International funding for
the Three Gorges Dam project is a major factor in its construction. Companies
and banks from Canada, France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, and Brazil
have all played a role in financing the dam. Government export credit agencies
have loaned the Three Gorges Project Development Corporation more than
$1.4 billion for the project. China Development Bank has loaned $3.6 billion
for the Three Gorges Dam project, making it the primary lender.
There are five main
companies in Canada who are helping to finance the project. AGRA Monenco,
an international engineering and construction
management company, signed a $25 million contract in 1994 for a project
management system to provide systems layout and engineering, testing,
operational guidance, and training. A year later, they signed another
deal for $12.5 million in system management technology and training.
This contract was financed by Canada’s Export Development Cooperation
(EDC). The Dominion Bridge, Inc. signed a $64 million contract with Chongquing
City and Sichuan province for the construction of a cement factory to
supply the dam with cement. The EDC financed $23.5 million of this contract
for machinery and electrical equipment. General Electric of Canada, in
a consortium with Siemens and Voith-Hydro, German engineering companies,
signed a $320 contract in 1997 to provide six turbine generators for
the dam. EDC is providing $153 million to finance GE Canada. Hydro-Quebec
International, an electric utilities company, agreed to supervise the
construction of a 900 kilometer transmission line from the Three Gorges
Dam to Changzhou in a $1.9 million contract with China Power Grid Development
Company.
Workers
at the Three Gorges Dam. Courtesy of Yellow Mountain Stone Works
The
French electrical equipment and engineering company GEC-Alsthom signed
a $400 million contract in 1997 in a consortium with
Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) and Kvaerner Energy, Swiss and Norwegian electrical
equipment companies, to supply eight turbine generators for the Three
Gorges Dam. GEC-Alsthom contribution is worth $212 million. In 2000,
GEC-Alsthom agreed to supply the left bank power system of the dam with
electrical system equipment in a $12.76 million deal. Electricité de
France signed a $5.8 million deal to supervise the production of the
generators in 1999.
Kreditanstalt
für Wiederaufbau, a German export credit
agency, along with the banks Deutsche Genossenschaftsbank, Dresdner Bank,
and Commerzbank, provided $271 million to finance Siemens bid in the
consortium with GE Canada and Voith-Hydro to provide six generators to
the dam. Siemens also signed an $80 million contract in 1999 to supply
fifteen transformers in Changzhou at the power converter stationed there.
The funding for this contract again comes from Kreditanstalt für
Wiederaufbau, Deutsche Genossenschaftsbank, Dresdner Bank, and Commerzbank.
Siemens and Voith-Hydro merged in 1999 to form the new company Voith
Siemens Hydropower Generation, which signed a $12.79 million contract
to contribute electrical system equipment to the left bank power system
of the dam. GEC-Alsthom signed a similar contract the same day.
Spillway
of the Three Gorges Dam. Courtesy of yangtzeriver.org
The Swiss company Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) signed the $400
million contract with GEC-Alsthom and Kvaerner to provide eight generators.
The Swiss export credit agency, Bundesrat Exportrisikogarantie, loaned
$143.1 million to the Three Gorges Dam project to purchase the generators.
In 1999, ABB agreed to construct two power converter stations at the
Three Gorges Dam and at Shanghai in a $340 million agreement. ABB also
signed at $112 million deal to contribute high voltage equipment at the
Three Gorges Dam electrical substation.
U.S.
involvement in the Three Gorges Dam project is minimal. Private companies,
such as Caterpillar, Rotec Industries, and U.S. Voith-Hydro,
sold between $60 and $100 million in equipment to China for the project.
Government banks and agencies did not participate in funding the dam
because the project did not display environmental standards similar to
those required by Congress in foreign developments. The World Bank also
did not finance the Three Gorges Dam due to ambiguous impacts on the
environment and the surrounding society.
For
more information, visit Who's
Who Behind China's Three Gorges Dam
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