China :: Business & Economy

China Citic Bank said on Friday its 2010 net profit jumped 50.2 percent year on year to 21.51 billion yuan (3.26 billion U.S. dollars). Source: Xinhua Weekly review Editor

Reported by Cai Wei, Nanfang Daily Fire of fights in the filed of traditional PC security is spreading to the growing mobile internet industry even in a more intense way. It is disclosed by some sources that the Feiliu Download scandal, which has made a stir in the mobile security industry, has captured the attention of public security organs and three companies involved are under investigation, including Beijing Feiliu Jiutian Technology Co.,Ltd., Beijing Internet Industry Association Judicial Identification Center and Qihoo 360. Some hidden facts about the event are expected to emerge soon. Mobile Security appeals to security providers Today, mobile security industry of China has over 300 million users and promises to hit 800 million in the future. This attracts both the long standing security service providers and new startups to flood into the industry to get a share, including NetQin, Qihoo 360 and even traditional PC security companies such as Kaspesky and Rising....

China aims to cap the total output of rare earth oxide at 93,800 tonnes this year, the Ministry of Land and Resources announced Thursday. This was 5.16 percent higher compared to the quota set for last year. China will not grant any new licenses for rare earths prospecting and mining before June 30 of 2012, the ministry said in a statement on its website. The statement also said the country would cap the total output of light rare earths at 80,400 tonnes and that of medium and heavy rare earths at 13,400 tonnes this year. As the world's largest rare earths producer and exporter, China supplies 90 percent of global demand, but its reserves only account for about one-third of the world's total. China has announced a series of policies for the rare earth industry this year to balance environmental protection needs and industrial demands, including stricter emission limits on miners, cuts in export quota and a resources tax.

Hong Kong's total deposits with authorized institutions fell 0.5 percent year on year in February, but Renminbi deposits grew 10 percent to 407.7 billion yuan (about 62.15 billion U.S. dollars), the Monetary Authority of Hong Kong said in a statement on Thursday. The total remittance of Renminbi, the Chinese currency, for cross-border trade settlement amounted to 87.4 billion yuan, it said. Deposits of foreign currency as a whole rose 0.8 percent in February. While Hong Kong dollar deposits shrank 1.6 percent, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said. Total loans and advances rose 1.4 percent year on year, with loans for use in Hong Kong growing 1.2 percent and loans for use outside the city rising 2.3 percent. The Hong Kong-dollar loan-to-deposit ratio rose to 81 percent from 79.3 percent in January as Hong Kong-dollar loans expanded while deposits contracted.

SHANGHAI'S key stock index fell for a third day, paring a monthly gain, as metal producers dropped on concerns about China's economic growth. The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.94 percent to 2928.11. Turnover shrank to 135.7 billion yuan (US$11.3 billion) from yesterday's 153 billion yuan. The benchmark index rose 0.8 percent this month, while the Shenzhen Component Index, which tracks the smaller bourse in southern China, dropped 2.6 percent mainly due to weak performance of smaller companies. Copper prices dropped more than US$200 to US$9,400 per ton yesterday in London on weak buying of China, arousing concerns about the economic outlook of the world's second largest economy. The most traded June delivery for copper today fell 500 yuan to 70,700 yuan per ton. Metal producers led the decliners. Jiangxi Copper Co, China's largest producer of the metal, dropped 1.7 percent to 38.85 yuan despite its 2010 profit more than doubled from a year earlier. Yunnan Copper Co...

A report released by the International Financial Research Institute of the Bank of China predicted that China's central bank will raise interest rates once or twice in the second quarter of 2011. The relatively higher price increases and the continuous negative interest rates are the direct reason of rate hikes. The Bank of China has raised the base rate of RMB deposits and loans in financial institutions three times since October 2010. Bank of China's research team pointed out that China's prices are in the critical period of transforming from structural increases to overall increases. The consumer price index (CPI) and producer price index (PPI), which had previously seen alternating and cyclical fluctuations, shifted toward a synchronous rise in the second half of 2010. This has increased the pressure on future price increases. Therefore, China's monetary policy will return to being stable. In addition to rate hikes, the report predicts that the depos...

