China's coal exports have kept declining since the beginning of the second half of this year, partly as a result of limits in export quotas.
According to latest customs data, China sold abroad 2.08 million tonnes of coal in September, down 53.6 percent from the 4.48 million tonnes in the same month of last year.
After the coal exports hit 6.99 million tonnes in June, the highest within the year, the foreign sales began to fall in July and continued the downward trend in August and September.
Industry observers said the foreign sales were limited by absence of second-batch quota.
In the first half of this year, China set the first-batch quota at 31.8 million tonnes, or 60 percent of its total coal exports for whole of last year. But it declined to release the quota for the second half year as an effort to ensure domestic supplies.
Huang Teng, a coal trade analyst, said on Saturday that the new export quota would likely be issued within this month, so that exporters would be able to fulfill their contracts with importers from Japan and the Republic of Korea.
In the first three quarters, the coal exports stood at 35.72 million tonnes, down 6.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the General Administration of Customs. But the export value increased by 65.1 percent to 3.78 billion U.S. dollars.
Source:Xinhua
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Month-on-month decline in China's steel exports not so worse as expected
China saw a month-on-month drop in rolled steel exports in September, albeit the foreign sales of such products were higher than the year-earlier level.
Last month China exported 6.67 million tonnes of rolled steel, a growth of 2.23 million tonnes over the same month of last year, sources with the General Administration of Customs said Saturday.
But the exports were 1.01 million tonnes less than the August amount. The decrease was not so big as observers expected upon global economic slowdown.
This indicated that China-made rolled steel was still competitive in price on international markets. It was possible that the decline in orders from Europe had been offset with those from emerging markets, said Zhang Ping, a steel industry analyst with the United Metals Web.
According to customs data, China exported 48.5 million tonnes of rolled steel in the first nine months of this year, down 2.1 percent from the same period of last year. But the export value went up 46.5 percent to 49.8 billion U.S. dollars.
In a related development, China imported 1.27 million tonnes of rolled steel in September, down 4.54 percent from August or 11.1 percent from the same month of last year.
Rolled steel imports were 12.32 million tonnes in the January-September period, down five percent from a year earlier.
Source:Xinhua
Last month China exported 6.67 million tonnes of rolled steel, a growth of 2.23 million tonnes over the same month of last year, sources with the General Administration of Customs said Saturday.
But the exports were 1.01 million tonnes less than the August amount. The decrease was not so big as observers expected upon global economic slowdown.
This indicated that China-made rolled steel was still competitive in price on international markets. It was possible that the decline in orders from Europe had been offset with those from emerging markets, said Zhang Ping, a steel industry analyst with the United Metals Web.
According to customs data, China exported 48.5 million tonnes of rolled steel in the first nine months of this year, down 2.1 percent from the same period of last year. But the export value went up 46.5 percent to 49.8 billion U.S. dollars.
In a related development, China imported 1.27 million tonnes of rolled steel in September, down 4.54 percent from August or 11.1 percent from the same month of last year.
Rolled steel imports were 12.32 million tonnes in the January-September period, down five percent from a year earlier.
Source:Xinhua
China to provide more rural financial services on trial basis
China has decided to start on a trial basis to provide more rural financial products and services in nine provinces, the central bank said.
In a statement posted on its official website late Friday, the People's Bank of China said it had joined hand with the China Banking Regulatory Commission to issue a guideline document, asking commercial banks to improve their financial services in rural areas.
PBOC said such financial services would be first started on trial in grain-producing areas and counties with solid economic development in six central provinces and three northeastern provinces.
The central bank required commercial banks to improve their service network in the countryside and divert more funds to support rural economic growth.
Chinese commercial banks were demanded to provide more petty-sum credit loans and group guarantee loans to farmers. They were also asked to create more loan guarantee methods.
The nine provinces were Anhui, Shanxi, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning. PBOC said each province was allowed to select two or three county-level areas and allow commercial banks to start trial operation.
The decision was designed to push forward financial reform in the countryside and renovate the financial system in rural areas, which was stated in the communique adopted by the Third Plenary Session of the 17th Communist Party of China Central Committee, according to the central bank.
The plenum, which focused on issues concerning rural reform and development and ended on Sunday, said in the communique it would strive to double the per-capita disposable income of rural residents by 2020 from the current level.
Source: Xinhua
In a statement posted on its official website late Friday, the People's Bank of China said it had joined hand with the China Banking Regulatory Commission to issue a guideline document, asking commercial banks to improve their financial services in rural areas.
PBOC said such financial services would be first started on trial in grain-producing areas and counties with solid economic development in six central provinces and three northeastern provinces.
The central bank required commercial banks to improve their service network in the countryside and divert more funds to support rural economic growth.
