Dive Brief:
- The president of the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. (AGDC) said a China-backed trans-Alaska gas line project could generate up to 12,000 construction jobs, according to KTUU, and then 1,000 permanent positions once the gas line is up and running.
- AGDC's Keith Meyer spent more than a month in China working on the $43 billion deal between the gas business and three Chinese companies — Sinopec, Bank of China and China Investment Corp. The companies signed an agreement in the presence of President Donald Trump during his recent visit to China, but Meyer estimated that the contracts will not be final until the end of 2018.
- While the construction of the gas line will be a U.S. responsibility, Meyer said it is possible that China would fabricate some gas line modules and then ship them to Alaska. Construction could start as early as 2019.
Dive Insight:
There were $250 billion of deals negotiated between the U.S. and China during the president's trip, including a memorandum of understanding that could result in an $83.7 billion investment in West Virginia's shale gas and chemical industries — an amount greater than the state's 2016 gross domestic product. China would put in the money over a period of 20 years as part of the country's efforts to find cleaner energy options and reduce its reliance on just one country as a source of fuel.
China is a big investor in U.S. real estate projects from utilities to iconic hotels, but one wonders if and how that ability will shift over the next few years as Chinese officials start to examine more thoroughly those companies that invest their money overseas.
China-based Anbang Insurance Group purchased the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City earlier this year with the intention of renovating it and shut it down in March while a local preservation group reviewed the planned design. During that period of time, however, the Chinese government asked Anbang to sell its overseas assets, including the Waldorf, and repatriate the money back to China.
Anbang Chairman Wu Xiaohui was detained for questioning by Chinese officials back in June, according to the BBC. According to the Financial Times, another executive, billionaire and Sunac China chairman Sun Hongbin, was ordered to take 26 hours of re-education in corporate governance after allegedly breaking the Hong Kong stock exchange's listing rules.
Anbang did not sell off the Waldorf as requested, however, and AECOM Tishman was set to begin the $2 billion remodel sometime this month.