A meeting of the State Council, or China's cabinet, approved a draft regulation on Wednesday for the country's privately-owned businesses, aiming to develop their role in economic growth and employment. According to a statement from the meeting, which was presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao, the draft regulation was aimed at supporting "healthy development" of individual businesses and "giving full play to their important role in economic and social development as well as in providing employment opportunities." The new regulation eliminates limits on the number of people privately-owned businesses may employ and also pares down restrictions on job applicants. The draft also specifies support measures for privately-owned businesses and their codes of conduct. Source: Xinhua ...

A senior official of the Communist Party of China (CPC) said Wednesday China would continue open recruitment of senior managerial personnel of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) from within the country and abroad. Li Yuanchao, head of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks during a meeting regarding the open recruitment of senior managers and overseas talents in 2010. The meeting was organized by the Department and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), which oversees the operation of the centrally administered SOEs. Li stressed the importance of attracting talent from home and abroad to fill positions in the centrally administered SOEs, a major player in China's economy. Business revenue of the 121 centrally administered SOEs was an equivalent to about 42 percent of China's gross domestic product last year, while the taxes turned in by those SOEs accounted for about 17 percent of the nation's total fiscal r...

Air China planes taxi on the tarmac at Beijing Capital International Airport. Air China said yesterday its 2010 profit more than doubled as the global economic recovery boosted growth in air travel. Profit rose 150 percent to 12 billion yuan (US$1.8 billion), the carrier said, adding that the annual results were the best in its history.

By honoring its commitments to the World Trade Organization (WTO), China has made an above-average contribution to the Doha round of world trade talks, Chinese ambassador to the WTO Yi Xiaozhun said Tuesday. "China is open to any form of negotiations, as long as those negotiations respect the development demand, build on the progress achieved and center around the multilateral process," Yi said at a WTO Informal Trade Negotiation Committee meeting intended to give a fresh momentum to the decade-long Doha round. Disappointment and anxieties have been spreading among trade representatives in Geneva, as the Doha round talks so far have failed to bridge the gaps among key players, particularly between developed and developing economies. "The question mark is getting bigger," Yi said, voicing his concern over the lack of substantial progress in the negotiations. A failed Doha round, he said, would be a big blow, not only to the multilateral trading system...

The Zhejiang Provincial First Geological Team has discovered a mammoth scandium-polymetallic deposit in northwestern Zhejiang that has proven scandium reserves of 70 tons worth about 70 billion yuan, according to an announcement made by the Zhejiang Provincial Geology and Exploration Bureau on March 29. The rare earth deposit contains 17 types of metallic elements. Of them, scandium is mainly used in national defense, spaceflight, nuclear power, superconductor and other cutting-edge technological sectors and is one of the elements included in national strategic reserves. Yang Xiaochun, head engineer of the Zhejiang Provincial First Geological Team, said that the market price for scandium is normally four times higher than that of gold and at one point in history it was 10 times more valuable. The deposit is also accompanied by a large-scale silver-polymetallic deposit with 800 tons of silver and 130,000 tons of lead and zinc. The silver-polymetallic deposit contains 3,0...

China Unicom (SH: 600050) has decided to lift the Internet connection speed in 56 cities across China from the current 7 megabytes per second to more than 20 megabytes per second before May 17, said China Unicom Chairman Chang Xiaobing during the 2011 China (Shenzhen) IT Leadership Summit on March 28. He said that the company is optimistic about the prospect of intelligent mobile phones, also known as smartphones, and other intelligent 3G terminals. Chang said that 2011 will be a year of explosive growth for China's 3G sector, during which it will transform from a fledging sector to one developing at a rapid rate. He said that the number of 3G users worldwide has been on the rapid rise over recent years. The mobile Internet penetration rates are very high in the Asia-Pacific Region in countries such as Japan, South Korea and China's Hong Kong, and the figure for Chinese mainland is expected to reach double digits by the end of 2011. Chang said that the number o...

