A company in China is supplying a mint in Germany with the metal it needs to produce the new European currency, the euro.

The Chinese Xinhua new agency said the plant, in the central province of Henan, had beaten bids from companies in the United States, Germany and South Korea to supply the alloy.

The first two hundred tonnes of the material - made up of copper, aluminium and zinc - are already on their way to Germany.

Another eight-hundred tonnes will be exported over the next three years.