Google to talk with authors over copyrights

Google to talk with authors over copyrights

Search engine giant Google is sending a representative to China this week to talk with the country’s copyright watchdog.
The move is designed to cool Chinese authors’ heated complaints against the company over copyright violations, a Google senior executive said yesterday.
Nearly 18,000 books from 570 Chinese writers have been scanned by Google and included in its digital library, Google Books, available only to Internet users in the United States.
“So far, no writers we reached said he or she had authorized Google to do the scanning,” said Zhang Hongbo, deputy director of China Written Works Copyright Society.
Google’s infringement of Chinese authors’ rights is very severe, Zhang said.
Daniel Alegre, Google’s vice-president of Asia Pacific Sales and Operations, said it was understandable that Chinese authors were dissatisfied over the scanning of their works. He said that, due to the huge amount of books scanned, it was difficult to contact every author.
Google and copyright organizations, such as the Authors’ Guild and the Association of American Publishers, submitted a revised settlement agreement on Saturday to a US court.
The settlement, for a 2005 lawsuit over Google’s ambitious plan to digitize books from major US libraries, outlined a plan to create a comprehensive database of in-print and out-of-print works. But the original agreement drew much criticism.
The Justice Department and others said Google was potentially violating copyright law, setting itself up to unfairly control access to electronic versions of older books and depriving authors and their heirs of proper compensation.
The revisions to the settlement primarily address the handling of so-called orphan works, the millions of books whose rights holders are unknown or cannot be found.

Lenovo hit by battery woes

Lenovo hit by battery woes

More than 200 Lenovo F41 laptop users have demanded the Chinese computer maker replace their faulty batteries.
Most of the customers bought the laptops after March 2008, and the problematic batteries were provided by Sony and made in Japan, the Beijing Times reported.
The newspaper said about 270 people joined an online forum and demanded Lenovo replace the batteries, because the warranty period had expired.
The members complain that the batteries run out of power in about 20 minutes.
Some members said the battery died when the battery management system showed there was still 70 percent energy left.
“I bought my laptop in May 2008, and in June, I found my laptop would switch off if it showed there was still 50 percent energy left,” Wan Zhengpeng, a 20-year-old student from the Chinese Agriculture University, told METRO yesterday.
“I keep running down and recharging the battery completely every month as Lenovo advised, but it did not make my battery work as long as it should,” he said.
Lenovo and Sony were not available to comment yesterday.
A Lenovo spokesperson told the Beijing Times that the company had received complaints from more than 60 users. They sent two batteries for testing to Sony headquarters in Tokyo on Oct 30.
They promised to provide new Sony batteries for the 60 users who complained.
The Lenovo F41 computers hit the market in the second half of 2007, and sold about 2 million units.
The spokesperson told the newspaper that the current complaints were not a common problem.
It was reported that three brands of batteries were used in the model, but the other two brands of battery were not faulty.
In August, Lenovo recalled Thinkpad laptops because its Sony batteries were too hot while in operation.

Honda, Guangzhou Auto mull expansion

Honda, Guangzhou Auto mull expansion

Honda Motor and Guangzhou Automobile may expand the capacity of their China plant by a third next year to meet robust demand in the world’s largest market, chairman of the Chinese automaker said on Thursday.
The No 2 Japanese automaker and its partner operate two plants making Accord, City Odyssey and Fit models in south China, with a combined capacity of 360,000 units.
“Our second plant is smaller with only 120,000 units. We may double the capacity next year,” Zhang Fangyou told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry forum in Shanghai.
A spokesman with Honda’s China operations said the expansion plan is under consideration but no final decision has been made so far.
China is a major bright spot this year as the government’s policy incentives bolstered automobile demand, making the country a safe heaven for global automakers, battered by a sharp-than-expected industry downturn.
Volkswagan AG had in September unveiled a plan to invest 4 billion euros ($5.99 billion) in China till 2011, while Ford Motor, a conservative player, also broke ground for its third China plant recently.