Chinese commercial banks were demanded to provide more petty-sum credit loans and group guarantee loans to farmers. They were also asked to create more loan guarantee methods.
The nine provinces were Anhui, Shanxi, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning. PBOC said each province was allowed to select two or three county-level areas and allow commercial banks to start trial operation.
The decision was designed to push forward financial reform in the countryside and renovate the financial system in rural areas, which was stated in the communique adopted by the Third Plenary Session of the 17th Communist Party of China Central Committee, according to the central bank.
The plenum, which focused on issues concerning rural reform and development and ended on Sunday, said in the communique it would strive to double the per-capita disposable income of rural residents by 2020 from the current level.
Source: Xinhua
Singapore's Goh hails China's response to world financial storm
Singapore's Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong has praised China for its response to the Asian financial crisis in 1997 and the current global financial storm, which is believed to have serious impact on the world economy.
In a recent interview with China's Central Television Station, Goh said that China held its national currency and did not devalue it in 1997, which would have put further pressure on other currencies, local English newspaper "The Straits Times" reported on Saturday.
Goh was quoted as saying that this time, China, together with the Europeans and Americans, also lowered its interest rate. Otherwise, there would have been some competitive leakages of funds to the Chinese currency of Renminbi.
Echoing Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's speech that China's best contribution to the current global financial crisis was to keep the country's economy humming, Goh said that if China concentrated on growing the Chinese economy through fiscal policy as well as monetary policy, this would be a huge contribution towards tackling the current financial problem.
While warning that if China's economy slowed, coupled with the United States and other major European economies, the world would go into a very deep recession, he said that if China could grow, China could become for the time being a very big, maybe the biggest, engine of growth in the coming two or three years.
Source: Xinhua
In a recent interview with China's Central Television Station, Goh said that China held its national currency and did not devalue it in 1997, which would have put further pressure on other currencies, local English newspaper "The Straits Times" reported on Saturday.
Goh was quoted as saying that this time, China, together with the Europeans and Americans, also lowered its interest rate. Otherwise, there would have been some competitive leakages of funds to the Chinese currency of Renminbi.
Echoing Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's speech that China's best contribution to the current global financial crisis was to keep the country's economy humming, Goh said that if China concentrated on growing the Chinese economy through fiscal policy as well as monetary policy, this would be a huge contribution towards tackling the current financial problem.
While warning that if China's economy slowed, coupled with the United States and other major European economies, the world would go into a very deep recession, he said that if China could grow, China could become for the time being a very big, maybe the biggest, engine of growth in the coming two or three years.
Source: Xinhua
News Analysis: Interests of developing countries need to be taken into account in new global financial system
Facing the most ferocious financial crisis ever, European Union leaders at their two-day summit here called on the United States and emerging economies to revamp the global financial system to prevent a recurrence of the crunch.
But what kind of new financial system do they want to establish? One that only covers the interests of developed countries? Or one that covers the interests of all, including those deep in poverty?
In the initial period of the crisis, EU nations fought it individually but have been forced to join hands very recently as banks collapsed one after another and stock markets plunged at record rates day by day across Europe and the larger world.
EU members have thus rushed to adopt a string of measures to rescue their banking systems and restore confidence.
Germany and France jointly built up a defense against the financial crisis Monday by pledging more than one trillion euros to save troubled banks. Britain injected billions of pounds into three of the country's major banks.
At the EU summit, member countries "unanimously" agreed to take concerted actions to contain the crunch, accepting the principles agreed upon at the Eurogroup summit in Paris Sunday.
While tackling the emergencies, the EU leaders also urged major international players to work together for a revamp of the global financial system as they saw that "Laissez-faire" policy mistakes, loopholes in the financial system and the fragility of the market order were the cause of this financial tsunami.
For this purpose, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, pushed for a global summit by the end of the year.
Sarkozy said he would invite U.S. President George W. Bush to the summit when visiting the United States this weekend and would also bring onboard leaders of the emerging economies, such as China and India.
"We all agree in Europe that we are going to need to refound the international financial system," Sarkozy said after the summit.
"We had the crisis in developing countries; we had the Internet bubble; now we have a massive crisis."
"We are determined to draw conclusions concerning the financial system and the monetary system to revamp capitalism," he said, adding no financial institutions should be exempted from supervision.
The EU, together with the United States, has acted so far for the sake of their own interests, first at national level, then at the EU level.
It would not work if these nations act only with their own interests in mind without taking into consideration those of developing countries, the innocent victims of this crisis, in overhauling the global financial system, analysts here say.
Former EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson said, the world needs a modern and efficient redistribution system.
If all the interests go to the richest one percent, with the middle class hollowed out and the poor completely forgotten, this kind of globalization would not be politically sustainable, he said.
Developing countries have been hit hard as well, even harder, by the crisis because their hard-won achievements in development have been nearly wiped out.
