GE announces $2 billion in Chinese deals

During Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to the United States this week, General Electric will sign five agreements with Chinese partners that will bring an estimated $2 billion in revenue to the company.

A GE announcement Wednesday said the five joint ventures, partnerships, and orders in the clean energy, aviation, and railroad sectors are expected to generate more than $1 billion in exports from the U.S. and create more than 4,500 U.S. jobs.

“These multi-sector infrastructure-improvement deals will help strengthen the critically important U.S.-China bilateral economic relationship, expand commerce, and increase employment in both the U.S. and China,” said GE Vice Chairman John Rice. “We feel confident about this relationship and areencouraged by the commitment both governments are demonstrating to working together to advance common interests. This week’s announcements reflect the potential of continued and expanded U.S.-China cooperation.”

One of the transactions is Letter of Intent signed by GE Transportation with the Ministry of Railways (MOR) to provide $350 million worth of U.S.-built locomotives, locomotive sub-assembly kits, service support, and signaling systems for China’s railway upgrade. The export order could support 2,000 U.S. jobs.

Another Letter of Intent signed by GE Transportation with the MOR will reaffirm both parties’ intent to collaborate on high speed rail and electric rail opportunities in North America. The partnership represents a joint investment of approximately $50 million with the potential to support 250 U.S. jobs by 2012 for the first phase of the agreement.