Iowa seeks more Chinese investments

There are investments in wind power and a small family business trying its luck in tofu making business.

That's the most recent foreign direct investment (FDI) from China in Iowa now, according to Allen Williams, the business development manager at the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA).

But that might be changing. And one of the reasons is Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, who has been nominated by US president Donald Trump to be ambassador to China.

During a three-day visit to the state by a Chinese business delegation, local leaders unanimously expressed the expectation that as ambassador Branstad will help bring more investment from China.

"I certainly expect that when Governor Branstad assumes his post as ambassador, we will see a lot more investors from China. We are already talking about the anticipation of that occurring and what our organization can do to foster those opportunities," said Ryan Carroll, international trade manager at the Des Moines Greater Partnership.

Carroll said that the partnership has been seeing more interest from China than from any other country.

"In last five, six months we had more inquiries from China than previous two, three years," Williams told the Chinese delegation led by Zhao Zhenge, US general representative of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, on March 29.

During its visit, the delegation met with leaders at IEDA and the Des Moines Greater Partnership and Branstad to discuss investment possibilities and learn about the local market.

The delegation was told that Iowa is strong not only in agricultural products, but also in wind energy, agricultural equipment manufacturing, insurance and data service.

Wang Hongqi, chairman of Shandong Zhaowei Steel Tower Company, was looking for a steel-related manufacturing opportunity. He recently opened a factory in Ethiopia.

"Since the US doesn't like importing steel from China, I want to find a place to build right here. We can manufacture communication towers or towers for wind farm," Wang said.

Later, When Wang saw steel grain bins on Kimberly Farm, he was excited that there are more possibilities than he thought.

"I am excited about what you do, hope we can find location for this tower making," Branstad told Wang after learning of his intention.

XCMG North America, a US subsidiary of Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group - China's largest construction machinery company - was in Iowa looking at possibly opening an assembly line, said Daniel Edwards, its deputy general manager.

XCMG has been in the US since the 1980s importing machinery. However, the Trump administration's "America First" policy has prompted the company to decide to open an assembly factory in the US.

According to Williams, FDI by China now includes $100 million investment by HZ Windpower, $15 million investment by Golden Wind, and the small tofu making business from Shandong. And Branstad acknowledged that there are few investments from China.

"But in the near future there are many opportunities," he said. "We certainly want to encourage Chinese investor to look at Iowa. We find Iowa to be a very friendly and supportive and very acceptive of foreign investment."

Branstad, who was often referred as "old friend" by President Xi Jinping, showed the visitors a special picture.

"It was taken when he [President Xi] took a delegation from Hebei on April 29, 1985. My hair was black then. It was a small black and white, and we had it blown up to 8x10. I took it to Seattle [in 2015] to ask President Xi to autograph it. He autograph and dated it. I always like to show off that to people."