Japanese automakers are optimistic about production in China saying that there has been "almost no effect" on the supply of parts following the earthquake in their home country, thanks to a gradual resumption of output in Japan. "Our inventory of Japanese-made auto parts can support local production until at least mid-April," said Shen Li, a spokeswoman for Nissan China. "However, we have withdrawn extra working shifts on holidays and at weekends to ease the pressure on supply and to maintain stable and sustainable production in China." According to Shen, the production hiatus could affect the production line and lead a short-term rise in energy costs. "Because our output in Japan resumed on March 24, we believe a proper adjustment to the production shifts will help Nissan China weather the transition period," said Shen. Niu Yu, a spokesman for Toyota China, said that there is "no problem" with the supply of parts for pr...

STOCKS finished broadly higher yesterday after consumer confidence fell less than some analysts had feared. All 10 company groups that make up the S&P 500 index rose by more than 0.3 percent. The S&P 500 rose 9.25 points, or 0.7 percent, to 1,319.44. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 81.13 points, or 0.7 percent, to 12,279.01. The Nasdaq composite rose 26.21, or 1 percent, to 2,756.89. Rising gas prices helped drag down consumer confidence in March. The Conference Board said its confidence index dropped to 63.4 from 72 in February. The fall comes after five straight months of gains, but some economists had expected the decline to be even worse. Goldman Sachs had forecast a drop to 60, believing that high gas prices would pinch spending. The University of Michigan confidence survey also took a steep fall last week. The Conference Board survey also had a surprising result: the index measuring consumers' assessment of current conditions gained from February, putting it a...

E-HOUSE (China) Holdings Ltd, a leading real estate services company in the country, yesterday announced its board of directors has approved a share repurchase program. The United States-listed company has been authorized, but not obligated, to repurchase up to US$50 million worth of its own American Depositary Shares (ADS) within one year upon receiving such authorization, said the company, which plans to fund repurchases from its available cash balance. "The board's decision to implement this buyback reflects our firm belief that our ADSs are presently undervalued in the marketplace and represent a sound investment decision at recent trading prices," said Zhou Xin, executive chairman of E-House. "Despite the challenging property market conditions we are facing, we are confident in the long-term prospects of the real estate industry in China."

As of now, the price of No. 98 gasoline has increased to 8.44 yuan per liter, which is higher than the current price of gasoline in the United States, and reached the medium level in the world, according to China Business News on March 28. Recently, Sinopec issued the annual report for 2010, which revealed the turnover of Sinopec reached 1.9 trillion yuan, a 42 percent increase year on year, and 70.7 billion yuan belongs to the net profit of its parent company's stockholders, a 12.8 percent increase year-on-year; both the turnover and net profit set a new record in Sinopec's history. According to the statistics from Sinopec, prices of gasoline and diesel fuel had increased by 14.6 percent and 17.7 percent, respectively, in the last year, and the situation indicates that prices of petroleum products have also jumped due to the increasing prices of crude oil. China's oil price has exceeded US oil price Mr. Hu, who lived in America for years, told reporters tha...

China is making more aggressive steps to make its currency more international. The Securities Daily reported on Tuesday that a wider use of the yuan in foreign trade is being planned and could be announced as soon as April. "All the 11 provinces and cities that are not on the list of the trial project of cross-border yuan trade settlement will be included in this proposed expansion. In addition, the capital account could also be liberalized further," a bank source told Securities Daily. In fact, the expansion of the project has been set as one of the major tasks on the agenda of the People's Bank of China for 2011. Eight overseas financial institutions are given access to China's inter-bank bond market recently. Analysts say that initiative will facilitate the business of cross-border yuan trade settlement. According to the central bank's latest report on the international financial market in 2010, banks made more than 500 billion yuan of cross-bor...

The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, said Monday that the country would work to improve its prudent macro policies, boost effective liquidity management and keep financing from all sources at a reasonable level. To keep prices stable, China will strictly implement a prudent monetary policy, make that policy more targeted, flexible, and effective, and employ multiple monetary tools, said an online statement summarizing a quarterly meeting of the PBOC's monetary policy committee. The Chinese government has stressed keeping financing from all sources at a reasonable level in this year's government work report, and it expected the broad money supply (M2) to increase by 16 percent this year, down from 17 percent last year. Efforts should be made to optimize China's credit structure, increasing loan support to both key and weak sectors rather than to industries with high emission and pollution levels, or to those with excessive capacity, it sai...

