An agreement signing ceremony for the cooperation between Pacific Department Store Co., Ltd. of Hong Kong and Hong Fa Investment Group Co., Ltd. was held in TEDA Renaissance Hotel a few days ago. With a total floorage of 66,000 square meters, Hongtai Qian Baihui Shopping Mall was established in TEDA by Hong Fa Group with an investment of nearly 400 million yuan. It is a large comprehensive shopping mall that includes shopping, supermarket, catering, leisure and entertainment.

Pacific Department Store Co., Ltd. of Hong Kong is going to open in Hongtai Qian Baihui Shopping Mall its first department store in Tianjin. Founded in 1990, Pacific Department Store Co., Ltd. of Hong Kong is an internationalized and specialized department store company. According to a person in charge at Pacific Department Store Co., Ltd., with an area of 20,000 square meters, the department store will comprise one story underground and three stories above ground. It will be a concept store featuring the popular trend and it is expected to be officially open before year end.

The foundation stone laying ceremony of Translohr Industrial (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. was held in TEDA a few days ago. Headquartered in Strasbourg, France, Groupe Lohr has a well-developed test center and a well-equipped tram test line in the company. It also has subsidiaries and manufacturing and assembly facilities in China, America, Mexico, Italy, Turkey, and Russia etc. With a staff of over 1,500 in the headquarters, Lohr mainly produces car-carriers, rail-road systems, special vehicles for logistics-defense, and trams with tires. Lohr has independent design departments with an excellent design and research staff of more than 120 providing great specialized technical support for corporate development.

In July of 2005, Lohr and Tianjin Binhai Mass Transit Development Co., Ltd. signed a tram purchase contract and a technical service contract for the Dongting Street Test Line (Line 1) of TEDA tram transport system, and co-established on August 10, 2005 Translohr Industrial (Tianjin) Co., Ltd., an assembly factory for trams with tires on the Seventh Avenue of TEDA with a total investment of two million euros. With a total length of 8.8 kilometers, the Dongting Street Test Line starts from the TEDA Station of the light railway, extends northwards along Dongting Street, and ends at the university town with 14 stations above ground along the way. In the initial stage of operations, eight trams with tires will be used in the test line, each having three carriages and a maximum speed of 70 kilometers an hour.

The foundation stone laying ceremony for the TEDA base of Otis Elevator Company was held a few days ago. With a total investment of about 75 million dollars and an area of about 140,000 square meters, the TEDA base of Otis will, with its leading technologies as the core, focus on the R&D and production of high-tech core components and such top technology and product as high-speed gearless traction elevator for high-rise apartments. Besides, the Otis TEDA base will first adopt a "factory in factory" pattern to integrate the high-tech core component supplier into the chain of manufacture. The Otis TEDA base will be completed in 2007.

The inauguration ceremony for the new factory building of Zollern (Tianjin) Machinery Company Ltd. was held in TEDA a few days ago. Founded in 1708 and headquartered in Baden-W¨¹rttemberg of Germany, Zollern has an international workforce of more than 2,700 and an annual output value of approximately 800 million euros. It focuses on the machinery manufacturing industry and has such four major units as steel profiles, foundry technology, transmission technology, and mechanical engineering elements. It produces a variety of mechanical products such as castings, gears, bearings, and linear elements. It particularly specializes in the production of planetary gear sets and large bespoke gear sets, and it has a history of planetary gear sets production of 30 years to this day.

Zollern (Tianjin) Machinery Company Ltd. is a wholly-owned enterprise established in TEDA by the Zollern group of Germany in 1997. With its business growth, the investment of the company has been increased to 4,390,891 dollars and the registered capital, to 2,290,891 dollars. With an area of 30,000 square meters, the new factory is located in the 11th Avenue of TEDA.

Gorbel (Tianjin) Crane Co., Ltd. held an opening ceremony a few days ago.

Gorbel (Tianjin) Crane Co., Ltd. is a wholly-owned enterprise that Gorbel International Inc. of America established in TEDA in June of 2005. Gorbel has been focusing on providing overhead material handling solutions since it started the I-beam jib crane production in 1977. Now it has made considerable progress in its product series and extended its scope of production to include the enclosed track work station crane, work station jib crane, gantry crane, intelligence lifting machinery accessory, and patent track crane. Gorbel has the greatest domestic crane market share in America.

With a total investment of 6.2 million dollars and a registered capital of 3.1 million dollars, Gorbel's new factory in TEDA is its first investment in China. With an area of approximately 16,500 square meters, the factory is located on the 13th Avenue of TEDA. After the factory is completed, it will produce enclosed track work station cranes, and then intelligent lifting devices, G-Force, and Gorbel's patent track cranes.

Planer (Tianjin) Advanced Plastic Products Co., Ltd., an OEM auto part supplier for Toyota, held a grand opening ceremony in Tianjin New Coastal Industrial Park of TEDA a few days ago. With a total investment of 500 million yen and a registered capital of 350 million yen, Planer (Tianjin) Advanced Plastic Products Co., Ltd. is an enterprise in TEDA solely funded by Kodama Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. of Japan. With an area of 6,750 square meters, the company is located in Tianjin New Coastal Industrial Park of TEDA. It is FAW Toyota¡¯s tier-2 supplier. It mainly produces engine covers and tire covers for Toyota, and its main client is Tianjin Intex Auto Parts Co., Ltd.

Vestas Wind Turbine Equipment (China) Co., Ltd. officially started its business in the West Zone of TEDA a few days ago. It is the first factory that Vestas of Denmark established in China. It will produce blades for Vestas wind turbines.

As is known, the production capacity of the factory was originally targeted at 600 blades. However, in view of the growing market demand, the company decided to expand its capacity even before the construction of the factory was completed. The factory will have a staff of 400 and an annual capacity of 1,200 blades by 2007 when its expansion is completed.

Vestas started its wind turbine manufacture in 1979 and has been focusing on the wind energy development since 1987 with its core business comprising the development, manufacture, sale, marketing and maintenance of wind power systems. Now it has factories in 10 countries and sales and service offices in 20 countries, and it has installed more than 30,000 wind turbines in over 50 countries across the world.