Dongfang Elec sees quake-hit output back in 6 months

HANWANG, China, May 21 (Reuters) - Dongfang Electric Corp. Ltd, China's top power generator maker, expects output at its earthquake-hit main plant in Sichuan province to return to 80 percent of normal in six months, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

The company was badly affected by the earthquake, China's deadliest in decades, which killed over 500 company workers and their family members on the Hanwang site and its housing compounds, spokesman Liu Zhiqian said.

Overall over 70,000 are dead or missing after the disaster.

But Dongfang (1072.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)(600875.SS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), a key employer in a relatively poor area, is keen to get on with rebuilding.

Its Hanwang site is barely 30 kilometres from the epicentre. Some workshops are flattened, others severely damaged, but some still look like they could be salvaged, a Reuters witness said.

"From the very top of the government everyone wants to see this plant restored to production as quickly as possible," Liu said amid the wreckage of the site.

"Our plant general manager Zhang Zhiying told Vice Premier Li Keqiang today that we would be back up to 80 percent of production within half a year," he added.

Dongfang said last week that the steam turbine business, which accounted for 20 percent of its operating revenue in 2007, suffered casualties and serious damage to production after the 7.9 magnitude earthquake.

The company produces turbines at other sites, but even if they are running at full capacity while the Hanwang site is being restored, some orders will be disrupted, Liu said.