China Economy Forum

[grey boy 2]

IMF says to revise up further China's growth forecast for 2017
(Xinhua) 10:09, April 22, 2017

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Friday that it will revise up further China's economic growth forecast for 2017 due to a strong start of the year.

China's "growth in the first quarter has surprised almost across the whole range of indicators," Markus Rodlauer, deputy director of the IMF's Asia Pacific Department, told Xinhua at a press briefing.

The overall economy posted a forecast-beating growth rate of 6.9 percent in the first quarter of 2017, compared with a year earlier, he noted.

The upbeat reading, the quickest increase in 18 months, was above the full-year growth target of around 6.5 percent in 2017 and the 6.8-percent increase registered in the fourth quarter of 2016, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics.

Rodlauer attributed China's strong growth in the first quarter of the year to several factors, including the fiscal policy support, high credit expansion, strong real estate sector and improved external environment.

In its latest World Economic Outlook released Tuesday, the IMF had upgraded its forecast for China's economic growth in 2017 to 6.6 percent, 0.1 percentage point higher than its forecast in January, citing stronger-than-expected momentum for the world's second-largest economy.

"We have to look again at that forecast in this upside risk, and we will revise it up further before even though we do see also some likelihood that some of these strong momentum will slow in the second half (of the year)," he said.

Rodlauer noted that Chinese authorities are taking important measures to restrain the rapid growth of the real estate sector in some areas and rein in financial stability risks in the shadow banking system.

"As these measures take hold, we do expect some slowdown of the very strong momentum going into the second half," he said.

Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, said Thursday there were good economic data coming from China and the Chinese economy is continuing rebalancing from investment towards consumption and services, but the country needs to rein in credit growth to secure sustainable economic growth.

The IMF is expected to update its forecasts for global economy in July.
http://en.people.cn/n3/2017/0422/c90000-9206232.html

 

[grey boy 2]

Seven countries to deepen cooperation on China-Europe freight rail services Xinhua) 09:08, April 23, 2017

Photo taken on April 20, 2017 shows the containers in a railway container center in Qingbaijiang District in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province. This container center serves as a railway logistic hub in southwest China. Till April 16, 2017, 559 cargo trains departed from the center and went to Europe. (Xinhua/Xue Yubin)

BEIJING, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Railway authorities of China, Belarus, Germany, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Poland and Russia, have signed an agreement to deepen cooperation on China-Europe freight rail services, according to China Railway Corporation.

The agreement serves the Belt and Road Initiative, expands the market share of rail freight between Asia and Europe and drives economic development and trade cooperation for counties along the route.

The countries will jointly push for better railway infrastructure for a safe, smooth, fast, convenient and competitive rail route, according to the agreement.

Information technology will boost train speed and unified service. Information sharing platforms will be built to ensure transport safety.

The countries will expand the rail services to more areas with faster customs clearance. A joint work team and expert team will be formed to solve problems.

The China-Europe freight train service was launched in 2011 and grown rapidly with high efficiency. It has become an important part of the Belt and Road Initiative.

A total of 3,557 freight trains have run so far, with services reaching 27 Chinese cities and 28 cities in 11 countries in Europe.
http://en.people.cn/n3/2017/0423/c90000-9206443.html

 

[samsara]

China's CC Land buys London skyscraper for 1.15 bln pounds

Source: Xinhua | 2017-05-03 02:23:54 | Editor: Huaxia

Photo taken on May 2, 2017 shows the Leadenhall Building in London. (Xinhua/Wang Wanqi)​

LONDON, May 2 (Xinhua) -- CC Land Holdings Ltd, a firm run by Chinese property tycoon Cheung Chung-kiu, has agreed to buy London's "Cheesegrater" skyscraper for 1.15 billion pounds (1.49 billion U.S. dollars), the company announced Tuesday.

In an announcement released by the Hong Kong-based developer, the company announced the acquisition of the Leadenhall Building, the tallest building in the City of London, which is known as the Cheesegrater because of its wedge shape.

The commercial tower has over 46 floors and approximately 610,000 square feet (56,670 square meters) of office and retail space.

