Sichuan Changhong Electric Co, China's second-biggest television maker, will resume production today after the province was hit by China's deadliest earthquake in decades.

"We are making preparations to resume production on Monday," Liu Haizhong, president of sales at Changhong, said in an interview with Bloomberg News in Mianyang where the company is based.

The company stopped production on May 14, two days after Sichuan Province was hit by an 8.0 magnitude earthquake that killed at least 32,476 people. The death toll may rise to over 50,000, according to Xinhua news agency.

Sun Yong, general manager at Hefei Meiling Co, a unit of Changhong, held a meeting with workers and asked them to prepare to come back to work today.

The factory is locked and one of its warehouses has been turned into a relief center, housing 1,200 students from three schools that collapsed in Beichuan county.

Changhong said last Wednesday it's "confident" of reaching its 2008 targets, and the quake wouldn't have a significant impact.

(Shanghai Daily May 19, 2008)