July 3 (NBD) -- Shandong Heavy Industry Group reaped 128.2 billion yuan (19.3 billion U.S. dollars) in revenue and 7.57 billion yuan (1.1 billion U.S. dollars) in net income during the first six months of 2018, representing an year-over-year increase of 17 percent and 70.8 percent, respectively, the machinery maker's chairman Tan Xuguang said to the media on Sunday.

The company paid 4.65 billion yuan (699.3 million U.S. dollars) in taxation in the first half of 2018, up 23 percent compared with the same period of time in the previous year, according to Tan.

As one of the three arms of Shandong Heavy Industry Group, Weichai Holding Group (Weichai Group) plans to invest 5-10 billion yuan (751.9 million-1.5 billion U.S. dollars) in west China's Shaanxi province to produce a whole series of commercial vehicles, and related discussions are underway between Weichai Group and Shaanxi government, Tan who also serves as chairman of Weichai Group revealed at the same event.

Tan also underscored Weichai Group's strategy to gear towards new energy business and reiterated the goal to lead the global new energy industry development by 2030.

After undertaking national major projects of hydrogen fuel cell industrialization and acquiring a 20 percent stake in British fuel cell maker Ceres Power, Weichai Group will press ahead with the manufacturing of hydrogen fuel engine for 2,000 city buses, Tan introduced, adding that the related work has been started.

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn