Yuan touches 19-year high as report forecasts growth

China's yuan touched a 19-year high and forward contracts advanced for a third day, after a report forecast that exports from Asia's largest economy picked up last month. Overseas sales rose 5 percent from a year earlier, after increasing 2.9 percent in November, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey before data due on Thursday. Growth will probably exceed 8 percent this year, compared with a 7.5 percent expansion target for 2012, and new yuan lending of more than 9 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) will be "enough to support" that, Chen Yulu, president of Renmin University of China and an adviser to the central bank, said on Tuesday.

Nation now the world's 2nd-largest film market

China's box office sales hit 17.07 billion yuan ($2.74 billion) in 2012, surging 30.18 percent year-on-year and making the country the world's second-largest film market. Chinese filmmakers produced 893 films last year, including 745 feature films and 33 animated films, according to data published on Wednesday by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.

MGM China gets nod for second Macao casino

Macao gave casino giant MGM China the official go-ahead on Wednesday to build a second casino in what is the world's biggest gambling center, sending shares in the company soaring 7 percent. The $2.5 billion casino, to be built on the up-and-coming Cotai Strip, which houses rival casinos including Sands China, will feature 1,600 hotel rooms, 500 gaming tables and 2,500 slot machines, MGM China Holdings said.

Chinese join in talks on iron ore mine in West Africa

Sichuan Hanlong Group, an investor in highways and power projects, is talking to Wuhan Iron & Steel Co about developing an iron ore project in West Africa owned by the Australia-based Sundance Resources Ltd, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Hanlong is seeking an investment from Wuhan Steel into the Mbalam project, which straddles the border of Cameroon and the Republic of Congo, and is also in discussions with other Chinese State-owned companies, said the people, who asked to be anonymous.

China Eastern flights to link San Francisco and Shanghai

China Eastern Airlines said on Wednesday it will begin daily direct flight between Shanghai and San Francisco on April 26. Flights to the US city will take off at 1 pm from Shanghai Pudong International Airport and land at San Francisco International Airport at 9:30 am. Those flying to Shanghai will take off at 12 pm from San Francisco and arrive in China at 4:30 pm.

Report suggests bank loan ratio hits record low

China's bank loans as a share of all financing in the economy may have fallen to a record low, giving evidence of an increasing use of alternative financing channels and giving rise to concerns about increasing credit risks. The amount of new yuan loans probably dropped by 14 percent last month from a year earlier, according to the median projection calculated in a Bloomberg News survey of 37 analysts. If the projections prove true, that would mean bank lending held a 55 percent share of aggregate financing in 2012, according to UBS AG estimates.

Exchange-traded fund for government bonds approved

China approved the introduction of its first exchange-traded fund for government bonds as policy makers seek to expand the nation's debt market. The fund, to be run by Guotai Asset Management Co, will be listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and benchmarked against an index of five-year government bonds, according to a statement posted to the China Securities Regulatory Commission's website on Tuesday. The fund will be "a bridge" that allows individuals to invest in government debt traded on China's interbank market, which they are now barred from.

Rubber price rises second day, nearing 8-month high

The price of rubber climbed for a second day, nearing an eight-month high reached on Monday. The increase came as speculation grew that China, the world's biggest consumer of the material, will purchase more rubber before the holidays next month. Rubber for delivery in June gained 0.8 percent to end at 308 yen a kilogram ($3,521 a metric ton) on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange. The contract reached 313.7 yen on Monday. China increased its imports of natural rubber by 15 percent to 3.28 million tons last year, according to Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries.

Zoomlion shares fall the most in more than a year

Shares in Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Co, China's second-biggest construction-equipment maker, fell the most in more than a year in Hong Kong trading after a newspaper said an anonymous letter had questioned the company's sales figures. The company said it hadn't exaggerated its earnings and that the allegations about its financial information are "false, groundless and misleading".

New residences to provide fiber network connections

All newly built residences, if they are in counties and cities where a public fiber optic telecom network is available, have to be equipped with fiber network connections, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The standards will take effect on April 1, and will also require residences to offer equal connections to services from various telecom companies allowing customers to choose which service they want. Analysts said that the new standards are aimed at growing domestic fiber broadband networks, providing potential business for the telecom industry worth thousands of billions yuan.

Actis invests in Nanjing medical equipment producer

The global private equity firm Actis Capital LLP has taken an undisclosed minority stake in the specialist medical equipment manufacturer Micro-Tech (Nanjing) Co Ltd, which it said was a sign of its confidence in the Chinese healthcare industry. "Nanjing Micro-Tech is the number one domestic player in the Chinese endoscopy consumable market," said Meng Ann Lim, head of China and Southeast Asia at Actis. "We see great potential in this sector and look forward to working with CEO Leng Derong and his team."

HNA Group earns revenue of 120b yuan in 2012

HNA Group, the parent company of Hainan Airlines, generated revenue of more than 120 billion yuan ($19.28 billion) in 2012, according to Chen Feng, its chairman. The total assets of the group were worth 380 billion yuan at the end of 2012, an increase of 38,000 times over the past 20 years, Chen said, adding that HNA's asset-liability ratio in 2012 was 79 percent, following three years of consecutive declines.

Former minister promotes migrant worker interests

China should place its highest priority on promoting the interests of migrant workers during its ongoing urbanization, according to Long Yongtu, a former vice-minister of foreign trade and economic cooperation. Speaking at an urbanization summit held by the China International Urbanization Development Strategy Research Committee in Beijing, Long said: "Without the effort and devotion of workers who migrated from rural areas, the Chinese economy could not have grown so fast over the past decade."

Polysilicon rulings to be published on Feb 20

The Ministry of Commerce will issue a preliminary ruling on its anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations into imported polysilicon from the United States, the European Union and South Korea on Feb 20, according to a report in the 21st Century Business Herald. China launched an investigation on Nov 27 to determine whether retrospective duties should be levied on imported solar-grade polysilicon from the three countries.

Land sale revenues drop by 12.6% to $321.4b

Local government revenues from land sales dropped 12.6 percent year-on-year in 2012 to about 2 trillion yuan ($321.4 billion), according to an industry report released by the China Index Academy, a Beijing-based industry research institute, based on data from 300 Chinese cities. Decreasing land transactions resulting from the government's property purchasing policies, are the major reason for the declining land revenues, analysts said. Transfer fees from land used for residential developments dropped 14.3 percent to 1.3 trillion yuan.

China Daily - Agencies

(China Daily 01/10/2013 page14)