French companies and farmers have reeled in deals reportedly worth up to five billion euros (dollars) in China during a state visit to the country by President Jacques Chirac, but executives were said to be disappointed that bigger business was not won.
Engineering group Alstom scored the biggest coup by signing the sale of up to one billion euros (1.2 billion dollars) worth of trains.
Beijing also agreed to purchase six Airbus aircraft for its state Air China airline and 700,000 tonnes of French wheat.
The four-day visit by Chirac, which ends Tuesday, was aimed at boosting business between France and China. The French leader took a delegation of 50 corporate chiefs with him. Although significant, the contracts sealed represented only a fraction of the amount French companies had been hoping to pocket during the trip.
Alstom, which is struggling financially, announced in a statement on the weekend that it signed two contracts for the delivery of locomotives and trains.
It also inked a letter of intent for the 357-million-euro sale in hydroelectric turbine and pumping equipment to the provinces of Hubei, Henan and Guangdong.
One of the contracts, worth 620 million euros, covered the sale of 60 regional trains capable of reaching 200 kilometres an hour (120 miles an hour) that would be built in China for the Changchun Railway Company.
The second contract worth 383 million euros was signed with Datong Electric Locomotive Company, for the sale of 180 double high-pressure locomotives, also to be furnished by Alstom.
"China is a market which is growing fast and is key to our global business," Philippe Joubert, Alstom's executive vice-president and president for the company's power generation sector, was quoted last month as saying by the state-run China Daily.
The engineering group is hoping the contract will put it in a good position for a 12-billion-euro project to start a high-speed train service between Beijing and Shanghai.
Such a windfall would offer badly needed relief to Alstom, which recently revealed a financial crisis that led to a 2.2-billion-euro bailout programme.
Airbus failed to nail down a big deal it was hoping for, but not walking away empty-handed.
The French-based European aircraft maker announced Saturday Air China would buy six of its medium-range A319 airplanes. It also signed a multi-million euro manufacturing agreement with the Chinese state-run aircraft maker AVIC I. In a deal announced in June, China Eastern airlines agreed to buy 20 A330-200 in a deal valued at two billion dollars.
However there was no news on the main prize Airbus executives were hoping for: orders for Airbus's A380 superjumbo that is to take to the skies in 2006.
Shares in Airbus parent group EADS climbed nearly five percent last Friday on expectations China was looking to purchase five of the 555-seat passenger planes in time for the 2008 Olympic Games hosted by Beijing.
The Sunday edition of Le Parisien newspaper reported that Airbus chief executive Noel Forgeard, accompanying Chirac, "acknowledged his disappointment".
"I have not the slightest doubt that the A380 will one day be flying with Chinese colours," it quoted him as saying.
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