Leadenhall Building (popularly known as the Cheesegrater for its wedge shape), the tallest building in the City of London​

The building's tenants include a number of major international insurance companies as well as financial institutions, technology, and professional service businesses. The current annual rental income of the building is approximately 40.2 million pounds (51.9 million dollars).

CC Land bought the property from the developer behind the 224-meter tower, British Land, and its joint venture partner Oxford Properties, the global property arm of a Canadian pension fund.

The deal is the biggest sale of a single building in the UK since 2014, when the HSBC tower in Canary Wharf was sold to Qatar's sovereign wealth fund for 1.18 billion pounds. It is also one of the biggest Chinese purchases of British property.

CC Land said the acquisition of the building was in line with the group's business strategy to invest in quality property developments in mature cities globally, as it is an iconic and award-winning building situated in the prime financial and insurance districts of London.

"Completed in 2014, the Leadenhall Building is a world class skyscraper and office tower boasting an impressive lease portfolio commanding strong recurring rentals and will be held by the group as an investment property for long term capital growth. It is expected that the Leadenhall Building will generate a stable and strong recurrent income," said the announcement.

 

[samsara]

China's conglomerate becomes Deutsche Bank's top shareholder

Source: Xinhua | 2017-05-03 21:42:38 | Editor: Huaxia

Photo taken on May 3, 2017 in Frankfurt, Germany shows the tower of the Deutsche Bank. (Xinhua/Luo Huanhuan)
​

FRANKFURT, May 3 (Xinhua) -- By raising its stake to 9.92 percent in Deutsche Bank, China's conglomerate HNA Group has become the top single shareholder of the largest German commercial bank headquartered in Frankfurt, according to a filing by investment entity C-Quadrat which manages HNA Group's stake in Deutsche Bank.

Based on Tuesday's closing price, the share of the DAX bank held by HNA Group is currently worth around 3.4 billion euros (3.71 billion U.S. dollars).

The Supervisory Board of Deutsche Bank announced in March that it would submit a proposal for the Annual General Meeting on May 18 for two new members to be elected to the Supervisory Board, including Alexander Schuetz, founder and chief executive officer of C-Quadrat, on behalf of HNA Group.

HNA Group, headquartered in the southern Chinese city of Haikou, which started as a regional airline in early 1990s, has now transformed itself into a holding company with a wide range of business, owning the fourth largest airline in China, namely Hainan Airlines.

 

[samsara]

China requires large banks to set up inclusive finance divisions in 2017

Source: Xinhua | 2017-05-03 21:42:36|Editor: Mu Xuequan

BEIJING, May 3 (Xinhua) -- China's large commercial banks have been asked to set up inclusive finance departments to support small companies, agriculture, poverty relief and entrepreneurship before the end of 2017.

China's new push for the inclusive financing by the large commercial banks as decided by the State Council, May 03, 2017​

Large banks should become the backbone in the development of inclusive finance, according to a statement following a State Council executive meeting presided over by Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday.

Their lending to small and micro enterprises should rise no slower than growth in all loans, the statement said, adding that the number of small and micro borrowers in a year should not be lower than the same period of the previous year.

Banks should tolerate a reasonably higher non-performing loan ratio for lending to small and micro enterprises, agriculture and poverty alleviation, according to the statement.

The government will offer monetary and credit policy incentives to financial institutions that meet the requirements for inclusive finance businesses, and support commercial banks to improve their service networks.

"By coordinating different measures, inclusive and convenient financial services will promote job creation, economic upgrading and improvement of people's lives," the statement said.

The executive meeting decided to raise the subsidy for emergency assistance efforts in natural disasters, the pension for family members of the deceased from major disasters, life assistance fund in the transitional period and central government subsidy for recovering and rebuilding damaged residential buildings.

In 2017, the country should solve the housing problems for all the people still staying in temporary places affected by natural disasters last year.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-05/03/c_136254538.htm

 

[samsara]

China's conglomerate becomes Deutsche Bank's top shareholder

Source: Xinhua | 2017-05-03 21:42:38 | Editor: Huaxia

Photo taken on May 3, 2017 in Frankfurt, Germany shows the tower of the Deutsche Bank. (Xinhua/Luo Huanhuan)
​

FRANKFURT, May 3 (Xinhua) -- By raising its stake to 9.92 percent in Deutsche Bank, China's conglomerate HNA Group has become the top single shareholder of the largest German commercial bank headquartered in Frankfurt, according to a filing by investment entity C-Quadrat which manages HNA Group's stake in Deutsche Bank.

Based on Tuesday's closing price, the share of the DAX bank held by HNA Group is currently worth around 3.4 billion euros (3.71 billion U.S. dollars).

The Supervisory Board of Deutsche Bank announced in March that it would submit a proposal for the Annual General Meeting on May 18 for two new members to be elected to the Supervisory Board, including Alexander Schuetz, founder and chief executive officer of C-Quadrat, on behalf of HNA Group.

HNA Group, headquartered in the southern Chinese city of Haikou, which started as a regional airline in early 1990s, has now transformed itself into a holding company with a wide range of business, owning the fourth largest airline in China, namely Hainan Airlines.

China's HNA raises stake in Deutsche Bank to almost 10%, overtaking Blackrock as top shareholder

https://twitter.com/x/status/860063991762231296

HNA holds biggest stake in German bank 20170504
http://www.chinadailyasia.com/business/2017-05/04/content_15608139.html

I just hope that HNA ain't picking something sour assets. Blackrock is a giant hedge fund controlled by the Rockefeller family.

 

[beijingwalker]

China's April forex reserves rise, beating market expectations
Sun May 7, 2017 | 12:51am EDT

China's foreign exchange reserves rose in April for a third straight month, beating market expectations, as capital controls and a pause in the dollar's rally helped staunch capital outflows.

The April rise is reassuring news for policymakers after the yuan steadied as U.S. President Donald Trump backed away from labelling China a currency manipulator, saying the dollar was "getting too strong" and would eventually hurt the U.S. economy.

Reserves rose $21 billion (£16.17 billion) in April to $3.03 trillion, compared with an increase of $3.96 billion in March to $3.009 trillion.

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange said in a statement that the reserves rose due to basically balanced foreign exchange supply and demand and the appreciation of currencies against the dollar.

Looking ahead, the yuan would remain basically stable with cross-border capital flows becoming more balanced, which will further stabilise foreign exchange reserves, the regulator added.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected foreign exchange reserves to rise by $11.0 billion to $3.02 trillion in April.

China has tightened rules on moving capital outside the country in recent months as it seeks to support the yuan and stem a slide in its foreign exchange reserves.

It burned through nearly $320 billion of reserves last year but the yuan still fell about 6.5 percent against the dollar, its biggest annual drop since 1994.

The yuan's performance against the dollar has been steady in recent weeks after the dollar lost its upward momentum.

In March, China's central bank sold the smallest amount of foreign exchange since May 2016, supporting the government's assertions that capital flows were becoming more balanced.

Premier Li Keqiang said last month that market confidence in the yuan had significantly improved and the outside world had stable expectations for the yuan exchange rate.

The forex regulator said on Wednesday that China would improve macro-prudential management on cross-border flows to ward off potential risks and "optimise" diversification of foreign exchange reserves.

The Chinese currency is forecast to weaken to 7.07 against the dollar in a year, according to a Reuters poll of 60 foreign exchange strategists.

The U.S. Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday and downplayed weak first-quarter economic growth while emphasising the strength of the labour market, a sign it was still on track for two more rate rises this year.

China's gold reserves rose to $75.02 billion at the end of April from $73.7 billion at end-March, data published on the People's Bank of China website also showed.


(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Stella Qiu; Editing by Nick Macfie)

http://www.reuters.com/article/uk-china-economy-forex-reserves-idUSKBN18301U

 

[onebyone]

For decades China’s contract manufacturers have been content mostly to churn out gadgets designed by the world’s tech companies. Now they’re going a step further -- seeking out entrepreneurs and building their designs in hopes of finding the next must-have device.

Plants like Jetta Company Ltd. in Guangzhou are cutting out the traditional role of venture capital firms by shouldering some of the risk of developing a new product. They seek out ideas at trade events or from referrals. Then in-house teams build and test prototypes and even make small batches to gauge the market.

