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The following table shows China's raw materials imports volume and value Jan. to July, 2016. I made a quick calculation on the numbers given. Because of the raw material price decline, China has made $40B saving on raw material imports in this year!!
View attachment 324412
wow, 8.1% more iron ore,but 13.3% less price!!!
crude oil 12.1% more, but 29.6% less price!!!

For the first half year of 2016, trade surplus was US$ 265.602 billion

Imports value saw a -10.2% on year-on-year comparison, a decrease, mainly due to lower commodity prices. However in physical volume terms, imports actually rose for many major items:
  • Crude oil +14.2%
  • Natural gas +22.7%
  • Copper ores and concentrates +34.7%
  • Coal +8.2%
  • Iron ore +9.1%
I suppose now is a good time for stockpiling primary resources, e.g. building SPR for oil, when commodity prices are so low.

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/china/balance-of-trade
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/articles/07132016092509.htm
Great!
Cheap price but with more physical volume!
Brazil, Middle East, Iran, Russia, India, etc, these countries which mainly export raw materials to China are suffering hard!
 
China’s Dagong Global Credit mounts challenge to ‘big three’ rating agencies

Dagong Global Credit is in the throes of global expansion, poaching star analysts from global rivals and opening new offices, as part of its bid to add a ‘Chinese voice’ to global ratings.

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Dagong Global Credit Group has upped the ante in its bid to compete with the ‘big three’ global ratings agencies, including Fitch Ratings. Photo: EPA

Dagong Global Credit Group, a 22-year-old mainland credit rating agency with global ambitions, has upped the ante in its bid to compete with the “big three” with a plan to expand bureaus outside China and poach analysts from the ranks of rivals like Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings.

Rather than challenge global agencies by relying on its historical strength in rating mainland companies or cross-border yuan-denominated debt issuances, Dagong executives said the focus of its international expansion is to compete head on in the big three’s traditional turf of rating “G3 credit” issuances by international companies – in dollar, yen and euro.

To that end, founding chairman Guan Jianzhong, who has 100 per cent control of Dagong, is funding a global expansion with his personal fortune. Outside of mainland China, the company already has offices in Hong Kong, Milan in Italy and Frankfurt in Germany, and has mapped out new destinations for offices to be opened this year, including Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Moscow, Russia.

“Dagong is here to compete with the big three. I can’t say we are at the same level yet, but we believe in the years ahead, in time, we can move closer,” said Jonathan Hu, Dagong’s senior director of business development. “We have a niche position where we are because we ‘get’ China [and] we have exposure with the [emerging and peripheral] countries where the big three aren’t covering well at all.”

In Hong Kong, which serves as its Asia headquarters, Dagong has just hired Tony Tang, most recently S&P’s director of greater China, corporate ratings, as its head of corporate ratings. In other recent hires, Warut Promboon, a well-known figure in Asia’s credit trading community, who previously served as Societe Generale’s research director of Asian credit trading, is Dagong’s chief rating officer, while the Hong Kong office is now led by Simon Choi, former head of research technology for Goldman Sachs.

If you are a foreign investor, it makes sense for you to hear a Chinese voice when companies issue in US dollars
JONATHAN HU, DAGONG’S SENIOR DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Terry Zhang, associate managing director and a longtime Dagong employee from Beijing, is spearheading the location search as part of its international expansion.

“In the 1990s, when the big three came to Asia, they developed a lead in terms of expanding services to investors...they built their credit system. They urged the market to look at their ratings because this was the credit market they built all the way from the US,” explained Hu.

“We have a huge data pool on Chinese companies. If you are a foreign investor, it makes sense for you to hear a Chinese voice when companies issue in US dollars. I don’t see that global financial markets have heard enough Chinese voices, especially in the credit market,” he said.

Dagong is drawing from its 22 year history in China, where it has rated some 51,000 issuances by 1,100 mainland Chinese companies. The company believes its database gives it deeper insight when analysing and forecasting companies from other emerging markets, which enables it to produce more in-depth risk profiles of these companies.

c13e821e-5c93-11e6-be41-ae26bae452d4_486x.JPG
Dagong upgraded from the traditional four notch rating employed in China to the 72-notch global standard used by agencies such as Moody's. Photo: Reuters

In China, where local credit agencies are frequently criticised by Western observers for giving A or above ratings to more than 90 per cent of issuances, Dagong was among the first to redefine its methodology to international investors based on a global-scalebond mapping table. It also moved its rating methodology from the traditional four notch rating employed in China – triple B, A, double A and triple A – to the 72-notch global standard.

Such moves drew recognition from international leaders, including Shaukat Aziz, the former Pakistani prime minister who had a career as an economist and senior banker at Citi, who now serves on Dagong’s strategic advisory board. In another case Dominique de Villepin, former prime minister of France, has jointly penned research papers with Dagaong’s chairman advocating the need to develop an “Eastern view” to credit ratings.

The company has also joined an international working group within the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) which will shortly unveil a prototype “Silk Road bond” template for easing issuance of bonds for infrastructure and project financing under the “One Belt One Road” scheme. The same working group also previously spearheaded the “green bond” initiative in China.

“There are names and projects along the Belt and Road countries that are marginalised in international capital markets,” said Dagong’s Zhang. “We certainly have a role to play here in these types of opportunities, to give a solid judgement to their credit profile so they can make better connections with the international capital markets.”

Added Dagong’s Hu, “We give honest opinions, we let the market judge. In a couple of years, I’m pretty sure you will see the expansion at Dagong will take the company to a different level.”
 
Great!
Cheap price but with more physical volume!
Brazil, Middle East, Iran, Russia, India, etc, these countries ....


Yes resources exporting countries for sure will suffer price impact, the list is very long, add Australia, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Chile, Venezuela, Nigeria, South Africa ...... and many others. Note, such negative impact brought by low price is partly offset by China's massive acceleration of imports. So much more physical volumes are imported, China is indeed a responsible global citizen.
 
For the first half year of 2016, trade surplus was US$ 265.602 billion

Imports value saw a -10.2% on year-on-year comparison, a decrease, mainly due to lower commodity prices. However in physical volume terms, imports actually rose for many major items:
  • Crude oil +14.2%
  • Natural gas +22.7%
  • Copper ores and concentrates +34.7%
  • Coal +8.2%
  • Iron ore +9.1%
I suppose now is a good time for stockpiling primary resources, e.g. building SPR for oil, when commodity prices are so low.

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/china/balance-of-trade
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/articles/07132016092509.htm
.
Thanks for highlighting this. If one just look at the dollars, it looks like China's economy is shrinking.

The wacko Gordon Chang will have a field day.

The following table shows China's raw materials imports volume and value Jan. to July, 2016. I made a quick calculation on the numbers given. Because of the raw material price decline, China has made $40B saving on raw material imports in this year!!
View attachment 324412
.
Wow! As they say, make hay while the sun shines.

Pay less and you get more.

That's an excellent deal!
 
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.
Thanks for highlighting this. If one just look at the dollars, it looks like China's economy is shrinking.

The wacko Gordon Chang will have a field day.

Wow! As they say, make hay while the sun shines.

Pay less and you get more.

That's an excellent deal!


Ain't that true bro!

While maintaining strong trade surplus ($600 billion per year), just look at those remarkable increases of import volumes, for example +14.2% for crude oil. Note that last year's base volumes were already massive to start with, imagine the physical tonnages! China must continue to expand logistics fleet in order to bring these primary resources onshore, and expand PLAN to provide security for international sea lanes.
 
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As well, Dagong should differentiate from the other three by using a non political approach to ratings WHEN possible.
 
China industrial output expands 6 pct in July
(Xinhua) 10:19, August 12, 2016

BEIJING, Aug. 12 -- China's value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, expanded 6 percent year on year in July, slower than the 6.2 percent increase for June, official data showed Friday.

In the first seven months, industrial output rose 6 percent from the same period of 2015, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement.

