China Economy Forum

[艹艹艹]

http://www.ledinside.com/news/2016/..._home_lighting_partnership_agreement_in_china
November.3, 2016 - 16:26 — judy.lin 354 pageviews
Philips Lighting and Xiaomi Seal Smart Home Lighting Partnership Agreement in China

Joint venture will design and develop connectedLED lightingproducts for Xiaomi’s smart home ecosystem
Philips Lighting, a global leader in lighting, and Xiaomi, the mobile internet company,signed a joint venture agreement for smart home lighting in China. The companies have joined forces to design and develop connected LED luminaires and lamps for Xiaomi’s wireless smart home platform, including apps for controlling the lights both via Android and IoS-based smartphones.

The co-developed products will be sold through Xiaomi’s retail channels. The Chinese company is already successfully selling several smart LED luminaires especially designed and produced for Xiaomi by Philips Lighting.

Eric Rondolat, CEO of Philips Lighting (left) and Lei Jun, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Xiaomi (right) shake hands as the two companies cement their smart lighting partnership deal. (Philips Lighting/LEDinside)
The joint venture company will be 70% owned by Philips Lighting and 30% by Xiaomi. Financial details were not disclosed.

“Bringing together Xiaomi’s winning platform and online marketing philosophy with Philips Lighting’s superior connected lighting technology is a great idea,” said John Wang, the Philips Lighting Market Leader for Greater China. “In the coming months, Xiaomi customers using its smart home ecosystem will be able to choose from an even broader family of well-designed connected LED luminaires that work flawlessly on the Xiaomi platform.”

“Philips Lighting is a global leader in the lighting industry with a history of over a hundred years, while Xiaomi has built a smart home ecosystem with the largest user base and the widest variety of products in China,” said Liu De, Xiaomi's Co-founder, Vice-president and Head of Mi Ecosystem. “By contributing respective advantages from both companies, Xiaomi and Philips Lighting will provide customers with the best smart lighting solutions through this cooperation.”

The joint venture expands Philips Lighting’s connected lighting portfolio in China.

 

[TaiShang]

Private investment on the rise

By Ma Jingjing Source: Global Times Published: 2016/11/4

Govt policies, PPP and economic recovery contribute to growth: experts

A building in Huaying, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, funded with an $86 million private investment, was completed in August. Photo: CFP

China's private investment grew in the January-September period of 2016, with 17 provinces posting higher growth than the national average.

Experts attributed the increase to encouraging measures from the central government, the rise in public-private partnership (PPP) projects and a recovery in the country's economy. Experts forecast further growth in 2017.

Of the 20 provinces that have released data on private investment as of Thursday, five provinces and cities including Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, South China's Guangdong Province and Northeast China's Jilin Province lead with a growth pace of over 12 percent, domestic news portal cnstock.com reported.

The country's average growth rate for private investment in the first nine months stood at 2.5 percent, expanding 0.4 percentage points from the January-August figure, data from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed in October.

In Jilin, private investment grew 12.7 percent, while the province's GDP reached 6.9 percent, surpassing the national average.

Jilin's abundant resources as well as the governments' various measures to streamline the administration and reduce corporate burdens helped attract investment, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Sunday. It also noted that ecological tourism and agricultural sightseeing in the region are new market areas that can be developed.

Private investment in the central and western regions also posted faster growth as labor-intensive manufacturing companies with high-energy consumption from the southeast of China transfer to these regions, Lian Ping, chief economist at Bank of Communications, told the Global Times on Thursday.

In the first nine months, the manufacturing sector saw just a slight increase in private investment but the property sector has been hot, said Xu Hongcai, deputy chief economist of the Economic Research Department under the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.

Reasons behind boost

"The implementation of large quantities of PPP projects boosted growth in domestic private investment, as about one-fourth of the projects are private investment," Lian noted.

There has been 745 demonstration PPP projects involving the third batch of 516 projects recently announced by the Ministry of Finance in October, a separate Xinhua report said on Sunday. An estimated 58.18 percent of projects involved in the former two batches had been implemented by September, rising 9.78 percentage points compared to the figure as of June, according to the report.

In addition, the domestic market environment is improving, encouraging companies to expand and invest, Lian said, noting that the country's macro-economic figures have been showing positive signs.