An animal health professional enters a pigpen in Nanyang, Henan province, on March 24 to get urine samples to test for clenbuterol.[ China Daily ] An initial investigation has found that 12 government officials were implicated in a scandal involving tarnished meat products, while another 41 are still being probed. In an announcement on Monday, the Henan provincial government said law enforcement officers have captured two major suspects and shut down their plants, after they tested 310,000 pigs across the province and confirmed that 134 of them tested positive for clenbuterol, a toxic chemical added to the animal's feed. The 12 officials have been delivered to judicial departments for further investigation, the government said. The scandal, dating back to March 15 when China Central Television reported Jiyuan Shuanghui Food Co Ltd, a supplier of the country's largest meat processor -- Henan-based Shuanghui company -- had purchased pigs fed with the illegal additive. The report ...

Residential buildings are seen in Hong Kong. The city's Buildings Department approved 49 building plans in February, of which 32 were for apartment and apartment-commercial developments, it said yesterday. Among the other plans, five were commercial, five were factory and industrial, and seven were for community services.

Right after iPad2 being on the market of 25 countries out of America, including France, Germany, United Kingdom and Australia, it is going to meet Asian fans in April. However, what disappoints fans in Chinese mainland is its landing on the market is still not on the schedule yet. According to Apple's plan, iPad2 was firstly on sale in America since March 11 and in other 26 countries and regions since March 25, including Japan, whose plan got postponed due to the 9.0-magnitude earthquake hit the country on March 11. But, fans in Chinese Hong Kong eventually see the dawn since Apple said recently that iPad2 is going to be on sale in Hong Kong in this April. Regarding iPad2 is not bond to Chinese mainland temporarily, Chang Xiaobing, the president of China Unicom, told press that they still had no specific schedule on introducing the product; but, since they already had a good cooperation with Apple Inc. and Apple also values Chinese market very much, Chang believe bo...

Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOC) Monday called on the United States to correct its wrongdoing against China's export commodities after the World Trade Organization reversed a previous ruling. "We hope the United States implements the WTO ruling as soon as possible for stable and sound development of Sino-U.S. economic and trade relations," said a statement on MOC's website, quoting a spokesman for the Department of Treaty and Laws. "The (winning of the) case is a great victory for China in using WTO rules to protect the country's rights and will greatly boost WTO members' confidence in multilateral rules," the spokesman said. The MOC official's remarks came after the WTO appellate body in its regular meeting in Geneva last Friday overturned a number of key findings by a WTO panel in October 2010. The WTO panel's findings favored the U.S. anti-dumping and countervailing measures against imports from China such as steel pipes,...

Australia faces a prolonged housing affordability crisis, even in the typically cheaper outer suburbs are becoming out of reach to first-time homebuyers, latest study showed on Monday. According to study co-author and Monash University population expert Dr Bob Birrell, house and land deals in areas of outer suburbs of Melbourne, Sydney and south-east Queensland are becoming more expensive. The Monash University study has revealed that 90 percent of housing estate blocks were sold for less than 202,150 U.S. dollars in late 2008. But this had fallen to less than 30 percent by the end of last year, and land stocks were reduced to less than two months' supply. Also, at the end of last year only three out of every 10 lots for sale in new housing estates were accessible to average-income first-home buyers. Dr Birrell said the price lift came in the wake of record immigration and the failure of inner suburbs to provide affordable housing. "What we have seen in the las...

China Monday unveiled its 2011 targets for energy conservation and emission reductions in the country's industrial produciton, aiming to cut energy consumption per unit of industrial value-added output by 4 percent this year. China plans to reduce carbon dioxide emission and water use per unit of industrial value-added output by 4 percent and 7 percent this year, respectively, according to Su Bo, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). Ratio of Industrial Solid Wastes Utilized will be raised by 2.2 percent. By 2015, energy consumption, CO2 emmision and water use per unit of industrial value-added output will be slashed by 18 percent, 18 percent and 30 percent, respectively, from the 2010 level. All these three green targets have been raised compared to the target set by the MIIT by the end of last year.

