HEFEI - The 3M corporation will invest one billion yuan ($152.8 million) to build a plant in Hefei, a city in East China's Anhui province, to produce new energy products, including solar photovoltaic materials, authorities said Thursday.

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The construction of the plant is set to kick off in June 2011 in the high-tech industrial zone of the city, and the plant is expected to generate an annual output value of about two billion yuan upon its completion at the end of 2015, said Xu Junxiong, 3M head of Greater China.

The US-based company, formally known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Corporation, was founded in 1902 and it produces over 50,000 products, such as electronic materials, medical products and car care products.

The 3M company built its first subsidiary in China in November 1984 and it now has 12 subsidiaries across the country, plus three technical support centers and one research and development center, employing more than 5,700 people, according to a document posted at the 3M company's website.