Chinese electronics factories are trying to adapt as Donald Trump targets the U.S. trade balance with China and competition rises from plants in Southeast Asia with cheaper labor. Backing startups may provide a way to weather those challenges, said Paul Travers, founder of New York-based Vuzix Corp., which produces augmented reality lenses.

“The VC structure has given manufacturers a model of investment,” said Travers, whose company had worked with Jetta for four years. “Investing also ensures future business.”

The trend has fueled the biggest wave ever of new devices, said Benjamin Joffe, a Shenzhen-based partner at hardware startup accelerator HAX. A walk down Shenzhen’s Huaqiangbei electronics market shows how varied that wave is.

The Huaqiangbei electronics market in Shenzhen.

Photographer: Fred Dufour/AFP via Getty Images
A plethora of gadgets cram the shelves, from a neon-lit unicycle blasting music from embedded Bluetooth speakers, to a smartphone that doubles as an electric shaver. Most will fail to catch on, but like the VCs, the plants only need a few hits to make it worth the risk.

“They are backing startups not with money but with manufacturing abilities and sometimes generous payment terms,” said Joffe. They are “thinking that home-runs come from swinging the bat more often.”

One of the biggest hits for Jetta is Sphero’s BB-8. Long before the Star Wars robot toy became a staple of Christmas wish-lists around the world, Jetta worked with Boulder, Colorado-based Sphero to realize co-founder Paul Berberian’s vision of building a ball that could be controlled by a smartphone.

Sphero’s BB-8.

Photographer: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
The Chinese factory, which counts Hasbro Inc. and Mattel Inc. among its clients, leveraged 600 engineers and developers to help create a remote-controlled orb that could roll a meter per second in a straight line. Sphero’s popularity eventually led to the production of 3 million units, prompting other startups to flock to Jetta for partnerships.

“It’s a nice symbiotic relationship,” said Berberian. “Jetta was able to make something really refined, and we put our software on it and it really took off.”

“Factories are starting to take these startups seriously by taking on their projects, in the past they wouldn’t even look at them,” said Wayne Xiong, a partner at China Growth Capital, a Beijing-based venture capital fund which manages about $650 million of assets. He said that, while some factories have realized the value of doing what VCs traditionally do, there will still be a need for venture capitalists who provide funding and expertise in areas such as choosing suppliers, negotiating distribution and poaching talent.

For Jetta, if it likes an idea, engineers help create a prototype, sometimes before any money is paid, said product manager Yang Siping. The method has helped the company build a reputation through word of mouth.

“We try to identify startups five to six years before they become big, then we try to nurture them and help them grow,” said Lewie Leung, 42, assistant director at the research and development unit of Jetta. “An important thing for us is to keep up with new technology, and at the time we felt that this was something we needed to learn about.”

Jetta’s relationship with Sphero shows how startups are protecting intellectual property. While Jetta helped develop the hardware, the key to the BB-8’s cute, bumbling behavior is Sphero’s internet-enabled encrypted software, with updates that users can download.

It’s a model used by Dallas-based Robokind which makes humanoid robots that help teach autistic children. Chief Technology Officer Richard Margolinsaid one of the most important factors in choosing a manufacturing partner was reliability.

“There are a lot of fly-by-night factories that will say yes to anything,” Margolin said. “What they can produce is a totally different story.”
Andrew Wen, director of manufacturing for Vuzix, said there are a number of factories in Guangdong province now that invest in customers’ product development. Big, established players like GoerTek Inc. and U.S.-based Flex Ltd., with client lists including many of the world’s big consumer electronics brands, are being joined by smaller Chinese factories looking to move up from traditional contract design and prototyping.

“We value innovation, especially projects that could be important for future business,” said Jia Yang, GoerTek’s Shandong-based investment relations manager. GoerTek has invested in smartwatch makers Mobvoi Inc. and Pacewear, and in January bought $23.9 million of shares in U.S. wearable technology startup Kopin Corp.