China's added value for large industrial firms rose by 6 percent year-on-year in the first nine months of 2016, data from NBS showed. The country's Producer Price Index (PPI) dropped 2.9 percent year-on-year during the same period, but PPI in September rose 0.1 percent year-on-year, ending contraction that started in March 2012.

The government's policies also served as an important factor for the improvement of private investment, Xu told the Global Times on Thursday.

The State Council, the country's cabinet, issued a series of documents to encourage private investment. Specifically, in July the cabinet sent a message to local authorities to guide their methods to boost private investment.

The cabinet and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) sent teams to a total of 30 provinces to inspect local authorities' work on enhancing private investment, according to a statement on the NDRC's website in May.

Bright outlook

Domestic private investment is unlikely to slump in 2017. On the contrary, the figure is projected to reach 5 percent if the country's economy continues to stabilize, Lian from Bank of Communications noted.

"The manufacturing industry will remain stable as companies will increase production to replenish their storage. And property investment will not tumble in a short period of time because a reduction in property investment comes at least half a year after the drop in real estate sales," Lian explained.

He predicted private investment in the service sector is likely to rise as the government lowers thresholds.

The latest data from the NBS showed that private investment in the service sector stood at 11.98 trillion yuan ($1.7 trillion), up 1.2 percent year-on-year, expanding 0.2 percentage points compared with the January-August period.

 

[ahojunk]

China Q3 current account surplus at reasonable level
2016-11-05 12:19 | Xinhua | Editor: Mo Hong'e

China's current account surplus accounted for 2.5 percent of GDP in the third quarter of 2016, remaining below "a reasonable level" of 4 percent, a statement from the foreign exchange regulator said Friday.

In the third quarter, the current account surplus rose 11 percent from the second quarter to 71.2 billion U.S. dollars, according to preliminary data released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

Goods trade surplus, major contributor to the current account surplus, rose 9 percent from the previous quarter to 137 billion U.S. dollars due to slight recovery in overseas and domestic demand.

Deficit in service trade widened 25 percent to 69.5 billion U.S. dollars in the same period, the statement said.

China's current account has witnessed a surplus for 22 consecutive years, mainly due to strong exports in manufactured goods. The proportion of the surplus to China's GDP reached a peak of 10 percent in 2007.

 

[TaiShang]

China investment growth steady, private sector improves
Source: Xinhua 2016-11-14


BEIJING, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- China's fixed-asset investment maintained steady growth in the first ten months of 2016, with investment by the private sector showing signs of improvement, data released Monday showed.

Fixed asset investment grew 8.3 percent year on year to 48.44 trillion yuan (7.1 trillion U.S. dollars) during the January-October period, up from the 8.2-percent gain seen in the first three quarters, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

Fixed-asset investment includes capital spent on infrastructure, property, machinery and other physical assets.

Investment by the state sector surged 20.5 percent during the period, while private-sector investment increased 2.9 percent, 0.4 percentage points higher than that in the first nine months, as the government intensified efforts to boost growth in the sector.

The torpid growth of private investment this year has concerned policymakers as the private sector regularly contributes more than 60 percent of China's GDP growth and provides over 80 percent of jobs.

Private investment accounted for 61.5 percent of all investment in the first ten months, the NBS data showed.

Growth in property development investment continued to grow, to 6.6 percent in the first ten months of 2016, higher than the 5.8 percent posted in the first nine months.

In terms of floor area, property sales went up 26.8 percent year on year, and sales jumped 41.2 percent in terms of sales value.

The robust data came despite tightening measures in several cities to cool the property market, including purchase limits and tightened restrictions on mortgages.

While the property recovery has proved to be a significant growth driver so far, policymakers have to walk a fine line to guide market expectations, since either an asset bubble or a sharp correction could increase risks to the broader economy.

The figures were among a series of indicators released by the NBS, including industrial production and retail sales, which all pointed to a stabilizing economy.

China's GDP expanded 6.7 percent year on year in the third quarter, holding steady with the second quarter and within the government target range of 6.5 to 7 percent for 2016.

 

[grey boy 2]

China, Peru sign 2 bln USD worth of purchasing agreements amid APEC fever
(Xinhua) 13:08, November 15, 2016

LIMA, Nov. 14 -- Business and enterprise representatives from China and Peru signed purchasing agreements worth 2 billion U.S. dollars on Monday in Lima, as the 2016 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Week kicked off in the capital city.

