Anshan Steels Fujian deal may signal coastal move

Anshan Steel’s Fujian deal may signal coastal move

Anshan Iron &Steel Group, China’s fourth largest steel maker, has agreed to help restructure the steel industry in Fujian province, indicating that the firm may build a new mill in the southeastern province.
Anshan Steel and the Fujian provincial government signed a strategic cooperation agreement on Thursday, the Liaoning province-based steelmaker said.
Under the agreement, the two sides will deepen co-operation in steel industry consolidation, including eliminating obsolete capacity.
Media reports said Anshan Steel planned to build a 10 million ton plant in the southeastern province, at a total cost of 60 billion yuan.
Anshan Steel President Zhang Xiaogang said in 2008 that the company was studying a possible venture with Fujian Sangang (Group) Co, allowing it improved access to imported iron ore.
“There are rich port resources in Fujian and the local steel market still has huge potential,” the company said.
Liu Jingyuan, a spokesman for Anshan Steel, declined to comment on whether the cooperation with Fujian was related to a new steel mill in the province.
“Fujian’s steel production only accounts for half of its steel consumption, indicating a huge market potential for steel mills in the province,” said Xu Xiangchun, a senior analyst at consulting firm Mysteel.
Such a move to Fujian would also be in line with government guidance on industry consolidation, which has seen large steel mills lead the way by moving from inland to coastal areas, he said.
But Anshan Steel may have to take bold steps to rein in its total production capacity and close outdated facilities before it can win regulatory approval to open new mills, he said.
The restructured steel industry will be focused on China’s coast – with Anshan Steel in Liaoning province, Shougang in Caofeidian in Hebei province, Baosteel in Zhanjiang, Guangdong province, and Wuhan Iron and Steel Group in Fangchenggang, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.
Steel plants in coastal areas are expected to account for 20 percent of the nation’s total capacity by 2011, the government said in an industry stimulus plan last February.
A report by KPMG illustrates that due to increasing environmental pressure, as well as the need to control logistical costs, China will gradually move its steel production capacity to coastal areas to give enterprises a greater competitive edge.

Chinalcos sales revenue at 142b yuan in 09

Chinalco’s sales revenue at 142b yuan in ‘09

The Aluminum Corp of China (Chinalco), the country’s top aluminum producer, said on Thursday its sales revenue reached 142 billion yuan ($21 billion) last year.
The company has yet released its profit figures. Sales revenue was 126 billion yuan in 2008.
Chinalco said its business operation was at a steady running despite the international financial crisis.
The company also made what it said “substantial” progress in business restructuring, including eliminating outdated and highly energy-consuming production capacities.
Chinalco closed six inefficient electrolytic aluminium production lines in 2009. The corporation also saved a total of 1.63 million tons of standard coal.

Chemical firm plans expansion in Jiangxi

Chemical firm plans expansion in Jiangxi

China National Chemical Corp (ChemChina), a national chemical producer, has signed an agreement with Boston, Massachusetts-based Cabot Corporation to expand their joint fumed-silica project in Jiangxi province.
According to ChemChina, the move will strengthen the firm’s specialty chemical product portfolio.
The two parties agreed to expand production at the Jiangxi facility to 15,000 tons by 2011, making it the largest producer in the world. Further expansion plans are also in the works, according to a joint statement.
Fumed-silica is used as a thickening or anti-caking agent in foods. Other uses include the auto and construction industries for viscosity adjustment in paints, coatings, printing inks, adhesives and polyester resins.
The Jiangxi project will further increase ChemChina’s important organic-silicon business, said ChemChina President Ren Jianxin.
In 2006 ChemChina entered the organic silicon market via its purchase of France-based Rhodia SA through its subsidiary China National BlueStar (Group) Corp. The acquisition made BlueStar the world’s second largest maker of organic silicon.
ChemChina is consolidated into six business units – advanced chemical materials, specialty chemicals, oil processing and refining products, chlor-alkali chemicals, agrochemicals, rubber products and chemical equipment.
Last year the company recorded a profit of 910 million yuan ($133.29 million), in spite of a downturn in the global chemical industry.