The growth of the sector reflects a wider shift in Guangdong, which was the epicenter of China’s industrial transformation in the 1990s. The province is locking horns with dozens of regions in a race to build a Silicon Valley-like hub, allotting resources for more than 1,100 incubators and startup spaces. The shift has helped the province’s economy double to 7.95 trillion yuan ($1.15 trillion) in the seven years to 2016.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...s-beware-chinese-factories-may-eat-your-lunch

 

[TaiShang]

US$2.6b venture capital fund to support Chinese startups
Xinhua, May 10, 2017

China has set up a national venture capital fund for guiding the development of startup companies in new sectors of strategic importance.

The fund was set up by the Ministry of Finance, the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Development & Investment Corporation (SDIC), among others.

SDIC Chairman Wang Huisheng said that the fund had raised a total of 17.8 billion yuan (about 2.6 billion U.S. dollars), with 80 percent to be invested in startups in initial and early stages and 20 percent in mature enterprises that are not yet listed.

The State Council, China's cabinet, decided to set up the venture capital fund in early 2015. In July 2016, SDIC set up a company as the management platform for the fund.

The fund will promote the development of new strategic sectors, including new information technology, energy conservation and environmental protection, new materials and high-end equipment manufacturing.

http://www.china.org.cn/business/2017-05/10/content_40780260.htm

 

[TaiShang]

'Chinese Brands Day' set to nurture independently-owned brands
Xinhua, May 9, 2017

The establishment of "Chinese Brands Day" will help independent brands, a senior official said Tuesday.

The State Council, China' cabinet, has approved a Chinese Brands Day, to be held on May 10 each year from this year. The first falls on Wednesday.

Influential brands are symbols of the overall competitiveness of companies and countries, and can help lead economic transition, according to Wang Dong, a senior official with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner.

Compared with developed countries, China is still short of globally influential brands but well equipped to accelerate brand development, Wang added.

Chinese Brands Day will publicize brands owned independently by Chinese companies, tell the stories of the brands and raise brand recognition, according to Wang.

http://www.china.org.cn/business/2017-05/09/content_40779972.htm

***

Mark your calendar.

 

[JSCh]

Agricultural Bank of China starts RMB settlement in UAE
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-10 23:16:36|Editor: yan



DUBAI, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), the third biggest lender in China in relation to assets, opened here on Wednesday a Chinese currency RMB, or the yuan, clearing branch in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The Dubai branch is ABC's first yuan clearing bank and its second branch in the Middle East after another branch in the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), the biggest financial free zone in the region.

ABC said in a media statement at the opening ceremony that the new branch is to improve ABC's global settlement business, contribute to internationalization of yuan, and support the Belt and Road Initiative.

Its Dubai Branch will provide diversified banking services including yuan settlement, trade finance, syndicated loans and foreign exchange transactions.

At the opening ceremony, Zhao Huan, President of ABC, said that the branch "operating on a strictly compliant basis, would actively participate in the development of an offshore RMB market in UAE, and promote the use of RMB in China-UAE trade, investment, payment, settlement and market transactions, to support the fast-developing bilateral financial cooperation."

The Gulf Arab state UAE, a major oil supplier, is one of China's most important trading partners. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations over 30 years ago, China-UAE bilateral trade has grown from 63 million U.S. dollars in 1984 to 54.8 billion dollars in 2014 and is estimated to reach 60 billion dollars by the end of 2016, according to UAE official data.

More than 4,000 Chinese firms operate in the UAE where over 300,000 Chinese citizens reside in. Earlier last month, Dubai Tourism said among Dubai's top 20 source markets for inbound tourism, China continued to top the growth rate with a 64-percent increase over the first quarter in 2016, delivering 230,000 tourists.

ABC's move is based on agreement to set up a RMB settlement hub that was signed while Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan was in China for an official visit in December 2015.

 

[TaiShang]

Chinese economy shows firming signs amid restructuring efforts
Xinhua, May 15, 2017

A slew of upbeat economic data pointed to latest restructuring achievements and provided fresh stabilization signs for the Chinese economy.

Highly-watched economic figures released Monday, including industrial output, retail sales, fixed-asset investment and housing sales, confirmed the message that the ongoing growth model transitioning is providing new impetus to the world's second largest economy.

