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Gold/Mining/Energy : Alternative Fuel Systems ATF:VSE -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mr. campbell who wrote (2630)	2/15/1999 9:16:00 PM
From: sPD	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4605

Coverage in today's Ottawa Citizen - in Keith Woolhouse's "Investing" column. Note - any errors may be due to scanning. ======= These are heady days for Alternative Fuel Systems (ATF/VSE), the little Calgary company trying to break into the world of GM, Mercedes, Ford Motor Co. Most of the alternative-fuel technology is concentrated on fuel cells and involve converting hydrogen to electricity. The urgency of this has prompted the major auto companies to invest millions of research dollars in Ballard Power. In the process, the Vancouver-based company's shares have gone from penny status to $37· AFS is going a different route. It is adapting existing engines to run on natural gas, an idea that has been around for quite a while but has taken its time to get rolling. The absence of polluting emissions is one of the benefits of natural-gas engines, others being the inexpensive and relative abundance of the fuel. The biggest perceived drawback is the lack of natural gas fuel stations and the complete about-turn the automotive industry would have to make. Still. for countries such as Mexico, Japan, India and Thailand, where pollution is a major problem, natural gas provides a viable and inexpensive alternative. And they're the sort of countries AFS is targeting. The company has scored its latest coup in China, where it has signed a feasibility study to introduce a natural gas vehicle program for Beijing, which wants to convert its public fleet of 5,400 large buses, 10,000 minibuses and 60,000 taxis. AFS is not alone on this one. It has joined forces with Hydro-Quebec Intl. of Montreal and Kraus Group Inc. of Winnipeg. Hydro-Quebec is on board for its expertise on technical and economic matters, and Kraus for its design and construction of natural-gas fuelling stations. The lure for Beijing may be its bid for the 2008 Olympic Games, for which a reliable public transportation system is essential. The Beijing announcement comes on the heels of a $l.7-million deal with Sichuan Shutong Co. Ltd. in Sichuan Province (central China) to convert 20,000 government vehicles to natural gas. There is, evidently, billions of cubic metres of easily accessible natural gas in the Sichuan Basin and 72 new fuelling stations are being built. Strangely, AFS's recent flurry of announcement has done little for the company's share price (52-week high $3.15/low 73 cents). Its six-month trading range is between $1.15 and $1.90. Recent trades were around $1.80. Rival Ballard, on the other hand, accounting for splits, has risen in the past few years from $1.83 to $37 after reaching a high of $59· Could this be the story for AFS? The company would like to think so and says it is making the right moves to achieve this. China could be the breakthrough it has been waiting for.