Besides, poor nations would suffer a double blow, developing nations say.
On the one hand, it would be more difficult for developing or poor nations to get financing in global financial markets as a result of capital flow to developed countries due to bailout measures.
On the other hand, the current crunch has undermined demand, thus hurting their exports.
The pressure of the crisis on aid-receiving countries, plus the impact of soaring food and energy prices, may force up to 100 million people worldwide into poverty, according to the World Bank.
International aid agencies have warned that the financial crisis would worsen the life of the poor, leaving them exposed to more serious problems famine, diseases and unemployment.
Dominated by developed economies, the United States and the EU, which are also the biggest beneficiaries of globalization, the existing global economic order lacks rationality and justice to developing and poor countries, analysts say.
Global imbalance in economic development has made the rich richer and better prepared to weather crises, and the poor poorer and more vulnerable to crises, they say.
The effect of the financial crisis on developed nations is nothing more than a dip in living standards, but to the developing and poor ones, which have been dragged into the crisis, it means famine and poverty.
To achieve sustainable globalization and eliminate poverty worldwide, developed countries should responsibly take into account the needs of their developing partners when rebuilding the world financial system, analysts say.
Source: Xinhua
But what kind of new financial system do they want to establish? One that only covers the interests of developed countries? Or one that covers the interests of all, including those deep in poverty?
In the initial period of the crisis, EU nations fought it individually but have been forced to join hands very recently as banks collapsed one after another and stock markets plunged at record rates day by day across Europe and the larger world.
EU members have thus rushed to adopt a string of measures to rescue their banking systems and restore confidence.
Germany and France jointly built up a defense against the financial crisis Monday by pledging more than one trillion euros to save troubled banks. Britain injected billions of pounds into three of the country's major banks.
At the EU summit, member countries "unanimously" agreed to take concerted actions to contain the crunch, accepting the principles agreed upon at the Eurogroup summit in Paris Sunday.
While tackling the emergencies, the EU leaders also urged major international players to work together for a revamp of the global financial system as they saw that "Laissez-faire" policy mistakes, loopholes in the financial system and the fragility of the market order were the cause of this financial tsunami.
For this purpose, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, pushed for a global summit by the end of the year.
Sarkozy said he would invite U.S. President George W. Bush to the summit when visiting the United States this weekend and would also bring onboard leaders of the emerging economies, such as China and India.
"We all agree in Europe that we are going to need to refound the international financial system," Sarkozy said after the summit.
"We had the crisis in developing countries; we had the Internet bubble; now we have a massive crisis."
"We are determined to draw conclusions concerning the financial system and the monetary system to revamp capitalism," he said, adding no financial institutions should be exempted from supervision.
The EU, together with the United States, has acted so far for the sake of their own interests, first at national level, then at the EU level.
It would not work if these nations act only with their own interests in mind without taking into consideration those of developing countries, the innocent victims of this crisis, in overhauling the global financial system, analysts here say.
Former EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson said, the world needs a modern and efficient redistribution system.
If all the interests go to the richest one percent, with the middle class hollowed out and the poor completely forgotten, this kind of globalization would not be politically sustainable, he said.
Developing countries have been hit hard as well, even harder, by the crisis because their hard-won achievements in development have been nearly wiped out.
Besides, poor nations would suffer a double blow, developing nations say.
On the one hand, it would be more difficult for developing or poor nations to get financing in global financial markets as a result of capital flow to developed countries due to bailout measures.
On the other hand, the current crunch has undermined demand, thus hurting their exports.
The pressure of the crisis on aid-receiving countries, plus the impact of soaring food and energy prices, may force up to 100 million people worldwide into poverty, according to the World Bank.
International aid agencies have warned that the financial crisis would worsen the life of the poor, leaving them exposed to more serious problems famine, diseases and unemployment.
Dominated by developed economies, the United States and the EU, which are also the biggest beneficiaries of globalization, the existing global economic order lacks rationality and justice to developing and poor countries, analysts say.
Global imbalance in economic development has made the rich richer and better prepared to weather crises, and the poor poorer and more vulnerable to crises, they say.
The effect of the financial crisis on developed nations is nothing more than a dip in living standards, but to the developing and poor ones, which have been dragged into the crisis, it means famine and poverty.
To achieve sustainable globalization and eliminate poverty worldwide, developed countries should responsibly take into account the needs of their developing partners when rebuilding the world financial system, analysts say.
Source: Xinhua
China's Aug. trade value on motor vehicles, related products declines month-on-month
China's import and export value on motor vehicles and related products stood at 7.417 billion U.S. dollars in August, a decline of 3.85 percent from the previous month, according to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers .
