French power and transport technology provider Alstom yesterday began work on an 850 million yuan facility for Wuhan Boiler Co (WBC), which it recently acquired for 339 million yuan.

WBC, based in the city of Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei Province, is a B-share company - its shares were formerly issued only to overseas investors.

Alstom bought a 51 percent stake in WBC, a State-controlled company that's been making boilers for power plants for 50 years and is expected to play a key role in the country's large-scale construction of energy-efficient, low-emission thermal power plants.