CHINESE companies have a growing appetite for assets in the United States as their investments rose to US$6 billion last year, a forum heard yesterday.

Their investments in the US jumped from just US$700 million in 2005, with the momentum seen picking up, according to the Chinese Investing in US Summit Forum held in Shanghai.

"The US welcomes Chinese investment. A number of Chinese companies have already successfully invested in the US, and the number is growing rapidly," Paul Stahel, economic officer at the US Consulate in Shanghai, told the forum yesterday.

He cited the successful example of Tianjin Pipe Corp, an early investor in the US in 1990s, which spent more than US$1 billion in building a facility in Texas in 2011. The project, which marks the largest investment in manufacturing that a Chinese firm has ever made in the US, is set to complete in 2014.

Other Chinese private firms are also buying US assets such as Dalian Wanda Group, now the world's biggest owner of cinemas after it bought AMC Entertainment Holdings, the second-largest cinema chain in the US.

China's non-financial outbound direct investment hit a record US$77 billion last year, up from US$60 billion in 2011 and US$12 billion in 2005, according to the Ministry of Commerce.