According to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce, China by the end of 2002 had a net volume of direct overseas investment that came to US$29.92 billion (not including finance); and a sale's volume for its overseas enterprises for the year that topped US$77.2 billion. In September 2002, China's TCL Corporation purchased the Schneider Company, a German TV set manufacturer. In 2003 TCL teamed with Thomson, the biggest French consumer electronics company, to establish TCL-Thomson Company, which has an annual production capacity of 18 million TV sets, as the biggest TV sets producer in the world. China's largest household electronic appliances producer, the Haier Group, has expanded its refrigerator factory in South Carolina of the United States, making it capable of producing 400,000 to 500,000 refrigerators a year. The Haier Group has also set up 13 factories in Europe and South America. The largest Chinese computer company, the Lenovo Group Limited, also rapidly expanded its overseas market, planning to raise its presently 4 percent export rate to 20 percent before 2007.
