Zhejiang’s once-booming solar industry remains in darkness

Zhejiang’s once-booming solar industry remains in darkness

Staff Reporter

2013-11-07

Beijing has come up with several policies to support the domestic solar industry, however the sector is continuing to face difficulties, the Beijing-based China Enterprise News reports. Kaihua county in Quzhou in eastern China’s Zhejiang province is an important cluster for the domestic solar industry. The local industry grew rapidly between 2006 and 2008, reaching its peak during 2009 and 2010, seeing between 70 to 80 companies, the paper said. Read more of this post

China faces a long battle for blue skies

China faces a long battle for blue skies

(Xinhua)    20:02, November 07, 2013 Read more of this post

Chinese movie stars deny involvement in insider dealing

Chinese movie stars deny involvement in insider dealing

2013-11-07 03:45:31 GMT2013-11-07 11:45:31(Beijing Time)  Xinhua English

By Jia Xiaoguang, Sina English

Famous Chinese actress Li Bingbing and actor Ren Quan officially denied their alleged activities in an insider dealing through which they might have profited multi-millions, according to a report on November 7. Some whistle-blower posted the tip-off on the microblog service Sina Weibo yesterday. Li and Ren, described as being “in a relationship” in the post, became shareholders of Xiangyun Feilong Renewable Technology Co. Ltd through a Beijing-based fund company this June. Read more of this post

48 Chinese carmakers set for chop amid industry shakeup

48 Chinese carmakers set for chop amid industry shakeup

Staff Reporter

2013-11-07

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) recently released a list naming 48 Chinese carmakers for their poor performance with an aim to reduce the number of car manufacturers in the country, reports the Chinese-language China Business Journal. The companies whose names were cited still have a chance to continue operating as long as they can pass an evaluation by October 31, 2015, a source told the paper. Read more of this post

Credit cards in South Korea: A swipe at profits; It is getting harder to make money from the world’s most prolific card-users

Credit cards in South Korea: A swipe at profits; It is getting harder to make money from the world’s most prolific card-users

Nov 9th 2013 | SEOUL |From the print edition

SOUTH KOREA is a notoriously competitive society. But how do those who play its fierce status games know when they have won? Probably when they are invited to apply for “the black”, a credit card issued by Hyundai Card, a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor. Cast in “liquidmetal”, a trademarked alloy suited to armour-piercing ammunition, the card is heavy. It is also rare. Only about 2,000 have been issued and only 9,999 ever will be. To qualify, a holder needs high social standing as well as high net worth. The card charges a stiff membership fee and offers a variety of benefits: members were, for example, invited to a mock Christie’s auction, featuring works flown in from New York. But the main reason people want the black card is that it is so difficult to get. Read more of this post

Pollution In China Blamed For Increasingly ‘Ugly’ Sperm Counts

Pollution In China Blamed For Increasingly ‘Ugly’ Sperm Counts

TOM PHILLIPS, THE TELEGRAPH 5 MINUTES AGO 0

Shanghai doctor tells local newspaper that two thirds of the city’s semen stocks are below World Health Organisation standards, as concerns over China’s toxic environment grow

Shanghai’s semen is facing an unprecedented crisis with experts labelling pollution as one of the “major culprits” for the mega-city’s increasingly dismal sperm quality, Chinese media claimed. Only one-third of the semen at Shanghai’s main sperm bank meets World Health Organisation standards, the Shanghai Morning Post reported on Thursday. Read more of this post

If You Think China’s Air Is Bad …Drinking water has become a casualty of rapid industrialization

November 7, 2013

If You Think China’s Air Is Bad …

By DAMIEN MA and WILLIAM ADAMS

For visitors, China’s water problem becomes apparent upon entering the hotel room. The smell of a polluted river might emanate from the showerhead. Need to quench your thirst? The drip from the tap is rarely potable. Can you trust the bottled water? Many Chinese don’t. What about brushing your teeth? Measured by the government’s own standards, more than half of the country’s largest lakes and reservoirs were so contaminated in 2011 that they were unsuitable for human consumption. China’s more than 4,700 underground water-quality testing stations show that nearly three-fifths of all water supplies are “relatively bad” or worse. Roughly half of rural residents lack access to drinking water that meets international standards. Read more of this post

China eyes adopting international law to spark life into trade zones

China eyes adopting international law to spark life into trade zones

Tue, Nov 5 2013

By Saikat Chatterjee and Michelle Chen

HONG KONG (Reuters) – China is considering the use of international law in a big push to get free trade zones up and running to promote the use of the yuan in global trade, which could challenge Hong Kong longer term as the main offshore center for the currency. Sources said Chinese leaders have been discussing the adoption of an international legal system in the free trade zones (FTZs) for the first time to help lure foreign companies, although views are varied. Read more of this post

Investing in Koreas’ Kaesong: Who Dares?

