Lee & Man Paper Manufacturing, China’s second largest containerboard producer, said its first-half net income jumped 75% year-on-year to US$92.29 million due to burgeoning Chinese demand for its products, the Shanghai Business Journal reported. Sales soared 61% year-on-year to US$499.96 million and earnings per share went up to US$8.21 per share from US$5.37 a year earlier, according to a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company plans to invest US$700 million to install five more containerboard production lines and two bleached hardwood pulp production lines to boost capacity to almost five million tons by mid-2009. It also plans to introduce new products. Current capacity was lifted from 2.08 million tonnes a year to 3.11 million tonnes when three more containerboard production lines went on stream in the first half. Lee & Man is an investment holding company organized through its subsidiaries into two operating businesses: manufacture and sales of paper, and manufacture and sales of pulp.