Nuctech to install liquid bomb detectors ahead of China Olympics
Not coincidentally, contract goes to company headed by the son of China’s president; terms are undisclosed, but 147 airports will receive scanners normally priced at $200,000 per unit; company already controls 90 percent of the domestic scanner market
None dare call it nepotism. China-based Nuctech has won a contract to supply liquid explosives detection equipment to all 147 airports in China, all part of an effort to improve security ahead of the 2008 Olympics. “We searched the world over but didn’t find any more satisfactory products,” Yang Chengfeng, the aviation authority’s director general for security, rejecting the charge that Nutech won the deal because it is owned by the son of Hu Jintau, the country’s president. “Of course, he has some background, but that had no effect on our decision,” said Yang. “This has to do with people’s lives, and you can’t play games with safety.”
Neither Yang nor Nuctech would disclose the terms of the deal. It is fair to say, however, that the contract is quite lucrative. Each unit costs $200,000, and with many airports requiring multiple scanners, the value is clearly in the hundreds of millions range (though the government often extracts discounts from domestic vendors). Nuctech, a commercial offshoot of Tsinghua University, controls 90 percent of the domestic scanning market for truck and shipping containers. Sales this year are projected to rise 30 percent to $20 million, with nearly two-thirds coming from overseas markets. “It’s a rather acute place to be for the son of a high-level official,” said one observer. “The company can expect to make a lot of money.”
-read more in Charles Hutzler’s AP report
