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Updated March 2006
Missile Facilities
China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO)
China North Industries Group (NORINCO)
中国北方工业公司
Address: No. 46 Sanlihelu, Beijing China 100821
Tel: 8610-68594210, 68594230
Fax: 8610-68594232
Website:www.norinco.com
President: LI De
General Manager: MA Zhingeng
The NORINCO Group is one of China's ten defense-industrial enterprises (jungong qiye) which report to the State Council. It does not have any formal ties to the PLA, although NORINCO is an important military supplier. NORINCO was created in the early 1980's as the export arm of the Fifth Ministry of Machine Industry (5MMI). In 1982, 5MMI was renamed the Ministry of Ordnance Industry. NORINCO was "corporatized" in 1988 as the China Ordnance Industry Corporation (COIC), but due to name recognition issues, the name NORINCO remained in use (or alternatively, the NORINCO Group).
In addition, NORINCO develops, produces, and markets a variety of military equipment, systems, and components, including fire control systems, sighting and aiming systems, and NBC protection equipment.
The reorganization of state owned enterprises (SOEs) after the ninth meeting of the National People's Congress restructured much of China's defense industrial complex. As part of the reorganization, in 1998 and 1999 COIC was divided into two entities, the China Ordnance Industry Group Company and the China Ordnance Equipment Industry Group Company. However, NORINCO remained one of the export arms of the two new entities.
According to official company information:
- NORINCO is a large transnational corporation specializing in a combination of technology, manufacture and trade;
- The Corporation deals with imports and exports, international and domestic trade, supplying goods, materials and large complete sets of equipment, contracting for engineering projects, export of labor services, processing with materials or according to samples and assembling parts, all supplied by investors, and compensation trade as well as industrial investment.
- Main products include: "vehicles and mechanical products, optical-electronic products, explosives and blast materials, civil firearms and ammunition, light industrial products, special products, fire-fighting equipment, building materials, metal and non-metal materials and their finished products" [most of these products are actually produced by other companies but exported by NORINCO];
- The Corporation is involved in other business including exhibition and advertising, audio, video and publishing services, information consultation, real estate development, storage and transportation, finance, hotel and travel services;
- In 1996, NORINCO's gross volume of business reached more than 23 billion Chinese yuan, of which, the grand total of import and export became 1.5 billion US dollars, and the overseas business value was 700 million US dollars, ranking first similar enterprises in China;
- NORINCO has 82 overseas companies and offices, and 23 domestic subsidiaries. NORINCO has close business relations with numerous enterprises and companies both domestically and internationally.
In March 2000, NORINCO sold US $65.9 million in arms to the Zimbabwe government. The types of arms that were transferred included rocket anti-personnel shells, grenades for assault rifles, and hand grenades. Tanks and tank ammunition may also have been included in the sale. NORINCO is a major exporter of small arms.
In May 2003, the U.S. government imposed sanctions on NORINCO for allegedly supplying missile technology to Iran. The sanctions, which went into effect on 9 May, barred all exports to the United States by NORINCO or its subsidiaries, and forbade any contracts between the company and U.S. government agencies. The measure was expected to have more of an impact than previous sanctions; in 2002, NORINCO exported an estimated $100 million worth of products to the United States. The U.S. sanctioned NORINCO again in June 2003 for allegedly selling to Iran equipment and technology that could contribute to a WMD program, and for a third time in one year in September 2003 for alleged transfers of missile-related equipment or technology to an undisclosed recipient.
[Sources: Yan Kong, "China's Arms Trade Bureaucracy," Jane's Intelligence Review, February 1994, p. 81; Richard W. Fieldhouse, Chinese Nuclear Weapons, p. 42; Hua Di, "China's Arms Proliferation Perspective: Prospects For Change Due To Economic Reforms;" in W. Thomas Wander and Eric H. Arnett, eds., The Proliferation of Advanced Weaponry: Technology, Motivations, and Responses, 1992, p. 126; Elizabeth D. Olmo, "China's Nuclear Agenda and the Implications for United States Foreign Policy," Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, September 1993, p. 83; Defense Exports--Current Concerns, Edition No. 1, April 1993, pp. 4-12. "China's International Defense-Industrial Organizations Organizational Chart," Defense Intelligence Agency, Defense Intelligence Reference Document DI-1921-60-98, 15 June 1998.]
This
material is produced independently for NTI by the James Martin Center for
Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and
does not necessarily reflect the opinions of and has not been independently
verified by NTI or its directors, officers, employees, agents. Copyright © 2008
by MIIS.
