Fiat (China) is predicting it will increase its local sales revenue fivefold from last year to US$5.5 billion by 2010, the China Auto News reported. It is targeting US$3 billion in revenue from car sales, US$1.5 billion from trucks and US$1 billion from spare components. The Italian automaker has expanded in China at an annualized growth rate of 25% over the past three years. Last year, it unveiled a US$677 million five-year plan to sell 300,000 vehicles in China and gain a 4.5% market share by 2010. Analysts predict its goal is unattainable given that its 8-year joint venture with Nanjing Auto sold just 44,230 vehicles in 2006. Fiat CEO Sergio Marchi said its Chinese partner was to blame for poor sales because it defaulted on a promised investment in Nanjing Auto’s self-branded models. It was reported Monday that Fiat will inject RMB3 billion to salvage the partnership.

Singaporean water-treatment company Hyflux Ltd said it has signed two water-treatment projects in China worth a combined US$31.2 million (RMB 237 million), the Strait Times reported. They include a US$17.7 million (RMB135 million) project to build and run a water-treatment base in the Beichen district of the northern city of Tianjin, which will be completed by 2009, and a US$14.5 (RMB102 million) project to build and run a water-treatment base in Xiajin county in the northern province of Shandong, which will be completed by the end of 2008.

Chinese Nanjing Auto and Italian Fiat have reached an agreement to invest an additional US$400 million (RMB3 billion) in their problematic joint venture Nanjing Fiat, the Yangzi Wanbao reported. Earlier reports said Fiat was planning to sever its collaboration with Nanjing Auto because the latter had defaulted on its promised investment in the joint venture. They were also allegedly at odds over a possible partnership between Fiat and another Chinese automaker, Chery Automobile. It was also reported that Nanjing Auto would have to invest in the Fiat venture via bank loans because the majority of its financial resources had been allocated to revitalizing the English MG Rover Group it bought in 2005.

China’s industrial firms increased earnings 42.1% year-on-year in the first five months of 2007 thanks to strong economic expansion, the Economic Daily reported. National Bureau of Statistics figures show companies earned a combined US$118.5 billion (RMB902.6 billion) for the period. Industrial sales revenues surged 27.4% to US$1.86 trillion (RMB14.2 trillion). Chemical firms earned more than three times the profit for the corresponding period last year, and steel makers more than doubled profits. Construction materials manufacturers saw a 70.1% year-on-year profit jump. China’s economy grew 11.1% year-on-year in the first quarter, comfortably outpacing expectations.

Finland-based ship power supplier Wartsila Corp said it would double its production capacity of fixed pitch propellers in the city of Zhengjiang, Jiangsu province, the Yangzi Wanbao reported. The propeller is commonly used in container ships. The Finnish company established a joint venture with the China State Shipbuilding Corporation in 2004, called Wartsila-CME Zhenjiang Propeller Co Ltd, to design and build propellers for gigantic vessels such as oil tankers and cargo containers. Chinese companies have built 425 ships in the first five months of this year, 45% of which have been for overseas orders.