“One Belt, One Road” is a sprawling and ambitious foreign-investment project designed to boost China’s trade and diplomatic ties with more than 60 countries in the Middle East, Europe, and Africa. Through the program, China is committing $1 trillion over the next decade—and as much as $3 trillion over the long term—to huge infrastructure investments, in locations that stretch from China’s coast through the deserts of Xinjiang province and the steppes of Central Asia as far west as Spain and Scandinavia.
As Fortune reports in a feature this week, Belt and Road is, in part, a stimulus program aimed at providing more business for some of China’s big state-owned industries. But the initiative is also sparking optimism among big Western engineering and construction conglomerates, which stand to earn billions of dollars worth of contracts because they can provide contacts and expertise that their Chinese partners lack. Here are three Western companies and one Chinese firm whose revenues (and stock prices) could get a substantial bump from Belt and Road.
General Electric (GE)
GE says Belt and Road could eventually add $5 billion annually to its sales. Among the deals it counts as Belt and Road projects, GE sold 60 sets of wind turbines to a Chinese partner for a power plant in Kenya; two gas turbines for a power plant in Pakistan; and nearly doubled the output of a power plant in Bangladesh. The company has about a dozen projects currently in the pipeline.
Siemens (SIEGY)
The German conglomerate has $7.5 billion in sales and 70 joint ventures in China. Its power transmission, industrial automation, and building services divisions are all contenders for contracts.
The German conglomerate’s history in China dates back to 1899. Today, with $7.5 billion in annual sales and 70 joint ventures in China, Siemens should have an inside track to join its Chinese partners on Belt and Road. Its power transmission, industrial automation, and building services businesses should all get a piece of the pie.
Honeywell (HON)
Honeywell already has experience working on Chinese oil and gas projects in other countries. Its natural gas control system was used in a recently built pipeline extending from Uzbekistan to China. The U.S. contractor expects similar Belt and Road contracts for everything from its weather radar systems (for new airports along the Belt) to its service systems, which could be used in new hospitals and hotels popping up along China’s trade route.
China Communications Construction
For investors who want to take a flyer on one of the Chinese builders involved in Belt and Road initiatives, Communications Construction, which trades on Hong Kong’s stock exchange, is among the biggest. It had $68 billion in revenue in 2015, which elevated it to No. 110 on the Fortune Global 500. It has experience abroad, having signed $9.5 billion worth of building contracts in 2014. And it is among the first to start on Belt and Road projects, including a $2.7 billion railway in Kenya.
This is part of Fortune’s 2017 Investor’s Guide, which offers advice about the best strategies for next year. A version of this article appears as a sidebar in the article “China Spreads the Wealth Around” from the December 15, 2016 issue of Fortune.