Investing in Koreas’ Kaesong: Who Dares?

By Giles Hewitt on 1:25 pm November 6, 2013.

Seoul. For a foreign investor, there must be safer bets around than a project run by two countries that are technically at war, permanently at odds, and rarely on speaking terms. But only a few months after being threatened with a pre-emptive nuclear strike by North Korea, South Korea is pushing hard for overseas involvement in the joint industrial zone the two rivals operate in Kaesong. Read more of this post

Philippines a Symbol for Local Geothermal

Philippines a Symbol for Local Geothermal

By Dion Bisara on 8:15 am November 6, 2013.
Indonesia does not have to look very far to find the best way to tap geothermal energy, which potentially is located in protected, remote forests. As Indonesia struggles to find a balance between the development of geothermal resources, forest conservation, and development, the Philippines has shown how that can be achieved. The Philippines gets 14 percent of its electricity supply from geothermal power plants and the nation is the second-largest producer in the world of such energy by capacity, after the United States. Read more of this post

Chinese Students Flock to US Exams to Chase College Dreams

Chinese Students Flock to US Exams to Chase College Dreams

By Grace Li on 7:51 pm November 7, 2013.
Hong Kong. Chinese students form the largest overseas group at US universities and their numbers are rising as families spend a fortune in the quest for an American education to pry open the door to career and social success. For some parents, overseas education is also seen as a way to avoid China’s fiercely competitive national college entrance exam known as the “gaokao,” which is taken by millions of teenagers who see it as a make-or-break way to get ahead. Read more of this post

Crown Holdings: Big Profits in the Can

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2013

Crown Holdings: Big Profits in the Can

By TERESA RIVAS | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR

Container powerhouse Crown Holdings boasts steady earnings, bountiful free cash flow, and increasing margins. The shares could climb 20%.

Seinfeld characters Kramer and Newman once famously attempted to drive a truck full of bottles and cans to Michigan for the state’s generous 10-cent rebate, but there’s an easier way to profit from packaging: Buy the manufacturer. Crown Holdings (ticker: CCK) is the world’s largest food and aerosol can producer and third-largest beverage can maker. Its containers range from extra virgin olive oil to Anti-Hero IPA to cake tins for the Royal Wedding. It boasts steady and growing earnings, an enviable geographic footprint, and after years of investing in new plants and more efficient operations, Crown looks poised to reap the benefits. Read more of this post

The world’s biggest fund is run by a computer; A Vanguard “passive” fund, which simply aims to match the performance of the US stock market, has become the largest fund in the world

The world’s biggest fund is run by a computer

A “passive” fund, which simply aims to match the performance of the US stock market, has become the largest fund in the world

By Kyle Caldwell

6:30AM GMT 07 Nov 2013

For the first time a “passive” fund or “tracker” has become the world’s largest fund. Since 2008 the title has belonged to respected bond investor Bill Gross, the head of Pimco. Gross’s Pimco Total Return fund has $247.9bn of assets, but has lost $37.5bn so far this year as a large number of investors have moved away from bonds in favour of shares. Investors have rushed for the exits amid concerns that an earlier than expected interest rate rise could hurt bonds. Read more of this post

Rakuten CEO slams Abenomics failings as he quits Japan panel; “The third arrow is so weak it is hard to find anyone who thinks it is much of a strategy”

Rakuten CEO slams Abenomics failings as quits Japan panel

Wed, Nov 6 2013

By Nathan Layne

TOKYO (Reuters) – A prominent Japanese entrepreneur is quitting a key panel advising Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, saying the government is stifling the economic reforms it has promised. Hiroshi Mikitani, chief executive of e-commerce firm Rakuten Inc (4755.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), said on Wednesday he was girding for a legal fight with Abe’s government over the regulation of online drug sales, an area his company sees as a lucrative business opportunity. Read more of this post

‘Smart Beta’: Higher Returns, Higher Risk

November 5, 2013, 3:10 P.M. ET

‘Smart Beta’: Higher Returns, Higher Risk

By Brendan Conway

“Smart beta” is the buzzword for a different type of stock indexing. Does it work? The strategists at Pavilion Global Markets this week argue yes. But there’s a catch. Smart beta or “fundamental” indexing means building stock portfolios around desirable attributes, such as profit margins, revenue, or dividends. PowerShares FTSE RAFI U.S. 1000 (PRF), a popular example, is something like value investing 2.0, since it’s usingquantitative methods essentially to hunt for attractive-looking stocks. It’s a shift from the S&P 500 (SPY), whose market-cap weighting method favors giants like Apple (AAPL) and ExxonMobil (XOM). Read more of this post