Car sales in China jumped 75.77 percent to 946,400 units in October, with sales in the first 10 months up 45.18 percent at 8.19 million units, official data showed.
And positive signs that Beijing may continue its efforts to boost domestic consumption, including automobiles, are raising hopes for another bumper year ahead.
A report by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology indicated last week that the government might extend some of the existing incentives, including cuts in sales tax for small cars, as well as introduce other steps.
Dong Yang, secretary general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, told reporters on Thursday that he expected China’s overall vehicle sales, including trucks and buses, to grow 10 percent in 2010 if the government renews its tax incentives.
Guangzhou Auto, China’s sixth-largest, expects its sales to grow 12 to 13 percent this year and to maintain a double-digit growth rate next year, Zhang said.
It is scheduled to start building a joint venture plant with Fiat at the end of this month with completion scheduled for 2011, Zhang added.
The expansionary moves are expected to boost Guangzhou Auto’s annual production capacity to more than 1 million units in 2011 from its current 800,000, Zhang added.
Guangzhou Auto also operates a car venture with Toyota Motor in south China.

Alstom seeking China partners for CCS projects

Alstom seeking China partners for CCS projects

Alstom Power has been keen to develop clean energy solutions. Its boiler technology in new supercritical and ultra-supercritical coal-fired plants is said to achieve 50 percent efficiency, according to the company. An efficiency improvement of 1 percent equals 2 to 3 percent less CO2 emitted.
The new energy-efficient factory will save 6,000 tons of CO2 each year and is the company’s largest boiler manufacturing site in the world as well as exporting base and research and development center in the Asia Pacific.
With a capacity to produce 600 megawatts supercritical boilers and 1,000 megawatts ultra-supercritical boilers, the factory will export one third of its products to the rest of the world.
Alstom bought a 51-percent stake in Wuhan Boiler Company, a State-controlled company that’s been making boilers for power plants for 50 years and is expected to play a key role in the country’s large-scale construction of energy-efficient, low-emission thermal power plants.
Alstom designs, manufactures, supplies, installs and services more than 25 percent of the world’s installed power generation base.

CITIC Pacific to sell Oz ore to mills

CITIC Pacific to sell Oz ore to mills

CITIC Pacific Ltd, an arm of China’s biggest State-owned investment company, signed accords to sell as much as two-thirds of the iron ore from its $4-billion Australian project to Chinese mills.
“We’ve identified the major steel works in China who have signed up preliminary sales agreements,” Barry Fitzgerald, chief executive officer of the Hong Kong-based company’s Australian unit, said in an interview. The balance of the output will be used by the company’s own plants in China, he said.
China is expected to use more iron ore in the next five years than Australia, the biggest exporter, has produced in its history, Rio Tinto Group said this month. The Asian nation’s economic growth may accelerate to 10.5 percent this quarter, according to a Bloomberg survey, as stimulus spending boosts demand for automobiles and refrigerators.
“China’s appetite for iron ore will continue to be very strong,” said Michael Heffernan, a client advisor with Austock Securities Ltd. “While the rest of the world has been floundering around looking for lifeboats, China just keeps on surfing. Its growth is improving again.”
Of the mine’s 28-million-ton output, as much as 20 million tons may be sold to customers with the rest kept for CITIC Pacific’s own steel plants in China, Fitzgerald said.
CITIC Pacific also develops properties and runs toll roads.
“China demand will continue,” Fitzgerald said in Perth, declining to name the mills that had signed initial accords. “The stimulus package is a short-term issue. The long-term market will be there.”
First output is scheduled in the fourth quarter next year from CITIC Pacific Mining’s Sino Iron project at Cape Preston, 100 km southwest of Karratha in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.

