Chinese shares close at record high（2007/04/25）
Chinese shares rose to a new high on Tuesday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rising 0.26 percent to close at 3,720.53 points.
The index, which covers both yuan-denominated A-shares and foreign currency-denominated B-shares listed on the Shanghai StockExchange, opened at 3,736.15 points and touched an intraday all-time high of 3,746.24 points in the morning.
The component index of the smaller Shenzhen Stock Exchange was down 0.15 percent to 10,669.04 points.
Combined turnover of the two bourses soared to a record of 317.6 billion yuan (40.72 billion U.S. dollars).
　

Report predicts China's GDP grow rate to reach 10.9% in 2007（2007/04/24）
A Blue Paper issued by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) here on Friday predicted China's growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP) will reach 10.9 percent in 2007.
The figure is slightly higher than last year's GDP growth rate of 10.7 percent and much higher than the targeted annual rate of 7.5 percent set for China's 11th five year plan period (2006-2010).
The paper, which is about prediction on China's economic prospects in 2007, predicted that the growth rate of added value for primary, secondary and tertiary sectors will be around 5 percent, 12.9 percent and 10.1 percent respectively this year.
China's GDP totaled 5.03 trillion yuan (653 billion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter of this year, up 11.1 percent over the same period last year, according to latest figures provided by the National Bureau of Statistics.
The growth rate was 0.7 percentage points higher than the year-earlier level and 0.4 percentage points higher than the level for the whole of last year.
　

Foreign banks go local today(2007/04/23)
Four foreign banks will provide retail yuan services to people across China from today.
HSBC, Citigroup, Standard Chartered Bank and the Bank of East Asia passed the regulator's audit last Thursday and now have unlimited access to the country's $2-trillion domestic household savings.
The banks, however, have said they mainly intend to promote wealth management services and target China's wealthier customers.
Domestic lenders, trying to fend off competition in the retail market, are also stepping up their efforts to court higher-end customers with services such as private banking.
The regulator said Chinese institutions should provide personalized products and services, and added that the banking sector in Shanghai is benefiting from a great climate of innovation and development, attributed partly to anticipated competition from the foreign banks.
The four overseas institutions have more than 100 outlets across China. They said over the weekend that their Shanghai branches would offer full yuan services from today while others are expected to do so shortly.
"It's an important milestone in our bank's development and a significant beginning for us to provide full banking service to large numbers of domestic residents," said Yu Xueqiang, head of Bank of East Asia's China business.
In addition to wealth management, the four banks can now provide a wide range of services, including mortgage loans.
They could also expand their funding sources for corporate banking business by gaining access to personal savings and inter-bank borrowing.
The four banks, however, have fewer branches than their established domestic rivals. As such, they plan to highlight their wealth management services and target high-end customers by requiring high minimums.
Standard Chartered said it would roll out various renminbi products for customers under two retail brands - Priority Banking and Excel Banking.
HSBC will concentrate on its Premier Wealth Management service for its retail banking business and charge 300 yuan a month to handle accounts with less than 500,000 yuan.
Last week, Citigroup became the first foreign bank in China to offer a yuan-denominated investment linked insurance product.
The bank, the largest in the US, is providing the service with the United MetLife Insurance Company.
Domestic banks are foraying into the super high-end sector.
Bank of China, the nation's second largest lender, launched a private banking service for millionaires in Beijing and Shanghai last month.
China Banking Regulatory Commission's Shanghai bureau said some domestic institutions need to move faster to enhance their services.
　

Yuan hits new high against U.S. dollar(2007/04/20)
China's currency, the yuan, hit a new high on Thursday, breaking the 7.72 mark for the first time, according to the Chinese Foreign Exchange Trading System.
The central parity rate of the yuan, also known as Renminbi (RMB), stood at 7.7199 yuan to one U.S. dollar on Thursday, gaining 39 basis points from Wednesday's reference rate of 7.7238 to the dollar.
This is the fifth time in April, or the 24th time since the beginning of the year, that the yuan has set a new record, climbing 888 basis points, from 7.8087 yuan to one U.S. dollar posted on the last trading day of 2006.
The accumulative appreciation has exceeded five percent.
But the yuan lost 94 basis points from the previous trading day to reach a central parity rate of 10.5010 yuan against one euro. And it moved down 209 basis points to reach 6.5257 yuan against 100 Japanese yen on Thursday.

NDRC strengthens inspection over steel projects(2007/04/19)
National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) recently announced to strengthen inspection over steel engineering enterprises and engineering management. The announcement allows nobody to undertake illegal steel projects that were not approved by the central government and to receive engineering orders of backward facilities that not in line with industry policy.
Since last September when self-inspected stage started in the steel engineering firms, NDRC has found a considerable part of them unaware of overall situation and negligent of carrying out industry policy and macro regulation during the period from 2004. An official at NDRC said these firms self-designed and undertook new capacity projects of iron-making, steel-making and rolling that were not approved by the government. Some companies even participated in a batch of illegal steel projects concerning small blasts and small converters.

