Hongda and other Sichuan firms report quake damage

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's Sichuan Hongda Co said on Friday its non-ferrous metals and chemicals plants had been damaged by this week's devastating quake in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Dongfang Electrical Machinery Co said a gas turbine plant was severely damaged at a unit that accounts for about one-fifth of its turnover, while eight other listed firms based in Sichuan Province also reported damage and production outages due to the quake, the official Shanghai Securities News reported.

The paper added that, of 66 Sichuan-area companies whose shares had been suspended following the quake pending information about the impact of the disaster, only one, Sichuan Minjiang Hydropower Co, which is based in Wenchuan county at the quake's epicenter, had yet to issue a statement.

Hongda, a mid-sized Chinese zinc smelter, said part of its zinc smelting and chemicals production facilities at its headquarters in Mianzhu were severely damaged by the quake and had halted production due to water, electricity and gas outages.

The company said it had confirmed 31 employees died in the disaster.

The death toll from Monday's 7.9 magnitude earthquake, China's worst in three decades, has risen to 20,000 and may reach 50,000, state media reported.

State research group Antaike had said on Tuesday that up to 500,000 metric tons of zinc smelting capacity may have been affected by the earthquake.

The Shanghai Securities News reported that TV and electric appliance maker Sichuan Changhong Electric Co had incurred some damage to factory buildings but the overall damage was not great and would not affect the company's full-year production plans, citing a company source.

(Reporting by Edmund Klamann; Editing by Keiron Henderson)