CITIC Pacific Mining may consider expanding the project, Fitzgerald said. The company “can either increase the length of our operation or increase the capacity,” he said. “Once we are able to move our focus from delivering the start-up of production and adding the additional lines, I’m sure we’ll need to review what the demand is and what the pricing points are.”
CITIC Pacific jumped as much 10 percent, the most since July 31, to HK$22.40 ($2.89) and closed up 9.09 percent to HK$22.2 in Hong Kong, compared with a 1-percent drop in the benchmark Hang Seng index. The stock has more than doubled this year.
China has proposed 90 investments in Australia valued at about A$34 billion ($31 billion) in the past 18 months, the Canberra-based Foreign Investment Review Board said in September.
Fox Resources Ltd, backed by China’s Jinchuan Group Ltd, said on Wednesday it’s in talks with a potential Chinese partner to help develop an iron ore project in Australia.
The open pit mine will be one of the largest in the world, and over its estimated 25-year life span will be 5.5 km long, 3 km wide and 600 m deep. After the material is mined, it will be transported to six grinding mills. The mills, being built in China, will be shipped on site from January.

ExxonMobil to boost mainland sales

ExxonMobil to boost mainland sales

US oil major ExxonMobil is increasing both onshore and offshore oil products supply to China, as the market is becoming more critically important to its future strategy, said a senior company executive.
The company’s onshore product supply to China will be greatly enhanced by the Fujian integrated refining and petrochemical complex, which went into full operation on Wednesday. “It is our one major move in the Chinese market,” Sherman Glass, president of ExxonMobil Refining & Supply Company told China Daily in an exclusive interview.
The around 40-billion-yuan ($5.9 billion) Fujian project, in which ExxonMobil has a 25-percent stake, will triple Fujian’s annual oil refining capacity to 12 million tons from 4 million tons. It can produce 7.5 million tons of refined oil a year.
The US company is currently spending several billion dollars to expand its refining and petrochemical facility in Singapore. When completed in 2011, it will be ExxonMobil’s largest manufacturing complex in the world. “A big part of our products from the Singaporean project will be exported to China,” said Glass.
Although China still accounts for a relatively small part in ExxonMobil’s global sales, the market is of strategic importance to the company as the growth potential is huge, said Glass.
“We expect demand in the Asia Pacific region for liquid products to grow about 2 percent per year with product demand projected to increase about 55 percent from 2005 to 2030,” he said. “About 60 percent of the growth in the region is from China.”
The booming demand is driven by rapid growth in the car fleet, increasing road and sea freight movements, and strong growth in the demand for chemical feedstock, he said.
The International Energy Agency said in its annual outlook, issued this week, that it expects demand for oil to fall in developed economies through 2030 while Chinese demand increases by 3.5 percent a year. In 15 years, China is expected to surpass the US as the world’s largest spender on oil and natural gas.
Currently ExxonMobil’s investment in China amounts to around $4 billion. Besides the Fujian integrated project, which is also the company’s largest single investment in China, it is also looking at other investment opportunities on downstream petrochemical projects, said Glass.
Although fuel prices in China are still controlled by the government, which to some extent prevented domestic refineries from passing on their increasing costs to consumers, Glass said ExxonMobil’s investment in the Fujian project is with a “long-term perspective”.
The mode of integration production will also help boost development of China’s petrochemical industry in terms of energy efficiency and environmental protection.
The Fujian complex is also integrated with a fuel marketing joint venture owned by Sinopec, which has a 55-percent stake in the project. ExxonMobil and Saudi Aramco hold 22.5-percent stake each in the project. The marketing venture operates approximately 750 gas stations in Fujian province.
By the end of the year, around 300 stations among the 750 will use joint brands for operation, said Glass.
ExxonMobil has had several recent successes in tapping into the Chinese markets. This year it signed long-term, multi-billion-dollar deals with Sinopec and PetroChina to deliver liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Papua New Guinea and Australia.

 

BMW to hike China output

BMW to hike China output

Christoph Stark, president and CEO of BMW Group Region China, said that China’s luxury car market has tremendous growth potential, driven by the country’s steady economic growth.
“The premium car segment will grow faster than the overall vehicle market in China,” Stark said, predicting that the premium segment will account for 7 to 8 percent of the total passenger car market in the years to come from less than 5 percent now.
BMW’s expansion plan will also include an engine plant in Shenyang, but it has not provided specifics for the project.
The BMW-Brilliance joint venture, formed in 2003, now produces the 3 and 5 Series sedans.
Eichiner said the venture will launch the all-new 5 Series sedans with an extended wheelbase, specially designed for Chinese buyers, at the end of next year,.
Audi and Mercedes too have car plants in China with local partners.

