Zhanjiang pins hopes on two mega projects

Construction work for two large industrial facilities in Zhanjiang, Guangdong province is on schedule, Mayor Wang Zhongbing told the annual provincial legislative session in Guangzhou on Thursday.

Wang said an iron and steel project being built by Baosteel Group, the country's largest steel producer, will require investment of 12.3 billion yuan ($2.03 billion) this year. The plant will produce 10 million metric tons of steel annually, starting in late 2015.

The other project, a petrochemical complex that's a joint venture of China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) and Kuwait Petroleum Corp, is designed to process 15 million metric tons of crude oil and produce 1 million tons of ethylene annually. Wang said that the crude oil project will open by 2016 and the ethylene project by 2017.