Industrial output measures the output of Chinese companies with annual main business revenue of more than 20 million yuan (3 million U.S. dollars).

In a breakdown, output in the central regions rose 7.6 percent last month, followed by 6.7 percent for the eastern regions and 6.6 percent for the west.

Output of automobile manufacturing saw strongest growth of 22.9 percent in July, and the electronics manufacturing output up 12 percent, NBS said.
 
This clearing bank will increase the use of RMB.

--------
Yuan clearing bank headed for UAE
2016-08-11 13:31 | chinadaily.com.cn | Editor: Feng Shuang

China's central bank is expected to choose a Chinese lender to clear yuan transactions in the United Arab Emirates by the end of this year, which would strengthen the growing economic ties between China and the Middle East, Reuters reports.

Middle East's first yuan clearing centre was opened in Qatar last April, with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) becoming the clearing bank, handling 350 billion yuan ($52.6 billion) in transactions since it launched, Zhou Xiaodong, general manager of ICBC's Dubai branch, told Reuters.

The launch of a clearing bank in the UAE could influence trade and investment in the Gulf, where Dubai acts as the region's top business centre, handling flows of money and goods to countries in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council and beyond, Reuters reports.

Fang Min, senior executive officer of Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), told Reuters: "In this region everyone thinks of Dubai as the hub for the whole of the Middle East".

"From an economic and financial centre point of view, Dubai is the most appropriate (place) to set up an offshore renminbi market," Fang said.

The yuan clearing bank in the UAE will be chosen among Agricultural Bank of China, ICBC, Bank of China and China Construction Bank, according to Fang.

The trade between China and the UAE was estimated at $60 billion last year, up from $47.6 billion in 2014, according to Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).

In addition, as the UAE is the most active country in the Middle East in using yuan for direct payments to China, yuan was used for 74 percent of payments by value from the UAE to Chinese mainland and Hong Kong on the SWIFT international transactions network last year.

Fang said he expected the UAE's ratio for SWIFT direct payments in yuan could increase to 80 or 85 percent by 2020.
 
Kick-off date of Shenzhen-HK connect to be unveiled this week: Media
(Chinadaily.com.cn) August 15, 2016

FOREIGN201608151358000415519758469.jpg


A view of Exchange Square in Central,Hong Kong.[File photo/China Daily]

South China Morning Post reported on Monday that the launch date for the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect program will be announced as soon as this week and it will be officially launched in December, citing the newspaper Hong Kong Economic Journal.

According to China Daily, securities regulators of the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong are working closely with Shenzhen Stock Exchange and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd for the launch of the long-anticipated program.

Deng Ge, a spokesman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), said on August 12 that the commission has set up a special working group to lead and prepare for the stocks trading link.

"When relevant regulations and technical preparations are ready, the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect will be launched this year," said Deng, without giving an exact date.

The special working group, headed by CSRC Vice-Chairman Fang Xinghai, is responsible for coordinating efforts among various departments within the commission and relevant government bodies and between the mainland and Hong Kong regulators, according to financial magazine Caixin on August 11.

In the same day, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd Chief Executive Officer Charles Li told CNBC that the stocks link is "imminent".

Li said the link is vital to bringing more tradable products to a wider marketplace in the future.

Cai Xiao contributed to the story

@Shotgunner51
 
China approves connecting of Shenzhen, HK bourses
Source: Xinhua 2016-08-16 17:59:26

BEIJING, Aug.16 (Xinhua)-- China's State Council has approved plans to connect the Shenzhen and Hong Kong stock exchanges, the Chinese premier said Tuesday.

The preparation for the launch of the Shenzhen-HK Stock Connect is generally in place, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said in remarks at a State Council executive meeting.

A similar link between the Shanghai and Hong Kong bourses was launched in 2014. It allows investors on the mainland and those in Hong Kong to trade selected stocks on each other's exchanges.

"The roll-out of the Shenzhen-HK Stock Connect after that between Shanghai and Hong Kong marks another concrete step for China's capital market towards one that is more law-based, market-oriented and global; it will generate many positive outcomes," Li said.