The total included 2.713 billion U.S. dollars in arrivals, down 7.6 percent from a month ago, but up 22.58 percent over the year-earlier level; and 4.704 billion dollars in foreign sales, down 1.53 percent month-on-month, but up 23.32 percent year-on-year.
August saw the nation's imports of complete vehicles, particularly large-engine cars, increase from a month earlier, but exports of such products drop.
China bought from abroad 5,365 vehicles each with a displacement of at least 3,000 ml last month, up 28.7 percent on the same month of last year.
CAAM analysts attributed the growth to higher demand for big-displacement cars at home in advance of the expected rises of consumption tax as of Sept. 1.
Spurred by the increase of big-displacement car imports, China's total car arrivals reached 14,000 units in August, up 8.7 percent over the same month of last year, or up 26 percent over the previous months.
But August witnessed the first monthly decline over recent few years in China's car exports, due largely to shrinking demand overseas.
The country sold abroad 44,400 motor vehicles last month, down 22.18 percent from the previous month, or 11.29 percent from a year earlier.
CAAM data showed that between January and August, China's foreign trade value on motor vehicles and related products amounted to 56.333 billion U.S. dollars. The total included 21.983 billion dollars in import value, up 35.15 percent year-on-year, and 34.35 billion dollars in export value, up 36.5 percent.
Source:Xinhua
The total included 2.713 billion U.S. dollars in arrivals, down 7.6 percent from a month ago, but up 22.58 percent over the year-earlier level; and 4.704 billion dollars in foreign sales, down 1.53 percent month-on-month, but up 23.32 percent year-on-year.
August saw the nation's imports of complete vehicles, particularly large-engine cars, increase from a month earlier, but exports of such products drop.
China bought from abroad 5,365 vehicles each with a displacement of at least 3,000 ml last month, up 28.7 percent on the same month of last year.
CAAM analysts attributed the growth to higher demand for big-displacement cars at home in advance of the expected rises of consumption tax as of Sept. 1.
Spurred by the increase of big-displacement car imports, China's total car arrivals reached 14,000 units in August, up 8.7 percent over the same month of last year, or up 26 percent over the previous months.
But August witnessed the first monthly decline over recent few years in China's car exports, due largely to shrinking demand overseas.
The country sold abroad 44,400 motor vehicles last month, down 22.18 percent from the previous month, or 11.29 percent from a year earlier.
CAAM data showed that between January and August, China's foreign trade value on motor vehicles and related products amounted to 56.333 billion U.S. dollars. The total included 21.983 billion dollars in import value, up 35.15 percent year-on-year, and 34.35 billion dollars in export value, up 36.5 percent.
Source:Xinhua
China signs zero-tariff trade deal with Senegal
China signed Friday a trade deal with Senegal to offer zero-tariff treatment to more than 400 categories of goods imported from Senegal.
The agreement was inked by Chinese Ambassador to Senegal Lu Shaye and Senegalese Minister for Commerce Mamadou Diop in Dakar, Senegal's capital.
The trade deal will elevate their bilateral trade and economic ties to a new stage and will also foster people-to-people exchanges between the two sides, said Lu.
The two peoples will benefit from the agreement which raised the number of tariff-free Senegalese export products to China from about 190 in 2005 to more than 600, the Chinese ambassador added.
Diop said that the agreement was of great significance for the two countries to strengthen their economic and trade cooperation.
Friendly bilateral cooperation in various fields, particularly in trade and economy, has been booming since China and Senegal resumed diplomatic ties in October 2005, the minister said.
More Senegalese are now running businesses or have started their own enterprises in China, he said, adding that he welcomed more Chinese businessmen to make investment in Senegal.
At the Beijing Summit of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum in 2006, the Chinese government pledged to further open China's market to exports from Africa's least developed countries by raising the number of products enjoying zero-tariff treatment from190 to 440.
Source:Xinhua
The agreement was inked by Chinese Ambassador to Senegal Lu Shaye and Senegalese Minister for Commerce Mamadou Diop in Dakar, Senegal's capital.
The trade deal will elevate their bilateral trade and economic ties to a new stage and will also foster people-to-people exchanges between the two sides, said Lu.
The two peoples will benefit from the agreement which raised the number of tariff-free Senegalese export products to China from about 190 in 2005 to more than 600, the Chinese ambassador added.
Diop said that the agreement was of great significance for the two countries to strengthen their economic and trade cooperation.
Friendly bilateral cooperation in various fields, particularly in trade and economy, has been booming since China and Senegal resumed diplomatic ties in October 2005, the minister said.
More Senegalese are now running businesses or have started their own enterprises in China, he said, adding that he welcomed more Chinese businessmen to make investment in Senegal.
At the Beijing Summit of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum in 2006, the Chinese government pledged to further open China's market to exports from Africa's least developed countries by raising the number of products enjoying zero-tariff treatment from190 to 440.
Source:Xinhua
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