The move comes more than three years after the two firms inked a 7 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) deal for the 5 million-cubic-meter Yangpu commercial storage and related port facility in the island province of Hainan. 

“All permits are ready and we just wait for a formal construction start,” Chairman Wang Huisheng told Reuters. 

SDIC holds a 51 percent stake in the joint venture and Vopak, has 49 percent. 

SDIC has amassed a variety of energy assets including power and coal in the past years, but it did not have any exposure in China’s oil storage market that has boomed amid fast-rising demand in the past decade. 

State-controlled oil majors Sinopec Corp. and PetroChina embarked on a storage building spree along with China’s construction of first state strategic oil reserves, as supply worries were also mounting due to anemic domestic oil output growth. 

“The (Yangpu) storage will not only serve the Chinese market, it will open to southeastern Asian countries,” Wang said. 

“It’s like that we open a convenience store — we can use the soy sauce and vinegar in the shop, we can sell them to neighbors if they need.” 

SDIC’s overseas push was modest compared with peer state oil firms or metal smelters such as Chalco, as it had to first digest diversified assets it inherited in 1995 when it was established by merging then six government investment vehicles. 

Since 2006, the parent of SDIC Huajing Power Holdings and SDIC Xinji Energy Co. took over and reshuffled four state firms under the direction of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, expanding its exposure to international markets. 

China Fabric Materials Group Corp., a wool, cotton and agricultural products trader, was renamed as SDIC International Trade Co., and Complant, or China National Complete Plant Import and Export Corp., became its vehicle for overseas engineering and leasing activities. 

Wang said SDIC was setting up an investment platform in Hong Kong to focus on overseas opportunities. 

“Economic globalization requires us to go abroad…We will first consider business we are familiar with, such as coal and potash.” 

He said the company was looking at coal assets in Australia while evaluating other projects in Indonesia and Myanmar. Wang did not want to elaborate as they were still at the early stage. 

“We don’t seek controlling stakes in overseas projects.” 

Wang said there was misunderstanding about Chinese investment — as if the purpose of Chinese investment was to grab resources and ship them home. 

“The purpose of our investment is to produce internationally competitive products and sell them to the international market, and have all sides share the gains.” 

“Of course, there is a chance that the products may be sold to China,” Wang said.