China :: Business & Economy

China's central government has ordered local governments to start building 10 million affordable houses before October and to complete 4 million of the total by the end of the year, according to information from a recent meeting on promoting affordable housing nationwide. It was noted at the meeting that the central government's funds for the construction of affordable housing must not be appropriated, and local governments must increase their capital-raising efforts to ensure there is enough funding. Furthermore, they should take effective measures to accelerate the construction of certain projects, to complete their tasks on schedule, to combat corruption while ensuring the quality and safety of affordable housing. According to sources, the current lack of supporting funds is still the main difficulty during the construction of affordable housing projects in various places, especially in some places with weak financial resources. As the quota of affordable hou...

China's power generation rose 13.5 percent from a year earlier to 2.22 trillion kilowatts-hours in the first half of this year, the National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday. In June alone, China's electricity output reached 396.8 billion kilowatts-hours, up 16.2 percent year-on-year, according to the NBS. Source: Xinhua Weekly review Editor

China will institute a more market-oriented jet fuel pricing mechanism starting August, the country's top economic planner said Tuesday. Under the mechanism, jet fuel producers and their clients can negotiate and reprice jet fuel on the first day of each month, the National Development and Reform Commission said in an online statement. This at-cost price, usually offering jet fuel at a premium, should be no higher than the after-tax CIF price of the jet fuel imported from Singapore, said the statement. The move aims to improve the formation mechanism of the jet fuel's at-cost price, it said. According to the statement, jet fuel producers and their clients can negotiate the jet fuel premium and review it once a year when taking into account factors such as the transportation cost, trade volume and international crude oil prices. Currently, the country's jet fuel prices should obtain authorities' approval before being adjusted. The government has reduced its import tariff...

More than 30 bullet trains were brought to a halt by a power failure on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway on Tuesday. That marked the second time a power loss has caused travel delays in the 12 days since the train began operating on June 30. Railway authorities said an electrical failure occurred in the power grid system near Suzhou, a city in Anhui province, at 11 am on Tuesday. In a short news release, the authorities said the glitch had been dealt with by 1 pm and that travel on the railway had resumed soon afterward. The mishap occurred just two days after another power loss on the line. Thunderstorms on Sunday evening disrupted the electrical supply to the railway's Qufu-Zaozhuang section, causing 19 southbound trains to be delayed. In response to the troubles on Tuesday, railway bureaus in Shanghai and Beijing apologized on their official micro blogs and refunded money to passengers who had canceled their trips. Even so, the authorities stopped short of explaining the ...

Steel coils are unloaded from the Polish ship "Isa" at the Port of Cleveland in the United States. The US trade deficit surged in May to the highest level in more than two and a half years, driven upward by a big increase in oil imports. The Commerce Department said yesterday that the deficit increased 15.1 percent to US$50.2 billion in May. That's the largest imbalance since October 2008.

As of the end of the 11th Five-Year Plan, China ranked third worldwide in terms of cargo ships with a total of 178,000. During the 11th Five-Year Plan, China's status as a leading power in shipping, port transportation and container traffic was dramatically enhanced. At the end of the 11th Five-Year Plan, combined deadweight capacity of cargo ships totaled 180 billion tons, which is an increase in capacity of 77 percent over that of the 10th Five-Year Plan. International Maritime Organization has nominated China as Class A members 11 times consecutively for China's prominent contribution to the development of sea transportation. Assuming more than 90 percent of China's foreign trade transportation, Chinas ocean shipping effectively boosted the rapid development of national economy and foreign trade. By the end of 2010, China had overtaken Korean as the number one ship-building country. By People's Daily Online Weekly r...

BANKS in China extended more new loans than expected in June and the country's money supply rebounded despite a slew of tightening measures. China's new yuan-backed loans totaled 633.9 billion yuan (US$98 billion) in June, up 20.7 billion yuan from a year ago, the People's Bank of China said today. Banks extended 551.6 billion yuan of new loans in May. M2, the broadest measure of money supply, rose 15.9 percent, compared with May's 15.1 percent. China's foreign exchange reserves, the world's largest, rose to US$3.2 trillion at the end of June, from US$3.04 trillion at the end of March, the central bank said.