GD Midea Holdings, China’s leading household appliance producer, has started building a Rmb1bn kitchenware plant in Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone. The base, in the capital of Hubei province, will start operation in July 2011.

Zhang Pengchao, general manager of the Shenzhen-listed firm’s kitchenware division, said kitchenware activities accounted for Rmb100m in sales revenue in the first half of 2010, a figure that is set to rise to Rmb1bn for the whole of 2013.

One company to have recently started operations in the zone is the Amsterdam-headquartered AkzoNobel. Its new powder coatings plant in Wuhan ETDZ is its sixth such facility in China.

The Wuhan facility’s current production capacity is 4,000 tons a year. Powder coatings are widely used in the appliance, architectural, automotive, furniture, general industry and IT sectors.

“China has the fastest growth rate in the world in terms of powder coatings demand,” said Rob Molenaar, managing director of AkzoNobel Powder Coatings. “This demand is being driven by a number of factors, especially the rapid pace of urbanisation and the associated growth of the housing, construction and automotive sectors.”