Check on China: WSP Holdings Ltd.

China's economy continues to defy the odds and grows strongly at a time when world markets are being battered and investors are worried about the economic slowdown (and a possible looming recession) in the United States. China managed to attract some $11 billion in foreign investment last month, a staggering 109% increase from the same month last year, according to the Commerce Ministry.

Keeping pace with China's growth and feeding its industrial machines take an awesome amount of energy. Once an oil exporter (until 1993), energy-thirsty China now imports 35% of its crude and that figure is expected to reach 75% by 2020, the U.S. Energy Department estimates. The mainland's voracious energy appetite has China's leadership stepping up diplomacy with oil-rich nations, pushing for increased domestic production of fossil fuels, and beefing up its presence in world oil and gas markets.

The oil and gas fields of northeast China — or for that matter, the oil and natural gas deposits in sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia and South America — may appear far removed from Wall Street. But WSP Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: WH) has in nine short years (since it was founded as WSP China in 1999) become a leading supplier of equipment primarily to Chinese energy companies who are aggressively prowling the far reaches of the country and the globe to tap precious energy assets.

WSP Holdings manufactures drill pipes, seamless casing and tubing used in oil and natural gas exploration, drilling and extraction. Its product portfolio is divided into two segments: American Petroleum Institute (API) products, which are manufactured according to standards formulated by the Washington, D.C.-based representative of the U.S. petroleum and natural gas industry, and non-API products, which are products custom-made to clients' specifications, many of which are developed for use in challenging drilling and extraction conditions.

WSP Holding's reputation continues to spread as it adds to an already impressive roster of customers, including some of the top energy companies in China. Early this month, WSP Holdings announced it signed an agreement with PetroChina Tarim Oilfield Company, a subsidiary of PetroChina Company Limited (the former state-run oil concern and China's largest oil and natural gas producer), to test the company's non-API products in three-trial wells. It also received its first order from China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation Northwest Oilfield Branch (SINOPEC Northwest), to be delivered later this year. PetroChina Tarim and SINOPEC Northwest have the deepest oil and gas wells in the country.

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