China's stricter environmental protection regulations and its booming natural gas industry will create opportunities for global machinery manufacturers, which are grappling with a global economic slowdown.

Last year was a tough one for the world's heavy equipment producers. The world's second-largest economy - China - was facing multiple problems, such as rising costs, low product prices and falling demand, which throttled profit growth.

However, foreign participants in the industry still express strong confidence in China's economy as they seek new growth avenues.

"Every country has to go through an adjustment period, since no boom can last for hundreds of years, but after a painful transition, it will be healthy," said Douglas R. Oberhelman, chairman and chief executive officer of Caterpillar Inc, the world's largest maker of construction and mining equipment.

He said the company will continue to invest in the Chinese market, which has huge potential.

Given the country's serious pollution problem, the Chinese government has taken a range of steps: closing small coal-fired power plants, for example, and toughening emission standards for steel mills, construction equipment and refineries.

"Caterpillar has mature clean technology that we've been developing for 15 years, since the United States and Japan went through a similar period to what China is now in terms of dealing with pollution," said Oberhelman.

"It is cost-saving, in that we don't need to do all the R&D work for China, particularly to develop environmentally friendly equipment. We just need to bring the technology here, which we would love to do."

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