The Shenzhen-HK Stock Connect will help investors to share more of the dividends from economic growth on the Chinese mainland and in Hong Kong and promote closer partnership between the two markets while shoring up Hong Kong's role as an international financial center, Li added.

The scheme will be launched at a proper time this year after the regulatory rules and technological preparations are completed, China's securities watchdog said Friday.

Opening up is a key feature of modern China and the opening up of capital markets and other financial markets has played an important role in helping boost the Chinese financial sector's international competitiveness and its capability to serve the real economy, Li said.
 
China's electricity consumption picks up in July
Xinhua, August 16, 2016

China's electricity use rose 8.2 percent year on year in July, official data showed Tuesday.

In July alone, electricity consumption totaled 552.3 billion kilowatt hours, according to data from the National Development and Reform Commission.

Electricity consumption totaled 3.3 trillion kilowatt hours in the first seven months, up 3.6 percent year on year, the commission said.

Electricity use in the service sector and agricultural sector rose 10.2 percent and 6.4 percent, respectively, in the January-June period, while the industrial sector saw an increase of 1.6 percent.

Meanwhile, the average use time for hydraulic power production equipment increased in the first seven months, while that for coal-fired power production equipment dropped, official data showed.
 
Semi-annual reports reveal strength in China's emerging industries
Xinhua Finance in BEIJING
2016-08-17 08:39

China's broader economy is slowing, but financial reports of domestic listed companies revealed ongoing economic restructuring with strong growth in the new economy.

As of Monday, some 544 listed companies had released semi-annual financial reports, with 69.49 percent of them posting growing business revenue while 60.66 percent reported higher net profits.

A breakdown of the companies' balance sheets showed diverging trends. Traditional sectors such as coal mining, textiles and chemicals saw business falter, while emerging industries such as pharmaceuticals, entertainment and computers posted strong growth, said Li Haitao, a professor with Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CSGSB).

Of the 163 high-tech and cultural sector companies that have unveiled their semi-annual reports, 83.44 percent posted revenue increases, while 71.78 percent had rising net profits. Beijing Sanju Environmental Protection and New Materials Co., Ltd. had the highest net profit at 804 million yuan (121 million U.S. dollars), while Shenzhen Yitoa Intelligent Control Co., Ltd., a maker of smart control systems for home appliances, saw the largest gain in net profits of 2,579.28 percent, amounting to some 101 million yuan.

Nanjing Baose Co., Ltd., a chemical equipment maker, forecast up to 58 million yuan in losses of net profits attributable to shareholders of the listed company, down from a gain of 2 million yuan in the same period of 2015. It attributed the losses to a "dramatic contraction" of the chemical industry market as prices of large commodities hover at low levels.

The energy sector is also struggling as a slump in coal prices saw corporate performance plummet. Inner Mongolia Pingzhuang Energy Resources Co., Ltd., a coal producer, predicted over 220 million yuan in losses of net profits attributable to shareholders of the listed company, surging 180 million year on year.

Firms listed on the ChiNext Board, China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, led the rally as nearly 70 percent forecast growth and 97 entities expected to double their net profits. Data from the released reports of ChiNext Board firms showed a total net profit of 36.9 billion yuan, expanding 49.7 percent year on year.

The interim financial reports also suggest companies listed on the strategic emerging industry board are spending lavishly in high-end technology, with 38 firms recording an 18.14-percent year-on-year increase in investment. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed investment in the hi-tech sector grew 14.2 percent in July, gaining 1.1 percent from the first half.

China's economy grew 6.7 percent year on year in the second quarter, flat with the first quarter, the slowest pace since the global financial crisis but still within the government's target range of 6.5-7 percent for 2016.

As China adapts to its "new normal," an important mission is accelerating the rise of new development dynamics, which are gaining momentum, NBS spokesperson Sheng Laiyun said at a press conference on Aug. 12.

In the first seven months of 2016, China produced 215,000 new energy cars and sold 207,000, an increase of 119.8 percent and 122.8 percent over the same period last year, respectively, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. As China deepens its reforms, its economy will be supported by growing new development dynamics, said CSGSB's Li.
 