State-owned restructuring pace quickens

State-owned restructuring pace quickens

The local government is seeking to speed up restructuring of Shanghai’s State-owned enterprises by pushing them to go public, Shanghai Vice-Mayor Ai Baojun said yesterday.
The city is targeting a securitization ratio of up to 90 percent for State-owned companies, Ai said on local radio. Ai didn’t elaborate on when the target would be reached.
Securitization is the process by which a company packages its financial assets and then markets them to investors.
The purpose of the securitization effort is to diversify the shareholders of State-operated assets, said Ai. “We encourage capital investment from some funds, including private equities, in our State-owned enterprises,” he said.
With the city’s exports down, Shanghai officials believe the timing is right to further restructure State-owned enterprises.
Just last week, Yang Guoxiong, director of the Shanghai Municipal State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, said over 30 percent of State-owned assets in the city – valued between 20.3 billion and 23.7 billion yuan ($2.97 billion and $3.47 billion)- will realize securitization this year, up some 7 percentage points from 2009.
“The main goal in 2010 is to push assets held by the State-owned conglomerates to go public, making their listed units the major platform for them,” said Yang.
Official figures show Shanghai’s State-run firms contributed 352.8 billion yuan to the nation’s gross domestic product in 2009.
According to Ai, 50 percent of Shanghai’s economic output was generated by State-owned firms, for a combined profit of 40.9 billion yuan in 2009, up 53.3 percent from a year earlier.
According to reports from the Securities Times, one-quarter of Shanghai’s 72 State-owned firms has undergone restructuring during the past year. These include Shanghai Airlines and financial services provider Aijian Corp.
Debt-laden electronics giant SVS Group Co completed its restructuring last December by selling its entire stake in its two listed units to another government-owned assets management company, Shanghai Yidian Holdings, to alleviate cash flow problems. The two listed firms both reported huge losses in 2008.

BMW sees fastest growth, best potentials in China

BMW sees fastest growth, best potentials in China

China has become BMW’s fourth largest market, where the German luxury car maker saw the fastest growth in auto sales in 2009, and great market potentials, a senior company official told Xinhua Wednesday.
The company saw a 38 percent growth in sales last year in China against a 10 percent decline worldwide due to the international financial crisis, said Christoph Stark, president and CEO of the BMW Group in China.
Stark said the company sold a total of 90,536 cars in China last year, including 16,006 of its flagship BMW 7 series, a record high and up 56.8 percent year-on-year.
He said China had remained the biggest market for its BMW 7 series for three consecutive years during the past four years.
Official figures showed China had overtaken the United States as the world’s top auto maker and market in 2009 boosted by government stimulus measures.
Annual sales rose 46.15 percent year-on-year to 13.64 million units. Output increased 48.3 percent to 13.79 million units, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
In tandem with China’s overall economic growth and fast urbanization, the country is seeing expanding middle-class families, which will become potential customers for luxury cars, said Stark.
He also said the portion of luxury cars was only 5 percent of the total car consumption market in the country while the portion exceeded 10 percent in mature car markets, which suggested greater growth potentials.

Honda to build $168m new plant in China

Honda to build $168m new plant in China

Dongfeng Honda Automobile Co will build a new plant in China to meet robust demand in the Chinese market, the company said in Wuhan Wednesday.
Dongfeng Honda, a joint venture between Japan’s Honda Motor Co and Dongfeng Motor Group Co of China, said the plant is scheduled to start production in the second half of 2012 with an initial capacity of 60,000 units.
The project, to cost 1.15 billion yuan ($168 million), will ultimately have a capacity of 240,000 units, the company said.
The plant covering an area of one million sq m is about 4 km northeast of the existing plant in Wuhan, capital of the central province of Hubei.
Dongfeng Honda sold 210,600 vehicles in 2009, an increase of 28.2 percent from the 2008 sales.
The company will have an annual capacity of 300,000 units after the second plant becomes operational, as it is planning to increase the annual capacity of existing plant from 40,000 units to 240,000 units.
Honda’s overall annual capacity in China will then reach 710,000 units, which also include 360,000 units at Guangqi Honda and 50,000 units at Honda Automobile (China).
China overtook the United States as the world’s largest auto market last year thanks to government’s stimulus measures and strong economic recovery. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers announced on Jan 11 that 2009 auto sales rose 46.15 percent year-on-year to 13.64 million units.

State-owned restructuring pace quickens

State-owned restructuring pace quickens

The local government is seeking to speed up restructuring of Shanghai’s State-owned enterprises by pushing them to go public, Shanghai Vice-Mayor Ai Baojun said yesterday.
The city is targeting a securitization ratio of up to 90 percent for State-owned companies, Ai said on local radio. Ai didn’t elaborate on when the target would be reached.
Securitization is the process by which a company packages its financial assets and then markets them to investors.
The purpose of the securitization effort is to diversify the shareholders of State-operated assets, said Ai. “We encourage capital investment from some funds, including private equities, in our State-owned enterprises,” he said.
With the city’s exports down, Shanghai officials believe the timing is right to further restructure State-owned enterprises.
Just last week, Yang Guoxiong, director of the Shanghai Municipal State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, said over 30 percent of State-owned assets in the city – valued between 20.3 billion and 23.7 billion yuan – will realize securitization this year, up some 7 percentage points from 2009.
“The main goal in 2010 is to push assets held by the State-owned conglomerates to go public, making their listed units the major platform for them,” said Yang.
Official figures show Shanghai’s State-run firms contributed 352.8 billion yuan to the nation’s gross domestic product in 2009.
According to Ai, 50 percent of Shanghai’s economic output was generated by State-owned firms, for a combined profit of 40.9 billion yuan in 2009, up 53.3 percent from a year earlier.
According to reports from the Securities Times, one-quarter of Shanghai’s 72 State-owned firms has undergone restructuring during the past year. These include Shanghai Airlines and financial services provider Aijian Corp.
Debt-laden electronics giant SVS Group Co completed its restructuring last December by selling its entire stake in its two listed units to another government-owned assets management company, Shanghai Yidian Holdings, to alleviate cash flow problems. The two listed firms both reported huge losses in 2008.

