Arch Chemicals plans to extend its biocides manufacturing capabilities in Suzhou, China, and expand production of biocides and intermediates in Rochester, N.Y., and Swords, Ireland.

"With global demand at near-record levels, we are expanding biocide capacities on three continents," says Louis S. Massimo, Arch's executive vice president and chief operating officer. The projects involve copper-, zinc-, and sodium-based additives used for protective, hygienic, and industrial applications. Arch products inhibit mold and mildew growth in products such as wallboard, ceiling tiles, and metalworking fluids.

In Suzhou, Arch is building a plant to produce zinc pyrithione, an antidandruff agent, along with laboratory and technical support facilities. The new facilities will open later this year. Earlier this year, the firm started up a powder drying and milling facility in Suzhou for zinc- and copper-based biocides used to formulate marine antifoulant paints.

In Rochester and Swords, Arch is increasing biocides production for local markets and is also boosting capacity for the biocide intermediate 2-chloropyridine. Arch says its Rochester 2-chloropyridine facility, already the world's largest such facility, will double in size when the project is complete.

Source: Chemical & Engineering News

Entropic Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq:ENTR), a leading provider of silicon solutions to enable connected home entertainment, today announced that its strategic partnership with Chinese-owned BROWAN Communications will expand to bring Entropic's c.LINK(r) Access technology to three additional Chinese cities: Tianjin, Suzhou and Guilin. BROWAN Communications' extended service region provides its customers in single-family homes as well as multi-dwelling units (MDUs) a cost-effective alternative for receiving multimedia content over the previously existing coax cabling.

c.LINK(r) Access Roadmap Meets the Diverse Needs of the Chinese Market

With Entropic's c.LINK Access technology, BROWAN is able to offer its customers, leading MSOs and cable operators in China, cost-effective, high-speed Internet connections with the future opportunity of deploying video and voice service. c.LINK Technology does not require expensive and labor-intensive telecommunications equipment upgrades because of its ability to work with existing coaxial wires. Additionally, the c.LINK Access roadmap delivers extra bandwidth and raises the performance bar to "future-proof" the broadband access network.

Japan's Elpida Memory Inc. and Chinese chip maker HeJian Technology Co. plan to build a $2 billion 12-inch wafer plant in Suzhou. Elpida declined to comment on whether or not such talks were in progress, but said a tie-up in China was always a possibility. Elpida recently tied up with Taiwan's UMC, which helped set up HeJian.

The plant would be located in Suzhou, southeastern China, next to HeJian's 8-inch wafer plant there, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News quoted unidentified industry sources as saying. It also said the Suzhou city government was offering incentives.

The companies will likely announce the plan in the second quarter of the year and the new plant will have an initial production capacity of around 30,000 wafers, the paper said.

Source: Reuters 

Asustek Computer Inc (2357.TW) said its board of directors has approved indirectly investing 9.50 Mio US$ in the establishment of a new unit in Suzhou in China's eastern province of Jiangsu. The prospective unit will provide product design and software services, it said in a filing with the stock exchange.

Source: TradingMarkets.com

China Eastern Airlines has announced plans to extend cooperation with Shanghai Airlines on nine domestic routes.

Prior to this, the two parties signed a cooperation agreement for five routes including those from Shanghai to Urumchi, Suzhou, Nanjing, Baotou, and Huhhot. Because neither of the two companies operates flights from Shanghai to Baotou, the agreement will be not effective for this route.

The newly signed extended agreement between the two airlines includes another five domestic routes: from Shanghai to Harbin, Chengdu, Chongqing, Shenzhen, and Tianjin. Together with the former four routes, the number of domestic routes China Eastern and Shanghai Airlines cooperate on has increased to nine.

Source: Source: ChinaHospitalityNews.com 

Technology website Digitimes has reported that OEM firms Pegatron Technology and Unihan Technology have won a contract to produce new Xbox 360 consoles at their factories in Suzhou, China, with an expected initial monthly shipment of around 500,000 units.

The Asustek Computer owned manufacturers, who also help produce the PlayStation 3, have made no official announcement concerning the rumors. However, Microsoft has publicly admitted supply problems since Christmas.

Microsoft group product manager Aaron Greenberg told Reuters in a recent interview that by April, Xbox 360 supplies would be back in "a very healthy inventory situation."

Microsoft has used a variety of different manufacturers for the Xbox 360, with original OEM maker Wistron discontinuing production over concerns at low profitability. This has left Singapore based Flextronics Internationals as the largest supplier, along with Toronto headquarted Celestica.

Source: tgdaily 

Hafidh Al Busaidy has been appointed as the new general manager of Crowne Plaza Suzhou.

Al Busaidy has been with IHG in Middle East for over 20 years and is joining the China team from his position as general manager InterContinental Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia. Prior to Saudi Arabia, he was resident manager and acting general manager of Al Bustan Palace InterContinental, Sultanate of Oman.