The agreements involved light industry, textiles, agricultural products, medicine, metals and minerals. Over 100 government officials and entrepreneurs attended the signing ceremony.

"Chinese-Peruvian trade has achieved growth and progress against the sophisticated and adverse situation of the world," Zhu Yong, a senior official from the Commerce Ministry of China, said at the ceremony.

Deepening cooperation and jointly overcoming hardships have proved precious to both sides and are conducive to producing win-win outcome and boosting global trade in the future, he added.

Juan Manuel Varilias Velasquez, chairman of the Peruvian Association of Exporters, said: "China as the most vigorous economy in the world has contributed to the consistent development of Peru in the past 15 years," adding that the business talks between the delegates and the signed agreements would further strengthen bilateral cooperation.

China has become Peru's largest trade partner and largest export destination in the world, while Peru has jumped to be China's third largest trade partner in Latin America.

The two sides are expected to strengthen and deepen their ties through sharing development opportunities, optimizing trade structure and expanding trade volumes, said the officials attending the signing ceremony.
http://english.people.com.cn.en2013.com/n3/2016/1115/c90000-9141817.html

 

[Han Patriot]

And they say we only export cheap toys!
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...r-indian-locomotives/articleshow/55436249.cms

 

[Echo_419]

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...-proposal-to-haryana/articleshow/55479797.cms

 

[cirr]

SMIC is going full steam ahead. I expect SMIC's 2020 revenue to be north of 8 billion USD

SMIC 28nm chip shipments to double in 4Q16

Josephine Lien, Shanghai; Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES [Thursday 17 November 2016]

Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC) is expected to hike shipments of its 28nm process technology to 20 million chips in the fourth quarter of 2016 from 10 million units in the third, buoyed by orders placed by Qualcomm and Leadcore Technology, according to industry sources.

Meanwhile, supply of SMIC's 40nm chips continues to fall short of demand, said the sources. SMIC's 40nm technology, considered a long-lived node, has been applied to a wide range of applications.

SMIC is also running at full capacity at its 8-inch fabs, the sources indicated. Orders placed by Qualcomm, HiSilicon and Fingerprint Cards (FPC) have already occupied 60-70% of SMIC's overall 8-inch production capacity, the sources said.

SMIC is being contracted by both Qualcomm and HiSilicon to manufacture power management chips using its 0.18-micron technology, while FPC has been the foundry's major customer engaged in the fingerprint sensor market, the sources noted.

SMIC has hiked its 2016 capex to US$2.7 billion from the US$1.6 billion allocated for 2015. The majority of SMIC's capex this year is to build additional capacity at its 8- and 12-inch fabs.

SMIC earlier in November announced construction of a new 12-inch fab at its manufacturing site in Shenzhen already kicked off with target capacity of 40,000 wafers monthly. The fab, which the company claims will be the first 12-inch fab in South China, will be engaged in the manufacture of chips made using mature process technologies with volume production scheduled for end-2017.

In October, SMIC announced an expansion project for its 8-inch fab in Tianjin, which will be capable of producing 150,000 wafers monthly compared with the current 45,000 units. SMIC also broke ground for a new 12-inch fab in Shanghai in October. The 12-inch fab is scheduled to go into volume production for 14nm chips in 2018 with monthly capacity of 70,000 wafers.

In addition, earlier in 2016 SMIC acquired a 70% stake in LFoundry for EUR49 million (US$54.5 million). LFoundry is an 8-inch foundry producing 40,000 wafers monthly with its key focus in automotive, security and industrial related applications.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20161116PD208.html

@Bussard Ramjet

 

[cirr]

SMIC selected as foundation for Chinese MEMS industry

November 17, 2016 // By Peter Clarke

The Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IMECAS) has signed a cooperation agreement with foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (Shanghai, China) to create a complete MEMS supply chain within China.

SMIC's contribution is a MEMS R&D foundry platform and to help IMECAS develop standard processes for the manufacturing of MEMS sensors. IMECAS has experience in MEMS sensor design and packaging. The goal is to shorten development from design to production to help the Chinese MEMS industry grow.

The collaboration is set to start with the development of a MEMS environmental sensor and combining that with other MEMS sensors, SMIC said in a statement.

"SMIC is willing to open our platforms to support commercialized production and the R&D of universities and research institutions," said Tzu-Yin Chiu, CEO of SMIC. "SMIC and IMECAS have cooperated in numerous logic process development projects. This time we will expand our collaboration and promote the R&D of complete standardized MEMS sensor technologies to help integrate and improve the MEMS supply chain."

