bizjournals: Enter the dragon

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They're not top-quality automobiles, and the Chinese aren'ty the best drivers in the world, so in a few many of them will be headesd tothe junkyard. When they do, Al-Jon Inc., an Iowa manufacturefr of recycling equipment, will be The company is already lining up distributors in Chinz forits $300,000 car-crusher, which can procesas a load of automobilesw in just 30 minutes. "We're goingy to have a good market somewhere downthe road,"" says Al-Jon CEO Kendig Kneen. So will lots of othet American companies. U.S. exports to China were up 22 percenylast year, and this growth rate will continue for the foreseeabld future, says Craig Allen, the U.S.
Commercia l Service's senior officer in Beijing. (See .) The economyh of China -- the world's most populous countrgy -- is growing by a robust 9 percentya year. "Growth like that sucks in a ton of importsd inall areas," Allen says. Every another American company opens itsfirst branch, store or franchise in Allen says. American companies have a good reputation in China as sellerxs that stand behindtheir products, says Jim president of the Small Business Exporterxs Association. This helps open doorws to new business. Several areas hold particular promise: Developing China's information technology industry is a top priority for theChinese government.
That may created problems for American IT companies inthe future, but for now, it's an China has surpassed Japan as the second-largest producer of electronics and IT productz behind the United States, but it still has to imporyt most of the core technologies, including computer chips, used in thesre products. "We see nothing but growth in fronty ofus there," says Phil Pompa, a vice president at SigmaTe Inc., an Austin, Texas-based manufacturer of integrated circuits used in MP3 personal computers and DVD players. Chinwa and Hong Kong already account for more than halfof SigmaTel's sales.
The company recently opened an engineering centee in Hong Kong to provide applications and technicalk support to itsChinese customers. Chinq also is intent on developing its ownsoftwarwe industry, but American companies are finding loads of opportunitieas there for products at the high end. Northwesy Analytical of Portland, Ore., for is selling its manufacturing process analysis software to a growing numbetr of customersin China. The company recently signed a partnershipo dealwith China's largest software company. Multinational companie that alreadyused NWA's software -- Nike, for example -- were the company's first customers in China.
But NWA CEO Cliff Yee says Chineses manufacturers are beginning to pay attentio n to improving their industrial processes becausethey don't want to just be low-cost producers. "Theirr nationalistic goal," Yee says, "is to be the best manufacturerzs anywhere inthe world." China is one of the fastest-growinh markets in the world for medicall devices, and American technology is viewed as the Alliance Medical, a 12-employee endoscope repair compant based in Bel Camp, Md., is looking to doubl e its sales by entering the Chinese market. Alliance recentl inked a distributor deal withHokai Medical, a Chinese medical devicew company with 28 sales offices across China.
China has threes times as many hospitals as theUnitexd States, so, "it's got to be a good market," says Allianced principal David Litterello. Most of the endoscopes used in China are oldee models that Alliance can repair at a fractiojn of the cost of buyinhnew devices, he China may be a powerhouse in but it's still weak in services. This presents majodr opportunitiesfor U.S. companies, be they insurances companies orad agencies.
Atlanta architectural firm Thompson, Ventulett, Stainbacm & Associates' reputation as a convention centerexpert -- the firm has designeds more than 40 of them -- helped TVS win a contracg to design the 340,000-square-meter China International Exhibitio n Center in Beijing. "That played extremely well," says TVS principal Bill Halter. "They like you to be seen as the expert. " E-mail: khoover@bizjournals.
com