Tax Rebate Cut to Slow Steel Sector(2007/04/19)
China's iron and steel industry is expected to grow at a relatively slower pace this year as it will take some time for it to absorb the pressure of the price rise caused by the government's latest move to cut tax rebates on exports of some steel products.
The government will reduce tax rebates on exports of select high-end steel products such as stainless plate and cold-rolled steel sheet and completely remove the tax rebate on hot-rolled steel sheet and section steel from April 15, announced the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday.
"The tax rebate cut, which has been debated for a long time, won't have a substantial impact on the market. Many steel producers increased their exports substantially even before the tax rebate policy was introduced," said Qi Xiangdong, deputy secretary-general of the China Iron and Steel Association at the 2007 China Steel Import and Export Seminar yesterday.
"Besides, the international demand for steel is increasing rapidly," he said.
According to statistics of the General Administration of Customs, China's steel exports stood at 5.38 million tons in March, up 22.8 percent from last year. Exports in January and February amounted to 8.75 million tons, up 40 percent year-on-year.
But Qi said the development of China's iron and steel industry will be slower this year mainly because of the stricter macro control leading to a shrinkage in fixed-assets investment in the industry.
By the end of 2007, blast furnaces below 200 cubic meters and converters and electric furnaces below 20 tons will not be allowed, according to a National Development and Reform Commission policy.
"It's impossible to maintain the usual 20-percent growth rate as steel companies' production capacity will be weakened."
Qi and other steel experts said Chinese steel prices will remain steady and lower than the price in the international market this year. But steel companies' profits are expected to rise because of the improvement in product structure and reduction of operation costs.
Analysts said the rebate cut won't affect prices of steel stocks as the move was widely expected.

China Has 59 Bln Tons of Proven Iron Ore Reserves（2007/04/18）
The proven iron ore reserves in China are 59.39 billion tons, according to the Ministry of Land and Resources.
The iron content of the reserves is 30 to 35 percent on average and 41.5 billion tons among the total reserves is magnetite, the ministry said in a statement posted on its Website.
It noted that China has proven copper reserves of 85.31 million tons, located mainly in Tibet, the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River, the southeast coastal areas and the eastern part of China's Northeast.
The proven reserves of bauxite, the raw material to make aluminum, stand at 2.66 billion tons, according to the statement. It added that more than 90 percent of the reserves are located in Shanxi, Guangxi, Henan and Guizhou.

China has 59 bln tons of proven iron ore reserves(2007/04/16)
The proven iron ore reserves in China are59.39 billion tons, according to the Ministry of Land and Resources.
The iron content of the reserves is 30 to 35 percent on average and 41.5 billion tons among the total reserves is magnetite, the ministry said in a statement posted on its Web site.
It noted that China has proven copper reserves of 85.31 million tons, located mainly in Tibet, the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River, the southeast coastal areas and the eastern part of China's Northeast.
The proven reserves of bauxite, the raw material to make aluminum, stand at 2.66 billion tons, according to the statement. It added that more than 90 percent of the reserves are located in Shanxi, Guangxi, Henan and Guizhou.

Shougang face a sharp decline in net profit in 2006（2007/04/25）
Impacted by the fact that Chinese Government adds an export tax to billet, Shougang’s net profit in 2006 decreased by nearly 40%, to 486 million Yuan, according to the annual report released on 12th April.
According to the source in Shougang, due to the export tax for billet, the export volume decreased sharply, and the sale competition in the domestic market became fiercer. What’s more, the medium and small mills arranged the production unreasonably, the capacity continuously increased, led to a larger decline in price for billet than steel. The prices for strategic steel products and billet of Shougang declined by 2.5% and 7.1% respectively in 2006 from those in 2005.

Ben’an Group laid foundation for its Anling’s 2 million tons steel project（2007/04/24）
Benan Group laid foundation for its Chaoyang Anling’s 2 million tons steel project on April 18, which was approved by the central government on October 17, 2005. The project, a joint venture between Angang Group and Linggang Group, is scheduled to come on stream in 2009 and would add sales revenue of 5.8 billion yuan with profit of 2.22 billion yuan.

Tanggang’s self developed Q420B high strength angle accounts most part of the supply in a key project（2007/04/24）
On the tender for angle by State Grid, Tanggang became the largest winner, with a deal of 8,000 tons of self developed Q420B high strength angles, accounting 80% of the whole supply volume.
1,000 KV high voltage electricity transmission and transformation project, which is of ultra high voltage grade, is one of the key projects during the “11th five-year”. The project adopts Q420B angles instead of Q420A materials for the first time, marking a hike in the design and construction of the tower for electricity transmission, which can lower the average steel consumed by 22%, the weight of the tower down by 9% and decrease the costs in manufacturing, transportation and installation and so on.
As the largest production base of angle for electricity transmission towers, Tanggang has been accounting more than 20% shares in domestic market of angle for electricity transmission and transformation and telecom use. Setting Research on anti-impulsion capability of angles for electricity transmission tower as the key target for 2007, through redesigning the components of Q420B angle, improving melting process and rolling temperature control, and introducing mold wire feeding technology and so on, Tanggang managed to produce Q420B high strength angle in Feb, with the qualified melting ratio up to 95.3%, and the qualified products ratio to 96.4%, and the performance all meet the standards and users’ requirements.

Xinyu Color’s galvanizing plate line to launch operation in 2007（2007/04/24）
　　The first 300,000 tons per year aluminum plating and galvanizing plate production line funded by a private company (Tianjin Xin Color Ltd) in China, is scheduled to be completed and launch operation in 2007. With an investment of 300 million Yuan in total, the project will introduce advanced technologies, to ensure the products without plumbum, chromium and other harmful element, and secure a high ratio between strength and weight, and lift the corrosion resistance by 5 times from the common tin plate.
　　When launch operation, the line will meet the demand from domestic market in the north, and export products to Asia, Europe and Africa, adding production value 4.0 billion Yuan per year, and revenue 70 million Yuan per year.
Tianjin Xin Color Ltd is a private company specializing in galvanized and color coated plate production. Basing on technology improvements, the company has expanded production process into a chain of rolling-plating-coating. In 2006, the production value of the company topped 1.0 billion Yuan.