Opportunities glimmer through China's toxic smog

As the mainland's smog levels crept past record highs early last month, the phone lines at pollution-busting kit maker Broad Group lit up with customers worried about the hazardous pollution that has gripped the country over the past year.

The central government is struggling to meet pollution reduction targets and has pledged to spend more than three trillion yuan (HK$3.8 trillion) to tackle the problem, creating a growing market for companies that can help boost energy efficiency and lower emissions.

"Recently, we haven't been able to make products fast enough to keep up with demand," said Hu Jie, a general manager at Broad, which makes pollution-related products ranging from hand-held monitors to eco-friendly buildings. Sales roughly doubled last year from 2012, Hu said.

Heightened public anger over pollution - and a growing political will to deal with the issue - had created opportunities for firms with sustainable know-how to earn a slice of China's clean-technology market, which was set to triple to US$555 billion by 2020, the US Department of Commerce said.

Companies like US clean-energy expert Fuel Tech, design engineer WS Atkins and others have seized the opening by boosting staff numbers and clinching contracts.

"China has reached a saturation level which people can no longer tolerate," said Feng An, president and executive director of the US-China Clean Tech Centre, which takes clean-technology firms in the United States to China to meet potential partners. "Five years ago, people could pollute and get away with it. Now they can't."

Pollution cost the mainland economy at least 1.1 trillion yuan in 2010, the Environment Ministry estimated. The problem has been tied to "cancer villages" and reduced life expectancy. Smog even closed down the northern city of Harbin in October.