In the first four months, total retail sales of consumer goods rose 10.2 percent year on year, 0.2 percentage points faster than the growth in the first quarter, buttressed by vigorous consumption growth in rural areas and online shopping, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Monday.

Retail sales rose 12.1 percent in rural areas during the same period, outpacing urban areas, where retail sales climbed 9.9 percent. Online retail sales surged 32 percent year on year in the first four months.

"The figures indicate continued growth of domestic consumer demand, which was partly driven by consumption upgrades and new business patterns such as online sales," said NBS spokesperson Xing Zhihong.

China is moving toward an economy boosted by consumer spending, innovation and services, reducing reliance on investment and exports of low value-added goods and narrowing the income gap between urban and rural dwellers.

China's GDP growth in Q1 stood at 6.9 percent, up slightly from 6.8 percent in the previous quarter, with 77.2 percent of that driven by consumption, 12.6 percentage points higher than the 2016 level. The service sector rose 7.7 percent year-on-year, outpacing a 3-percent increase in agriculture and 6.4 percent in secondary industries.

Property investment growth remained robust and the inventory trended down. Investment in real estate development increased 9.3 percent year on year from January to April, 0.2 percentage points faster than the growth rate registered in the first quarter.

At the end of April, 674.7 million square meters of property remained unsold in China, decreasing by 13.4 million square meters from the end of March.

In a similar vein, China's value-added industrial output rose 6.5 percent year on year in April, 0.5 percentage points higher than the same month last year, while profits at industrial enterprises above the designated size surged 28.3 percent year on year in the first quarter.

High-tech and low-carbon products witnessed faster production growth in the first four months, with the production volumes of industrial robots and solar batteries surging 51.7 percent and 18.2 percent, respectively, Xing said at a press conference.

"China's transition to slower but structurally rebalanced growth continues," the World Bank said in a recent report, noting that economic growth will continue to moderate as capacity is cut and credit kept on a tight leash.

As of Monday, 31.7 million tonnes of steel and iron capacity and 69 million tonnes of coal capacity have been cut, accounting for 63.4 percent and 46 percent of the annual targets, respectively, Xing said.

China's investment in fixed assets rose 8.9 percent year on year in the first four months of 2017, easing pace from 9.2 percent in the first quarter but reflecting the ongoing restructuring of the economy, as investment growth rate in the service sector far exceeded the industrial sector.

Investment in the industrial sector rose only 3.5 percent in the first four months, a main drag on total investment growth, while investment in the service sector rose 12.1 percent.

The robust economic growth momentum has supported job creation and new business registration. Some 4.65 million new jobs were created in the first four months, 220,000 more than the same period last year, and 556,000 new companies were registered in April alone.

China still has a long list of reform tasks, many intertwined with one another, which when added to global risks like U.S. interest rate increases and protectionism makes policy-making tricky, analysts said.

"The economy continued to stabilize and positive factors were increasing. But both domestic and international environment is still complicated and structural contradictions have not been fundamentally eased," said Xing.

China should continue to reduce excess capacity, curb credit, lower debt leverage in the corporate sector and reform state-owned enterprises, said Sudhir Shetty, chief economist of the World Bank's East Asia and Pacific Region.

"Against the backdrop of the ongoing financial regulatory tightening, we may see a 'soft-patch' of economic data in the next couple of months amidst reduced inflationary expectations and rising risk premium," investment firm China International Capital Corporation said in a research note.

 

[samsara]

Chinese SOEs establish 150 bln yuan investment fund

Source: Xinhua Published: 2017/5/16 18:04:35

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) has formed a fund of 150 billion yuan (21.8 billion US dollars) with a group of centrally administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to invest in emerging strategic industries.

The fund, with an initial pledge of 113.9 billion yuan, will target the 3D printing, aerospace, biological medicine, clean energy, high-speed rail, IT, nuclear energy, power grid, quantum communication, robotics, and shipping industries, among others.

The investment fund was established to improve the SOEs' innovative ability to make breakthroughs in core technology, boost emerging industries and foster new driving forces for growth, and increase cooperation between the SOEs, said CASC chairman Lei Fanpei at the fund's establishment ceremony.

