Nasdaq-listed China XD Plastics Co. Ltd. has signed agreements to supply annually 2,000 metric tons of compounds that will be used in the production of electric vehicles by Hafei Automotive Group and unnamed automakers in Taiwan.

China XD said it started the R&D of products for electric vehicles this year and in July signed an exclusive development agreement with auto molder Hafei Dongyang Plastic Products Co. Ltd.

The new product has been approved by automakers for use in battery casings of electric cars, the company said in a news release.

The company noted the market potential for such plastic products backed by the Chinese government's plans to invest 100 billion yuan (US$15 billion) in the next decade to develop clean energy and green vehicles.

China XD, Hafei and Hafei Dongyang are all headquartered in Harbin, Helongjiang province.

A fire at a plastics factory of Nan Ya Plastics Corp., an affiliate of petrochemical giant Formosa Plastics Group, is forcing the company to move some production from Taiwan to the mainland.

The fire didn't cause injuries but burned down part of the factory and warehouse with estimated loss of NT$150 million (US$4.8 million) per month, according to reports from Taiwanese media. The local government also fined the company NT$1 million (US$ 32,310) for fire-related air pollution.

The factory in Chia-yi produces "pearl paper", a type of plastic paper.

Company officials said some production equipment will be temporarily moved to a sister factory in Nantong on the mainland.

Fire also hit two Formosa petrochemical factories in July. Industry insiders speculate that the fire incidents will result in tighter scrutiny over a Formosa olefin factory that had a fire in July and applied to resume production last week. The situation may cause ethylene prices to continue to rise in the spot market, reports quoted analysts say.

Boats made of plastic bottles have been increasingly used in environmental campaigners. A few Chinese citizens have recently followed suit and traveled five months in such a boat to visit the Shanghai World Expo.

According to a report from Xinmin News Network, Mr. Xia Yu from Hunan province built a boat with a total of 2010 beverage bottles that are each 600-milimeter in volume. He and two partners sailed the raft down the Yangtze River and a canal for 1,500 kilometers and finally arrived near Shanghai early this month.

Xia is thought to be China's first environmentalist to sail long distance on a boat constructed of plastic bottles.

Two plastics firms made the latest Forbes' top 50 listed family companies in China.

Janus (Dongguan) Precision Components Co. Ltd., majority-owned by the Wang Jiuquan family in Dongguan, Guangdong province, was ranked 21st. The company was founded in 2003 and launched an initial public offering in May 2010 at ChiNext, a Nasdaq-style growth enterprises board hosted by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

Janus makes precision electronics components and molds for leading OEMs including Samsung, Huawei and Haier. Samsung alone represents more than half of Janus' revenues.

Over the past three years, Janus has seen sales grow at a compounded annual rate of 69 percent and net profit 36 percent.

Also included in the list is auto compounder Shanghai PRET Composites Co. Ltd., coming in at 36th. The company was founded in 2007, went public in December 2009, and is majority-owned by the Zhou Wen family.

Sales grew 15 percent annually and net profit 64 percent for PRET in the past three years, reflecting the healthy demand of the booming Chinese auto industry.

According to the first "Chinese Family Business Survey" by Forbes China magazine, as of the end of June, a total of 305 family businesses are listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, accounting for 36 percent of the total number of listed private enterprises.

The survey shows that the listed family businesses beat listed state enterprises in terms of sales growth and profitability.

More than 60 percent of the polled entrepreneurs hope to have their businesses inherited by the second generation.

China's coal-based PVC producer Xinjiang Tianye Co. Ltd. announced the addition of new capacity and a hike in net profit.

The publicly listed company said its new 400,000-metric-ton PVC project came on stream on Oct. 6 and passed product quality test. The company now claims annual capacity of 1.1 million metric tons of PVC.

The company employs the calcium carbide process in its PVC production.

In an Oct. 25 filing, Xinjiang Tianye reported that the first nine months of this year saw net profit increase more than ten fold, compared to the same period of 2009, to 110 million yuan (US$16.5 million).

The rapid growth was attributed to rising product price and export. The company expects the growth to continue into the four quarter.

Wide publicity and public concern of fire incidents caused by plastic insulation building products - most notably the China National Television tower blaze in Feb. 2009 - has prompted local authorities to put expanded polystyrene boards on a "restricted use" list.

In a recent publication by the Beijing City Committee of Housing and Construction, EPS boards, along with PVC insulation strips, single-chamber profile, and PVC pipes made with lead stabilizer, are ordered to be restricted.