In the same statement Ye Tianchun, director of IMECAS, said, "Through the cooperation between SMIC and IMECAS, we can exploit our advantages and jointly build an open MEMS technology service platform and an electronic information integration platform for the MEMS supply chain. With the integration of design, manufacturing, packing, testing, public platform and venture investment, we can form a supply chain ecosystem and support the development of a global as well as domestic Chinese MEMS industry."

No indication was given of how much money would be spent on the development, or on timescales for milestone achievements.

http://www.electronics-eetimes.com/news/smic-selected-foundation-chinese-mems-industry-0

 

[JSCh]

Friday, November 18, 2016, 11:25
Sino-Philippine ties to prosper, says govt
By Jing Shuiyu and Zhong Nan

People browse ornaments in China town in Manila on Feb 8, 2013. (AFP / Ted Aljibe)​

China will encourage its companies to increase their investment in the Philippines, while raising imports from the Southeast Asian country, said the Ministry of Commerce on Thursday.

Ministry spokesman Sun Jiwen said at a news conference that the two sides were negotiating a five-year economic and technological cooperation plan starting from 2017, which will identify key bilateral cooperation fields.

More bilateral cooperation methods are in the pipeline, according to Sun. Both countries will discuss establishing an economic and trade cooperation zone in the Philippines.

The 28th China-the Philippines Joint Commission on Economic and Trade Cooperation will be held at the beginning of 2017, co-chaired by Chinese Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng and Ramon M Lopez, secretary of the Philippines Department of Trade and Industry.

"China will continue to expand imports from the Philippines, especially agricultural products, and encourage Chinese companies to invest in the Philippines," said Sun.

In addition, China will consider offering financial support to the Philippines' infrastructure construction, and hopes the country will confirm a list of priorities as soon as possible, Sun added.

Earlier this week, Wu Zhengping, director-general of the Ministry of Commerce's department of Asian affairs, said China will encourage its companies to set up a large industrial zone in the Southeast Asian country.

While the total trade volume between China and the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations increased 0.1 percent year-on-year to 2.38 trillion yuan ($346 billion) between January and October, trade between China and the Philippines grew 10.7 percent to 252.8 billion yuan during the same period, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.

Trade between China and the Philippines amounted to $45.65 billion in 2015, up 2.7 percent on a year-on-year basis.

The two countries' economic and trade relations will heat up after the recent visit of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to Beijing, experts said.

Prior to that, Philippine direct investment in China was $38.67 million in 2015, down 60.16 percent from the year before, according to financial data provider Wind Information.

"Even though both countries have disagreements on some issues, it doesn't mean they are incapable of building better business ties, especially in the fields of trade and investment," said Feng Yaoxiang, spokesman for the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

He Jingtong, a professor of trade policy at Nankai University in Tianjin, said that China and the Philippines also reached a consensus in August to speed up the negotiation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

 

[dingyibvs]

SMIC is going full steam ahead. I expect SMIC's 2020 revenue to be north of 8 billion USD

SMIC 28nm chip shipments to double in 4Q16

Josephine Lien, Shanghai; Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES [Thursday 17 November 2016]

Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC) is expected to hike shipments of its 28nm process technology to 20 million chips in the fourth quarter of 2016 from 10 million units in the third, buoyed by orders placed by Qualcomm and Leadcore Technology, according to industry sources.

Meanwhile, supply of SMIC's 40nm chips continues to fall short of demand, said the sources. SMIC's 40nm technology, considered a long-lived node, has been applied to a wide range of applications.

SMIC is also running at full capacity at its 8-inch fabs, the sources indicated. Orders placed by Qualcomm, HiSilicon and Fingerprint Cards (FPC) have already occupied 60-70% of SMIC's overall 8-inch production capacity, the sources said.

SMIC is being contracted by both Qualcomm and HiSilicon to manufacture power management chips using its 0.18-micron technology, while FPC has been the foundry's major customer engaged in the fingerprint sensor market, the sources noted.

SMIC has hiked its 2016 capex to US$2.7 billion from the US$1.6 billion allocated for 2015. The majority of SMIC's capex this year is to build additional capacity at its 8- and 12-inch fabs.