The China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., Asia's largest oil refiner, said Sunday its net profits in 2010 rose 13.7 percent year on year, according to international accounting standards. Net profits of Sinopec, as the company is known, hit 71.8 billion yuan (10.9 billion U.S. dollars). Earnings per share stood at 0.828 yuan, compared with 0.728 yuan one year earlier, the refiner said in a statement filed to the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges. The Beijing-based firm attributed its profit gains to soaring crude oil prices, solid production growth and rising crude demand driven by fast domestic economic growth. Its crude oil production volume last year rose 0.1 percent year on year to 327.85 million barrels, while its natural gas output increased 47.6 percent to 441.39 billion cubic feet. Further, the company refined 211 million tonnes of crude oil, up 13.2 percent from one year ago, and produced 124 million tonnes of refined oil products, up 9.4 percent. The average price for t...

Production at a Nissan Motor plant in China dwindled dramatically two weeks after Japan's earthquake and tsunami disrupted the supply of key auto parts, sources with the company said Saturday. Workers at a Dongfeng Nissan plant in central China's Hubei Province told reporters that Saturday's production level at the assembly workshop dropped to less than one-third of the normal level. "We used to assemble 304 cars a day, but today our plan is set at 82," said a worker who declined to give his name. "And our work time was cut to half a day to accommodate the production," he added. Japanese automotive joint ventures in China get 60 to 70 percent of their parts locally, while key parts like engines and transmissions are imported from Japan. Many Japanese car manufacturers shut down operations after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami damaged factories and infrastructure and delayed shipments of raw materials. Dongfeng ...

Ureri Kurban, a 28-year-old Uygur man who graduated from Xinjiang's Kashgar Normal College in 2007, calls his wife while on a train to Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong province, on Thursday. (Photo / Xinhua) A total of 22,000 jobless college graduates in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, mostly ethnic Uygurs, are slated to receive at least one year of job training free of charge in universities and companies in China's developed regions in the next two years. As a result of a massive employment program introduced by the autonomous region's government, posts in government departments and institutions, as well as in State-owned enterprises, will be offered to students who finish the training and return home. The program's goal, though, isn't necessarily to bring people back to Xinjiang; the students will also be encouraged to take jobs elsewhere. The autonomous region's government estimates the program will cost 850 mill...

China's largest general, non-life insurer, PICC Property and Casualty Company Limited (PICC P&C), said Friday its 2010 net profit tripled from a year ago in an expanding market network. Net profits hit 5.21 billion yuan ($788 million), an increase of 192.3 percent, the best performance since its listing in 2003. Sales revenue increased 28.8 percent to 154.31 billion yuan. By the end of last year, the company's total assets rose 22 percent from the beginning of the year to 201.79 billion yuan. Source: Xinhua Weekly review Editor

The market for children's products in China will double within the next five years, a report released at a kids expo in East China's Zhejiang province has estimated. The market demand in China for children's products exceeded 1 trillion yuan ($152 billion) in 2010 and that figure is expected to hit 2 trillion yuan by 2015, according to the report. The report attributes the fast growth of the sector to the country's large population, robust consumption and increased attention to child health and eduction in recent years. It is estimated that China has a population of about 200 million children under the age of 12, the report said. A Chinese family will spend an average of 5,000 yuan per child each year, according to a survey by the Hangzhou Association of Industries on Children. This money goes to a variety of companies providing child-oriented products and services such as baby formula, clothing, toys, education and entertainment. According to a report by the China E-co...

Nearly 95 percent of cities and regions in China have not released their 2011 targets for housing-price control as of Friday, a week from the deadline. On Jan 26, the central government launched a series of tightening measures to cool down the real estate market, including price caps and the requirement that all local authorities set an annual home-price control target by the end of March. So far, only 32 second- and third-tier cities have complied. China has more than 600 cities and municipalities. Several cities have set the target of a 10 to 15 percent home-price increase in 2011 over the previous year, while most of the others linked the price target with the average increase of urban per capita disposable income and the growth of the local gross domestic product (GDP). In February, Yinchuan, capital of Northwest China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region, became the first city to release its target. Authorities there said the home-price increase will be lower than the average growt...

