Six banks in Nantong sign agreements to provide a total of 3.5 billion yuan of loans to facilitate the construction of the Hengli (Nantong) industrial park on July 27. [Photo/ntfabu.com]

A signing ceremony concerning financing was held in Tongzhou district, Nantong on July 27. The Bank of China, together with China Construction Bank, Agricultural bank of China, The Export-Import Bank of China, the Bank of Communications and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank will provide loans totaling 3.5 billion yuan ($500 million) to facilitate construction of the Hengli (Nantong) industrial park.

A bellwether of China's textile industry, Hengli Group invested 20 billion yuan in Binjiang New Area in Tongzhou district and constructed the first and second phases of the Hengke new materials project in 2009.

At present, the Hengli industrial park is capable of producing 1.2 million tons of polyester thread and 400,000 tons of polyester elasticized yarn annually while storing 300,000 tons of PTA (purified terephthalic acid) futures and 200,000 tons of ethylene glycol futures. The park also has a provincial engineering technology center and a national textile intelligent manufacturing demonstration center, forming a textile new materials industrial cluster area integrating science, industry and trade.

The third phase of the Hengli industrial park with investment of 30 billion yuan is about to start construction this year. To help accelerate the progress of the major project, the six Nantong branches of the banks will jointly issue loans and maintain quality service levels.

In recent years, as new rural construction has been steadily promoted, key industries upgraded and optimized and large manufacturing projects gradually landed, demands for financing and loans in Tongzhou district have constantly increased.

In the first half year of 2020, the loan balance of the district increased by 20.9 billion yuan over the beginning of this year, up 17.92 percent, ranking first among Nantong's districts, counties and cities. Newly increased manufacturing loans exceeded one billion yuan, ranking third among Nantong's districts, counties and cities.