Yao Ming chairs China Professional Basketball Club United Inc
Source:Xinhua Published: 2016-3-10 22:10:07

Yao Ming, Chinese basketball legend and chairman of Shanghai Sharks, has officially served as the chairman and general manager of China Professional Basketball Club United Inc founded last month, a source told Xinhua on Thursday.

Yao will be the transitional general manager to communicate between the China Professional Basketball Club United Inc and the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), added the source.

The company was founded on Feb. 14, 2016 with registered assets of 45 million RMB (about 7 million US dollars). The legal representative is Yao Ming.

During the 2015-2016 CBA All-Star weekend, investors from 18 out of 20 CBA league clubs (Shanxi and Zhejiang excluded) held a meeting on Jan. 16, in Dongguan, Guangdong Province. As the representatives signed the legal documents for the registration of the incorporated company, the business registration process officially began.

One of the most important appeals of the incorporated company is to acquire the business rights and promotional rights of the CBA league in its next contract period .

However, office director of the CBA league, Zhang Xiong, replied on behalf of CBA three days after the meeting that the two-step reform project of the government regulation separating from management has been approved. The first step will see the authorization of the business rights and promotional rights to the CBA company, which is invested by CBA and 20 clubs. The second will be the authorization of organization and other rights of the competitions. After the end of authorization, the CBA company will take full charge of the operation while CBA will be responsible for supervision, management and professional guidance.

According to Zhang Xiong, the CBA company and the China Professional Basketball Club United Inc are legally irrelevant. But he also added that cooperation could be achieved based on consensus to cultivate talents and maximize the market efficiency.
 
Spotlight: Advanced economies lack tools to deal with sluggishness
Xinhua, August 23, 2016

Since the 2008 global financial crisis struck, policymakers in advanced economies have adopted various kinds of measures, ranging from fiscal, monetary to structural ones, to try to revive the economy, but to no avail.

The tools used to deal with the global financial crisis in its early stage, such as huge deficit and quantitative easing, proved to be insufficient in face of a sluggish global economic growth.

As a result, both the euro zone and Japan now have negative interest rates while waves of easing and huge "cheap money" failed to invigorate their economies.

As chief economist at ING Belgium Peter Vanden Houte recently put it, "the ECB's toolbox is getting emptier."

At the same time, the refugee crisis continues to drag down Europe, creating a profound influence on the European economy and society.

From the economic perspective, the refugees, most of whom are young people, are viewed as a complement to Europe's increasingly ageing labor market. However, integration problems have surfaced.

Europe is now divided on how to deal with the migrant crisis, which helped stimulate a rise of far-right political parties, fueled conservatism and populism across the continent and took a toll on the bloc's openness in trade and the economy.

The United States, the largest economy in the world, also has its own problems. The Economist, a highly regarded magazine, reported the split and polarization of the U.S. society.

The fact that Donald Trump has become a presidential candidate shows the anger and dismay of the people in the U.S. society, it said.

In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe presented the lofty stimulus plan and promised to use "three arrows" of monetary stimulus, fiscal stimulus and structural reform to boost economic growth. But the results showed clearly the "the three arrows" have largely failed or misfired.

The advanced economies are faced with a fast-aging society, a sluggish market demand and persistent debts, some economic experts said.

The difficult situation is the accumulated result of the debt crises in the long term, they said.

To put it another way, the debt crises of the advanced economies are far from over. But advanced economies are now trapped in a dilemma as to how to solve the problems: the market would lost confidence if the pace is too slow, while economic recovery would be damaged if it goes too fast.

In the crucial structural reforms, advanced economies struggle and advance slowly due to party strife, ambiguous reform aims, directions and steps as well as wavering policies.

With regard to the market, some main market bodies in the advanced economies are indifferent to the risks after the global financial crisis while financiers and enterprises are self-satisfied with a tendency to pursue short-term profits and take on too much risk, some experts said, warning of the danger of the outbreak of a new financial crisis.
 

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