Negotiations between Chinese search engine Baidu and Chinese writers over a copyright dispute broke down on March 24, according to a micro-blog posted by Lu Jinbo, the general manager of Wanrong Books. "Negotiation with Baidu didn't make any progress and totally broke down" Lu said on his micro blog. The so-called anti-copyright-infringement alliance organized by 50 Chinese writers held a negotiation with Baidu on March 24. And Baidu was asked to make public apologies for "copyright infringement," compensate the losses of publishers and writers and stop any acts of infringement in addition to setting up an operation model so any online publication receives the author's approval prior to being published online. However, it seems like that the negotiation did not come to a happy ending. Baidu, China's search engine giant, was blamed on March 15 by Chinese writers for participating in copyright violations since the website offers free online...

South Korea's consumer confidence plunged to a 23-month low in March as Japan's deadly earthquake boosted jitters over global economic recovery, the central bank said Friday. The consumer confidence index (CSI), gauging domestic consumers ' overall economic outlook, dropped to 98 in March, down 7 points from 105 the previous month, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said in a monthly statement. The March reading marked the lowest level since April 2009 when it recorded an identical 98. The CSI, also measuring the future direction of private spending, has fallen for the fourth consecutive month since December last year. The March figure, calculated on a poll of 2,091 households in 56 major cities, fell below the 100-point level for the first time since April 2009. It means pessimists outnumber optimists. Inflation expectation, an approximate gauge of consumers' expectations on inflation over the next 12 months, strengthened further amid rising agricultural and oil p...

EU leaders pose for a family photo during the first day meeting of EU Summit in Brussels, capital of Belgium, on March 24, 2011. European Union (EU) leaders began their two-day summit on Thursday amid a political crisis in Portugal and protests by trade unions against austerity measures taken by eurozone member states to struggle out of the debt crisis. (Xinhua/Thierry Monasse) Leaders of the 27 European Union (EU) member states have agreed on a long-awaited comprehensive package of economic measures at a crucial summit in Brussels to shore up the euro and tackle the bloc's sovereign debt crisis. "We adopted the Euro Plus Pact ... We have a complete agreement on the ESM (European Stability Mechanism) ... even in details," President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy said at a press conference held in the early hours of Friday morning. The package mainly includes an expansion of the EU's bailout fund, establishment of a permanent rescue mechanism...

Watch Video Play Video In response to accusations of price fixing, Vice-President of Unilever China, Zeng Xiwen told the media that Unilever's price hikes were based on rising costs. In addition to rising labor and raw material costs, Zeng highlighted the end to the preferential treatment for foreign firms as one factor driving up prices. He also reemphasized that Unilever did not work with other manufacturers in pushing prices up for personal care products. As well, Zeng stated that the company would not rule out the possibility of raising product prices in the future, if costs of raw materials continue to climb. Related stories Consumers to see price hikes for household and personal care products 2011-03-25 Editor: Xiong Qu | Source: CNTV.CN

Interface Inc, the world's largest manufacturer of commercial carpet tiles, aims to expand its share of the China market from 10 percent to 30 percent in tandem with its global level. Its first plant in China, in Taicang, Jiangsu Province, will have an annual capacity of up to 10 million square meters of modular carpet. Interface didn't reveal the scale of investment in the Taicang factory. The opening of its plant in China yesterday will help the United States-based company to expand into second- and third-tier cities as well as in other segments like hotels and retail shops. The firm now mainly supplies carpet to offices in China where multinational and domestic clients account for an equal part of its business. It also seeks to introduce its residential carpet business to the country in the future. "In China, we aim to have the same share that we have globally," said Rob Coombs, president and CEO of Interface Asia Pacific. China needs about 60 million square meters...

