A Chinese trade delegation, including top executives from some of that nation’s premier companies, will visit South Carolina from Dec. 18-20.

The delegation will visit South Carolina, Texas and a Midwestern state in conjunction with Chinese Premier Wen Jaibao’s visit to the United States.

South Carolina was placed on the tour list after Gov. Mark Sanford and S.C. Secretary of Commerce Bob Faith’s trip to China in October.

The delegation will be accompanied by two or three members of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade. That organization, which served as host for the S.C. trip to China, put together the Chinese delegation’s visit, said Clarke Thompson director of international trade for the state Commerce Department.

The 15-member delegation includes chairmen, presidents, chief executives and other top level corporate officers of about a dozen Chinese companies.

Among them are an industrial boiler manufacturer, a hydraulic products manufacturer, two petroleum equipment and development corporations, a couple of trade groups and a steel company.

They are not the largest Chinese companies, such as Haier Group, which has a refrigerator manufacturing plant in Camden, Thompson said.

“But if you look at the list — like Baosteel — that is one of the bigger companies in China,” he said.

Most of the companies do not have a U.S. presence and are looking for joint venture partners, Thompson said.

“Our intention is to take advantage of putting our exporters in front of them, people that might be able to sell product to these companies,” he said.

One S.C. company that has expressed an interest in meeting with the Chinese delegation is Carbis in Florence, which sells equipment to petroleum companies.

Thompson and John Ling, Commerce’s manager of international trade in Asia, are working on an itinerary for the delegation. Both men were part of the S.C. visit to China.

Many S.C. companies have indicated they want to meet with the delegation, Thompson said. While he would like to get some of the delegation to S.C. cities others than Columbia, particularly Charleston, he isn’t sure time will allow it.

The delegation will arrive in Columbia the afternoon of Dec. 18 and leave the morning of Dec. 20.

“Our intention is to try to get as many S.C. companies as are interested in front of them,” Thompson said.

China holds enormous potential for S.C. companies. “You can just smell the money-making opportunities when you are there,” Thompson said.

China held the No. 8 spot as a destination for S.C. products in 2002. “It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they didn’t jump past No. 5 this year at the rate that they have been moving,” Thompson said. “They were 12th in 2001.”

In addition to trade opportunities, there are also investment opportunities for Chinese companies in S.C.

China State Construction and Engineering Co., which built Haier’s Camden facility, now has an office in Camden. With annual revenues in excess of $6 billion, China Construction is ranked among the top construction companies in the world. The company recently won a bid to build a school near Orangeburg.