Bitcoin Buzz Arrives in China, but with Familiar Doubts

11.07.2013 17:34

Bitcoin Buzz Arrives in China, but with Familiar Doubts

A few investors show interest in the virtual currency, but critics say the geek experiment doesn’t have much of a future anywhere

By staff reporters Wu Hongyuran and Zheng Fei

(Beijing) – A few blocks west of Zhongguancun, a technology hub in the capital, wannabe entrepreneurs gather in a coffeehouse named Garage to share ideas and meet potential investors. The shop, apparently named for the place late Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs built his first computers, gives a sense of entrepreneurial risk-taking because it allows consumers to pay in Bitcoin, a virtual currency that few people use in daily life. Read more of this post

A theme park being developed in Hengqin island off Zhuhai “not a threat” to Hong Kong Disneyland.

Hengqin theme park ‘not a threat for Disneyland’
Thursday, November 07, 2013
A theme park being developed in Hengqin island off Zhuhai will not be a rival to Hong Kong Disneyland. Giving the assurance, the Hengqin New Area Administrative Committee chief said the positioning of the park is different from Disneyland or Ocean Park, but it could enrich the tourism resources of the special economic zone. “Apart from its location, its area and facilities are different as well,” committee director Niu Jing said. Read more of this post

Sliced bread is no longer the greatest thing to have hit British consumers, judging by falling sales, which are posing a growing problem for bread manufacturers

Last updated: November 6, 2013 6:42 pm

Sliced bread no longer greatest thing

By Scheherazade Daneshkhu, Consumer Industries Editor

Sliced bread is no longer the greatest thing to have hit British consumers, judging by falling sales, which are posing a growing problem for bread manufacturers. Premier Foods, the heavily indebted UK company, said on Wednesday that it had appointed bankers to search for outside investors for its Hovis, Mother’s Pride and other bread brands, which have struggled during the recession. Read more of this post

Tumbling US oil price transforms trading

November 6, 2013 8:50 am

Tumbling US oil price transforms trading

By Ajay Makan in London

It is a taste of things to come. As the benchmark US oil price has slumped over the past month, so has the cost of crude in the Gulf of Mexico, one of the largest refining hubs in the world. The sharp price moves are testament to the impact of the US shale revolution, which has sent new supplies of crude from oilfields in North Dakota and Texas to the coasts of the US – with far-reaching effects on international oil markets. Read more of this post

The ghost at China’s third plenum: demographics; The country needs reforms that leaders will struggle to carry out

November 6, 2013 6:39 pm

The ghost at China’s third plenum: demographics

By David Pilling

The country needs reforms that leaders will struggle to carry out

As the leaders of China’s standing committee (average age 65) prepare for one of the Chinese Communist party’s most important occasions, one issue will be hidden in plain view: the country is rapidly growing old. President Xi Jinping, a sprightly 60, is only up to the third plenum of his leadership, an event at which he is expected to set out long-term plans for the country. But the nation as a whole is fast approaching the sixth age of man. In Shakespeare’s version, the fifth stage of human life is a well-fed individual with “a round belly” full of chicken. Unfortunately, China is moving “into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon” of old age before most of its people have grown wealthy. Its average standard of living is somewhere between those of Ecuador and Jamaica. Read more of this post

China Grants U.S. Investors Indirect Access to Its Stock Markets

China Grants U.S. Investors Indirect Access to Its Stock Markets

Updated Nov. 7, 2013 5:47 a.m. ET

SHANGHAI—Beijing has approved the first U.S. exchange-traded funds that track stocks in mainland China, another step forward in opening the country’s capital markets to international investors seeking better exposure to the world’s second-biggest economy. The go-ahead was given to two domestic fund managers to sell China ETFs listed on theNew York Stock Exchange, NYX +0.78% two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Thursday. These will be the first outside Hong Kong, where global money managers can buy similar products. Read more of this post

China Wants Its Movies to Be Big in the U.S., Too; “We have 5,000 years of history. We have lots of stories”

November 6, 2013

China Wants Its Movies to Be Big in the U.S., Too

By MICHAEL CIEPLY

LOS ANGELES — Investment capital? They’re loaded. Film studios? They are promising to build the world’s fanciest. As for movie stars, few are more dazzling than Li Bingbing, who was an honored guest here on Tuesday at the annual U.S.-China Film Summit. But China’s ambitious new film entrepreneurs, dozens of whom gathered in the Los Angeles area this week for the summit meeting, the American Film Market and other events, are still searching for something that has largely eluded them: a homemade global hit. “We have 5,000 years of history. We have lots of stories,” said Yang Buting, the chairman of the China Film Distribution and Exhibition Association, who spoke on a panel at the gathering on Tuesday. Read more of this post