Google grabs more eyeballs in China

Google grabs more eyeballs in China

Google’s brand awareness among Chinese users has soared after the company announced last week that it may pull out of the country, according to a domestic research firm.
That may provide fresh fodder for those who believe the threat of Google’s possible retreat from China is a market tactic to shore up its No 2 position in the country’s search-engine market.
Edward Yu, president of domestic research firm Analysys International, told China Daily yesterday that his company has sensed a significant growth of search inquiries for Google.
“The search inquiries for Google have seen a great rise during the past few days in China and a large number of them came from third- and fourth-tier cities, where previously few people know about the company,” said Yu.

He said searches from outside big cities have risen “many times” compared with a week ago, but said he needed more time to reveal the figures.
The world’s largest search engine said last Wednesday that the company had detected a “highly sophisticated and targeted attack from China” that resulted in the theft of the company’s intellectual property.
The company said it will no longer continue censoring results on Google.cn, the Chinese-language website it launched in 2006. It also said it is in discussions with the government and is prepared to shut down its Chinese offices.
Google yesterday also said it postponed the planned launch of its mobile phone in China, AP reported.
Spokeswoman Marsha Wang said a launch ceremony planned for today was canceled but declined to give a reason for the decision or to say when the launch might be rescheduled.
Google’s phone is an effort by the company to join in competition for a share of China’s mobile phone market, which is the world’s most populous.
Although there are no figures yet from other research firms to corroborate Analysys’ findings, an online traffic track tool provided by Baidu Inc, Google’s major competitor in China, revealed that search inquiries for the US search engine increased 79 percent in China during the past week.
It said besides major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, users in other cities such as Zhengzhou, Nanjing and Xi’an were also among the top cities where Google drew interest.
During the past few days, it has appeared that Google has lowered its tone on its threat to retreat from China.
CEO Eric Smith said in an interview with Newsweek on Friday that it was possible that the company can work out an agreement with the Chinese government and continue to operate in the country.
It was also reported that Google is investigating whether employees in its China office were involved in the attacks on its network.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said yesterday that foreign enterprises doing business in China, including Google, should respect Chinese laws and regulations.
Ma said at a regular news briefing that companies coming to China should “respect the public good and cultural traditions in China, and bear a social responsibility”.
“Google is, of course, no exception,” he added.
Global Internet users who visit google.cn increased 9.9 percent during the past seven days, according to figures from Alexa.com, an Internet traffic tracker.
Traffic to “g.cn”, a shorter domain name that Google owns for Google.cn, also increased 20 percent during the period.
Google China said yesterday in an online statement that the company was functioning as usual. It said reports about Google shutting down its Chinese offices are not true, and employees are still at work.

Baidu sues US company over cyber-attack

Baidu sues US company over cyber-attack

China’s leading Internet search engine, Baidu, has filed a lawsuit in a New York court against a U.S. firm that managed its domain registration, Baidu said in a statement on Wednesday.
Baidu is seeking damages from its U.S. domain name registration service provider Register.com, Inc., following an attack on its website www.baidu.com last week, the Beijing-based company said in the statement.
Baidu’s website was paralyzed for several hours after a cyber-attack on Jan. 12, denying users from many places around the world access.
The attackers posted on the site a message in red saying, “This site has been hacked by Iranian Cyber Army.”
It is believed the unidentified “Iranian Cyber Army” changed Baidu’s domain name server records and redirected traffic to another website.
“Register.com, Inc.’s gross negligence resulted in severe damage to the company,” said the statement.
The company declined to detail its losses and it failed to disclose the damages it is seeking.
The search engine, which claims 70 percent of China’s Internet search market, had only been down only once previously, for half an hour in December 2006.

Hong Kong Disneylands loss narrows

Hong Kong Disneyland’s loss narrows

The volume of Hong Kong’s goods exports in November 2009 rose by 1.4 percent year on year, while import volume rose 7.4 percent, local statistical authorities said Tuesday.
The prices of goods exports rose 0.5 percent. The prices of re-exports rose 0.7 percent, while those of domestic exports fell 1.2 percent, according to the Census and Statistics Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government.
For the first 11 months a whole, the volume of goods exports fell 13.7 percent, while that of goods imports dropped 11.5 percent.
Statistics released earlier by the Census and Statistics Department had showed that the value of Hong Kong’s goods exports in November rose 1.3 percent year on year, the first year-on-year rise since October 2008.