PORTLAND, Maine — Gov. Paul LePage and Loring Development Authority officials are heading to Beijing on Saturday for meetings with Chinese manufacturer China North Industries Group Corp., known as Norinco.
The Chinese firm is considering manufacturing railcars at the former air base in Limestone. The deal could benefit the Maine Military Authority, an equipment refurbishment company, which could be a contractor for the Chinese company.
Carl Flora, president and CEO of the Loring Development Authority, said in a telephone interview he will join the state delegation headed to Beijing to continue preliminary discussions with officials from Norinco.
“There are a lot of unanswered questions, but a healthy dialogue is still underway,” Flora said. “I’d characterize it as a healthy level of interest but not a done deal.”
Peter Steele, a spokesman for the governor, confirmed LePage’s travel plans to the Bangor Daily News on Monday morning. He declined to name the company.
“Private companies competing in a global economy don’t like to publicize details of their negotiations in the press,” Steele wrote in an email.
Norinco, a conglomerate that manufactures products, including military weapons systems and firearms, was sanctioned in 2003 by the U.S. government for allegedly providing ballistic missile systems to Iran. In the 1990s, it was sanctioned and prohibited from selling its firearms in the United States after being implicated in a sting operation conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. That ban expired in 2007.
In May, the organization Human Rights Watch reported the company’s name was found on canisters of chlorine gas allegedly used in a chemical attack in Syria, which the company denied, according to Bloomberg.
Norinco has operations in 27 companies that do not include the United States, according to its website. Its international engineering work is done through the entity Northern International Cooperation Co. Ltd.
Flora said he has asked company officials about the past U.S. sanctions but didn’t see any connection to the project its rail transportation division is considering at Loring.
“The folks that we’re dealing with are in the transportation side of this very big company, so if there’s a connection, it’s very indirect. At least, it appears to be at this point,” Flora said. “It’s an encouraging deal and would be a good fit if it works, but there a lot of moving pieces. I don’t want anyone to get the impression that we’re about to consummate a transaction that will result in this company being here tomorrow.”
According to meeting minutes from the development authority, Norinco’s president was scheduled to visit in December to tour facilities, meet with the Maine Military Authority, LDA board members and LePage. Flora said the development authority has been in talks with Norinco officials for months.
In February, according to board minutes, the LDA approved a $40,000 option agreement with Norinco that paid to heat the Blue Goose building, occupied by MMA, which was forced to lay off about 140 employees last November because of contracts it lost with the National Guard Bureau.
Flora told LDA board members in March that the company wants to manufacture railcars at Loring to meet demand for railcars that meet new safety standards. He said the company would hope to serve customers in the United States and Canada. As part of the deal, Flora said the company would seek repairs to the rail line running from Limestone to Caribou, an estimated $7 million in cost that would likely require state assistance.
LePage is scheduled to depart Saturday, June 21, for Beijing and return Thursday, June 26. Steele wrote in an email that the trip will include a tour of industrial and transportation facilities, as well as discussions with leaders of the Chinese company. He wrote the potential deal could result in a “significant number of new jobs.”
It’s not the first time the governor has engaged in negotiations with a Chinese company.
State officials attributed a $120 million investment in Woodland Pulp in Baileyville announced in March in part to discussions the governor had with the head of its parent company, International Grand Investment Corp., during a trade mission in 2012.
That project was among the first two to receive money through the Finance Authority of Maine’s Major Business Expansion Program, which is also the program through which Thermogen Industries received approval for a $16 million bond for a wood pellet mill in Millinocket.
Sun Journal State Politics Editor Scott Thistle contributed to this report.