The U.N. Multilateral Fund is specifically aimed at helping developing counties meet the protocol. The Jinzhu grant is also the first in the ''ODS 4'' stage of the fund's work, which began in the early 1990s, a World Bank official said in a telephone interview. Whereas previous funding efforts targeted consumers of CFCs and other ODS in an effort to convert them to non-CFC replacements, the latest stage aims to build capacity to produce replacements. China still produces 60,000 tons of ODS per year, the production level frozen in 1999, China Daily said. The market for non-CFC replacements has expanded as the government imposes increasing restrictions on CFC use.
Demand is still limited, however, and entirely met by imports.
The Jinzhu project is designed to produce 5,000 tons annually on the completion of its first stage in 2002, with the second and final stage, two years later, doubling capacity. The company was formed in the 1980s with the merger of the Xian Modern Chemical Research Institute, formerly under China Weapons Industry Co., and the Tibet Jinzhu Shareholding Co., he said.