The sponsors include rolling-stock maker CRRC, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Postal Saving Bank of China, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank and Beijing municipal government.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1047210.shtml

 

[grey boy 2]

China exports 2 nuclear reactor units to Argentina
By Li Yan (People's Daily Online) 15:41, May 18, 2017

(Photo/CNNC)

An agreement to build the fourth and fifth nuclear power plants in Argentina was signed on May 17, witnessed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Argentinean counterpart President Macri in Beijing's Great Hall of the People.

According to the agreement, construction will be started on a 700,000 kilowatt CANDU-6 pressurized heavy water reactor and a million-kilowatt Hualong-1 reactor in 2018 and 2020 respectively. The project will be jointly carried out by China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) and Argentina’s Nuclearelectrica.

CNNC has exported eight nuclear power units to foreign countries to date. The group predicts that the newest agreement will create exports worth over 30 billion RMB ($4.4 billion).

Hualong-1 reactors meet all relevant technology requirements and possess full Chinese intellectual property rights as well as good export potential. They are currently being used for domestic construction while also being promoted to overseas markets.

Four Hualong-1 reactors are situated at the Fuqing nuclear power plant in China's Fujian province. They have also been deployed at another plant in Fangchenggang in southwestern China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Argentina is home to three pressurized heavy water reactors. However, the third-generation technology, which uses light water reactors, is considered safer and more efficient than previous designs.
http://en.people.cn/n3/2017/0518/c90000-9217432.html

 

[onebyone]

Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. have become China’s largest corporations in just the past year, displacing the state-run banks and oil-gas behemoths that sat atop the charts for a decade or more.

Their rapid ascent encapsulates a fundamental change gripping the world’s second largest economy. China is shifting away from a reliance on debt-fueled smokestack industries toward services and consumption. Policy-makers have vowed to prioritize creating jobs, as employment and income growth sustain that transition and help a growing middle class pursue pricier products.

Nimbler technology businesses are now propelling China’s expansion. Output from information technology services jumped 19.1 percent from a year earlier in the first quarter, almost triple the 6.9 percent pace of gross domestic product growth.

Evidence of their growing clout is emerging this week. On Wednesday, blockbuster video and gaming content helped social media giant Tencent reported revenue and profit in excess of all analysts’ estimates. Alibabareports later on Thursday.

1. Brave New (Economy) World

Tencent and Alibaba began outstripping their brick-and-mortar peers right around 2016. Their rise in value coincided with a record-breaking run of investments in new-economy upstarts such as billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Financial and ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing, which would go on to oustUber Technologies Inc. and become Asia’s most valuable technology startup.

The pair are by far the country’s most valuable public companies, surpassing finance and energy titans with many times their revenue. Waiting in the wings are a second group of up-and-comers such as Alibaba rival JD.com Inc., search leader Baidu Inc. and online gaming service Netease Inc. Compare that with just five years ago, when every one of the top 10 were financial or energy operators.

Take this snapshot of May 2017...

...versus one for 2012:

2. Show me the Money

It’s not just revenue though. As a going concern, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. still generates way more profit than Tencent and Alibaba -- combined.

3. No Price on Growth

Yet investors are simply going where the growth is. Alibaba’s revenue for instance is up more than 1,000 percent since mid-2011, while the other three in the current top five appear laggardly in contrast.

4. The Lure of Efficiency

Another enticing aspect: China Construction Bank Corp. and PetroChina Co.employ hundreds of thousands across the country. That’s in part the legacy of the “iron rice bowl” model of decades past, where state enterprises provided citizens’ every need, and usually lifetime employment. The new generation of internet companies, whose workers number in the mere tens of thousands, look lean in comparison.

5. The Chinese Consumer Arises

Ultimately, Tencent and Alibaba are proxies for one of the defining economic forces in the new millennium: the Chinese consumer. The country’s 1.3 billion people have already irrevocably transformed natural resources and materials industries from steel to coal. Now, its growing middle class -- already more numerous than the entire U.S. -- demand quality fare from Alaskan salmon to iPhones and apps, and are overturning the global retail and consumer arenas.

— With assistance by Edwin Chan, Lulu Chen, and Xiaoqing Pi


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...a-s-new-economy-titans-in-seven-simple-charts