) cigarette brand family to 2 million cases (100 billion cigarettes), and will have become capable of generating 20 billion yuan (2.63 billion U.S. dollars) in annual sales income, including 3 billion yuan (395 million U.S. dollars) in annual profits. Defining it as "the No.1 Project", the Chinese Communist Party Changde City Committee and the municipal government of Changde have adopted a plan to extend all possible assistance to the project of technical transformation, and have also instructed competent administrative authorities in charge of the city's land resources, construction, electric power generation, etc to dispatch taskforces to particularly provide services for the project, contributing to greatly speeding up its construction work. By the end of 2007, Changde Cigarette Factory will continue to take steps to complete the work of designing, tender invitation and contract conclusion for the supply and installation of technological equipment, electric power supply equipment, etc, and the construction of major facilities for the project. Enditem