CHINA will impose a tax on rare earth minerals from April 1, the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation has told rare earth producers. Zhang Zhong, general manager of the Baotou Steel Rare-Earth Hi-Tech Co, the country's leading rare earth producer, said the tax will increase the company's production costs by about 720 million yuan (US$109.7 million) this year. Zhang also said the tax, imposed to protect rare earth resources, will benefit the company in the long run. He said the statement about the tax that the company received said the rate for mined light rare earths is to be 60 yuan per ton, while that of medium and heavy rare earths is to be 30 yuan. The company, headquartered in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is currently the world's biggest producer of rare earth magnets widely used for making electronic products such as computer hard drives and cordless tools. Yang Wanxi, director of a rare earth expert panel of the Baotou M...

Since the implementation of restrictions on real estate purchases, the turnover in first-tier cities has dropped drastically. Moreover, the central bank announced on March 18 it will raise the reserve rate by 0.5 percentage points to 20 percent, which will put stress on the insufficiently-funded real estate enterprises. Some experts even predicted a merger wave in the next half year. 30 percent currency quantity fixed The move by the People's Bank of China, China's central bank, to raise the reserve rate marks the ninth time since last year that the central bank has raised the reserve rate, and the rate has reached a new high. The current increase has frozen about 360 billion yuan worth of bank financing. The analyst Li Huiyong considered the rise a reasonable expectation, and predicted another rise in April. Fan Gang, the member of currency policy committee of the People's Bank of China said that more than 30 percent currency quantity has been fixed by cent...

Since the implementation of restrictions on real estate purchases, the turnover in first-tier cities has dropped drastically. Moreover, the central bank announced on March 18 it will raise the reserve rate by 0.5 percentage points to 20 percent, which will put stress on the insufficiently-funded real estate enterprises. Some experts even predicted a merger wave in the next half year. 30 percent currency quantity fixed The move by the People's Bank of China, China's central bank, to raise the reserve rate marks the ninth time since last year that the central bank has raised the reserve rate, and the rate has reached a new high. The current increase has frozen about 360 billion yuan worth of bank financing. The analyst Li Huiyong considered the rise a reasonable expectation, and predicted another rise in April. Fan Gang, the member of currency policy committee of the People's Bank of China said that more than 30 percent currency quantity has been fixed by cent...

Controlling inflation will be the top priority of China's central bank, said Yi Gang, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China and administrator of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, in Hong Kong on March 23. He is confident that the CPI for the entire year of 2011 on the Chinese mainland can be maintained at around 4 percent. Yi delivered a keynote speech titled "Challenges Facing China's Fast Economic Growth" during the "China Economic Development Forum" hosted by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology on March 23. Yi said that the CPI in Chinese mainland stood at more than 3 percent in 2010 and the figure reached as high as nearly 5 percent in the first two months of 2011. The inflation pressure has mainly arisen from the rise in property rental, housing and food prices. He believes that the first-half CPI will reach 5 percent because of low bases a year earlier. The effect of low bases is expected to last i...

State-owned China Guangdong Nuclear Power (CGNPC) may cut its proposed 756 million pound ($1.2 billion) offer for uranium miner Kalahari Minerals in light of Japan's nuclear crisis, a CGNPC official said on Wednesday. The official said CGNPC and Kalahari, which backed the original proposal, were discussing the impact of Japan's nuclear crisis on both companies' prospects. "The two parties are in touch to do an assessment," an official of CGNPC Uranium Resource Co, a unit of CGNPC, told Reuters. "The revaluation of the deal will depend on the outcome of those assessments," he said, declining to be named as he was not authorized to speak to the media. Kalahari shares, which had been 0.3 percent higher at 245.75 pence, fell 3.3 percent to 243.68 pence by 1004 GMT after the Reuters report. Kalahari had no immediate comment. CGNPC Uranium Resource Co announced the bid proposal just days before Japan's Fukushima nuclear reactor was crippled...

U.S. stocks edged higher on Wednesday as mining and energy shares surged because of high oil prices. The energy sector advanced 0.38 percent as oil price hit its highest level since Sept. 26, 2008. Meanwhile, basic materials shares, the best performers on Wednesday, also rose 1.39 percent as investors were expecting that the higher rebuilding cost of Japan's disaster will lead to great demand on basic material sector. The Japanese government said that the estimated damage from the devastating earthquake and tsunami were over 300 billion U.S. dollars. Companies such as Toyota and Honda have suspended their production at some plants. On economic front, data showed sales of new homes in the United States plunged in February to the lowest level on records dating back nearly half a century, a dismal sign for an already-weak housing market. Bank of American dropped 1.87 percent after the Federal Reserve rejected to its plan for raising its dividend in the second half of t...