China reaffirms principle of probe of Rio Tinto case

China reaffirms principle of probe of Rio Tinto case

China will handle the Rio Tinto case according to Chinese law and the China-Australia Consular Agreement, Chinese Foreign Ministrys pokesman Qin Gang said at a regular news briefing on Thursday.

Stern Hu, head of Rio Tinto’s Shanghai office, was detained by Chinese authorities in early July along with three other staff on charges of spying and stealing state secrets.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith had raised concern recently on the two-month extension of Chinese investigation on this case.

In response to such concern, Qin said the Rio Tinto case would be handled by Chinese judicial organs in accordance with Chinese law and the China-Australia Consular Agreement.

Tire firms searching for fresh pastures

Tire firms searching for fresh pastures

Small and medium-sized tiremakers in China are now shifting their marketing focus to other countries to alleviate the losses due to the punitive tariffs imposed by the US on Chinese-made tires in September.
“From September, our tire exports to the US shrank nearly 40 percent due to the punitive tariffs,” Jiang Wenchang, sales manager of Beijing-based China National Tire & Rubber Corp, told China Daily at the 3rd Asian Essen Tire Show, which opened yesterday in Shanghai.
“We are altering our marketing priority to European countries now, as they have a similar product standard as that of the US,” he said.
Jiang said he expects his company to make $10 million from tire exports to the European markets by the end of this year.
Liu, a manager from Qingdao Fulin Tires, said his company’s exports to the US were frozen in September, compared with exports of $27 million from January to August.
Liu’s words are echoed by Li, a salesperson from the smaller Guangzhou Xindi Tire Co, who said his company’s US business has come to a halt and it is now shifting business to central and southern American markets.
“We are adopting a ‘wait-and-see’ strategy and regard (halting US exports) as a temporary market reaction. However, we won’t abandon the US market. It’s something we can never give up (due to its massive market capacity),” she said.
A survey of 44 tire makers from the tire department of China Rubber Industry Association (CRIA) shows that due to sluggish global demand and increasing protective and punitive measures, between January and August, tire exports accounted for just 40 percent of the total output, the lowest in the past several years, with export volumes falling 7.1 percent year-on-year.
“In the long run, Chinese tiremakers should rejig their low-price export strategy and scout for more international markets,” said Cai Weiming, secretary-general of the Tire department of CRIA.
“Chinese tires exported to the US have long been categorized as low-priced with little added-value. Now it is time for tire makers to adjust their product line to produce high-end products with more technology inputs,” he said.
Liu Hongpeng, deputy manger of Shandong Taishan Tire Co, said his company is working on a new production line to produce high-end tires.
“In this way, we will be immune to the punitive measures from the US, which primarily target low-cost products.”
The US in September this year imposed a 35-percent special tariff on tire imports from China, on concerns that the products were affecting local tire markets.

Fast food promotion to cook up fights

Fast food promotion to cook up fights

McDonald’s has cut its prices for the second time this year, and may prompt other fast food chains to lower their prices, analysts say.
McDonald’s yesterday began offering price reductions on its extra value lunch combos in 19 cities until Dec 29.
Zhang Yue, a consultant who has been following the Chinese consumer market for more than 10 years, said McDonald’s lagged behind some of its competitors in Beijing.
Zhang said the financial crisis had pushed the company to launch more campaigns in order to secure customers.
Zhang Jiayin, chief marketing officer of McDonald’s China, said the 15 yuan lunch combos were very competitive compared to other fast food restaurants in China.
This is the second time that McDonald’s has cut its prices in China, which is one of the fastest growing fast food markets in the world.
In February, McDonald’s announced that it had cut prices on more than 40 percent of its products.
McDonald’s major rival KFC said it had no plans to cut its prices but would continue with its regular seasonal promotions.
Staff at the fast food chain Dicos and Subway said they had not received any information about new price reductions.