Gushan starts work on new biodiesel plants

Fuzhou, China-based Gushan Environmental Energy (NYSE: GU) said today that it has started construction of two new biodiesel production plants at its Chongqing and Hunan sites.

The company said the facilities are expected to add an aggregate of 60,000 tons, or 30,000 tons each, to its annual biodiesel production capacity.

"Our commencement of construction of our Chongqing and Hunan plants, together with our targeted commencement of biodiesel production at our Shanghai plant in June 2008 and our targeted increase in capacity at our Beijing plant in the fourth quarter of this year, keep us on schedule to reach our capacity goal of 400,000 tons by the end of 2008," said Jianqiu Yu, chairman of Gushan.

"Furthermore, we are also pleased to report that our Beijing plant, which commenced production in late January 2008, has been operating at full capacity since the beginning of March 2008."

The Beijing plant added 50,000 tons of annual capacity to the company (see Gushan opens Beijing biodiesel plant).

Gushan is China's largest producer of biodiesel, as measured by annual production capacity.

The company produces biodiesel primarily from vegetable oil offal and used cooking oil, and also produces byproducts including glycerine, plant asphalt, erucic acid and erucic amide.

Gushan currently operates four production facilities in Sichuan, Hebei, and Fujian provinces and Beijing with a combined annual production capacity of 240,000 tons, or approximately 72 million gallons.

The Chongqing and Hunan plants are expected to start production in the fourth quarter of this year.

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