Beijing plans to start construction of a second airport this year, which will be operational in 2016, a senior official of the city's airport operator said yesterday. The new airport is expected to handle 40 million passengers annually under the first phase of its development, Zhang Guanghui, general manager of Beijing Capital International Airport Co, said on the sidelines of the China Aviation Congress in Shanghai. Zhang said the airport and the Beijing city government will invest in the second airport, which will be located in Daxing District in south Beijing. But he didn't reveal the investment figure. Beijing Capital International Airport is expected to handle more than 80 million passengers this year, a rise of 8 percent from last year. But the growth will be slower than the 13.1 percent jump in 2010, he said. Shanghai's two airports may also experience a slower pace of expansion in passenger throughput this year now that the Shanghai World Expo has ended, Yuan Shunzh...

South Korea is to face short-term volatility in energy costs on Japan's deadly earthquake, the finance minister said Wednesday. "Japan's record-breaking earthquake is expected to disrupt supply and demand of major energy resources in the short term, leading to energy price fluctuations," Strategy and Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun said at an economic policy coordination meeting. His remarks came amid growing concerns that fears over radiation leakage in Japan's quake-stricken nuclear power plant added uncertainty to the global energy market along with the persistent unrest in the Middle East. Regarding re-emerging worries about the safety of nuclear power, Yoon said South Korea should be cautious against a short-term approach on nuclear power. He stressed that the government should take into account diverse aspects, including costs and benefits from construction of nuclear power stations, supply and demand outlook of energy and possible counterme...

The Ministry of Health released the revised "Health Management Ordinance Implementing Regulations for Public Places" on March 22, and new regulations, such as prohibiting smoking in indoor public places, were added. Xie Yang, director of the Environmental Health Office of the Supervision Bureau under the Ministry of Health, said China is one of State Parties of the "Framework Convention on Tobacco Control." The amendment to the regulations shows the determination of the Ministry of Health to positively fulfill tobacco control. New regulation concerning about smoking ban at indoor public areas requires operators to set "No Smoking" warnings and signs. At the same time, it also prohibits establishing smoking areas in the pedestrian channels of outdoor public places as well as setting up tobacco vending machines in public places. Meanwhile, It also requires operators of public places to carry out publicity on the harmful effects of smoking as ...

New Zealand's current account deficit was 2.8 billion NZ dollars (2 billion U.S. dollars) in the final three months of last year, Statistics New Zealand figures showed on Wednesday. The deficit, which represents the gap between what the country paid out overseas and what it earned, is a turnaround from a 1.7 billion NZ dollars surplus in the previous three month period. The deficit was due mainly to imports rising faster than exports and an increase in income earned by overseas investors on investments in New Zealand Expected reinsurance payments to local insurers of 3.6 billion NZ dollars following the Canterbury earthquake resulted in a surplus in the previous three months. But Statistics New Zealand said no reinsurance was counted in the December quarter due to difficulties distinguishing between damage caused by the 4 September earthquake and Boxing Day aftershock. The deficit for the whole of 2010, of 2.3 percent of GDP, was the lowest in nearly a decade. Sourc...

The earthquake in Japan's northeastern regions will indeed affect the economic and trade cooperation between Japan and China because the China-Japan economic cooperation relationship is very close and Japan is China's largest import market, accounting for 13 percent of Chinas total import value, said Yao Jian, spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), during a routine news conference on the morning of March 22. Yao added that China is a major destination for the industrial transfer of Japanese enterprises and a large number of Japan-funded enterprises are engaged in the production, trade and investment business in China, so the earthquake will affect the trade between the two countries and the investments in China's manufacturing sector. Yao believes China needs to focus on the communication and cooperation with Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in order to effectively ensure the transportation of disaster relief materials. The a...