SMIC earlier in November announced construction of a new 12-inch fab at its manufacturing site in Shenzhen already kicked off with target capacity of 40,000 wafers monthly. The fab, which the company claims will be the first 12-inch fab in South China, will be engaged in the manufacture of chips made using mature process technologies with volume production scheduled for end-2017.

In October, SMIC announced an expansion project for its 8-inch fab in Tianjin, which will be capable of producing 150,000 wafers monthly compared with the current 45,000 units. SMIC also broke ground for a new 12-inch fab in Shanghai in October. The 12-inch fab is scheduled to go into volume production for 14nm chips in 2018 with monthly capacity of 70,000 wafers.

In addition, earlier in 2016 SMIC acquired a 70% stake in LFoundry for EUR49 million (US$54.5 million). LFoundry is an 8-inch foundry producing 40,000 wafers monthly with its key focus in automotive, security and industrial related applications.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20161116PD208.html

@Bussard Ramjet

Moving pretty fast, 12 inch fab with 14nm chips would be pretty much top of the line today, though by 2018 10nm nodes would probably be the top mainstream products available.

 

[ahojunk]

Chinese banks active in UAE to spur regional growth
2016-11-20 12:04 | Xinhua | Editor: Huang Mingrui

China's biggest banks have recently made a spate of significant financial moves in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in a sign of growing economic ties between the two countries.

On Nov. 13, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China's largest bank, listed a 400 million U.S. dollars bond on the Nasdaq Dubai, the only international exchange by regulation in the Middle East.

"The bond will be used to expand our general business in the Middle East and we are optimistic that UAE-China trade will expand further," said Zhou Xiaodong, the General Manager of ICBC Middle East Branch.

Earlier in October, China Construction Bank, China's second largest lender by assets, listed a bond of 600 million U.S. dollars in Dubai.

Bond listings by Chinese banks have totalled 1.98 billion U.S. dollars, according to a Nasdaq Dubai spokesperson.

Statistics show trade between the UAE and China is expected to hit 60 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2016, up from 54.8 billion dollars in 2014.

Earlier in Spetember, Ahmad Muhamed bin Ghannam, acting Executive Director of the International Economic Relations Sector at Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development, said 100 billion U.S. dollars trade in the near future is "not far-fetched."

On Nov. 15, ICBC was embraced as a settlement bank for the Dubai Commodities Clearing Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX). Bank of China, China's fourth largest lender, became a member in March.

Gaurang Desai, chief executive officer of DGCX, said this development "is particularly important in light of the recent agreement to list Shanghai Gold Futures on DGCX, the first yuan-denominated gold futures product to be offered outside China."

In late September, China launched direct trading of its currency yuan with Saudi riyal and UAE's dirham on its inter-bank foreign exchange market.

As of June, there had been 4,200 Chinese enterprises operating in the UAE, where the share of Renminbi payments has surged 210.8 percent in the past two years.

"With increasingly close trade partnership between China and UAE, the development of currency transactions has become an integral part of bilateral cooperation," said Tian Jun, the General Manager of Bank of China Abu Dhabi Branch.

 

[haidian]

China's Economy Looks Like It's Remaining Stable
Bloomberg News
November 25, 2016 — 5:00 AM CST
China’s economy remains steady this month even amid efforts to cool property markets, according to some of the earliest private economic indicators.

A manufacturing gauge based on satellite imagery jumped to a five-year high, large companies are more confident, and steel manufacturers are booking more orders after a holiday blip in October. Meanwhile, small and medium-sized firms are less optimistic about the future because of real estate curbs and cuts to trim excess capacity.

The world’s second-largest economy has so far proved doubters wrong this year, lifted by record-low benchmark interest rates the People’s Bank of China has kept in place since late 2015. Now policy makers face the tricky task of cooling property prices without hurting growth. The challenge is made even more difficult by threatened trade sanctions from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and the yuan trading near an eight-year low.

Here are what the earliest indicators show:

The China Satellite Manufacturing Index rose to 51.4 this month, the highest since mid-2011, according to San Francisco-based SpaceKnow Inc., which uses commercial satellite imagery to monitor activity across thousands of industrial facilities. Like the official manufacturing purchasing managers index, readings above 50 indicate expansion. The official PMI and a private counterpart both increased to two-year highs last month.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-show-china-economy-remains-stable-this-month

 

[52051]

The world’s second-largest economy has so far proved doubters wrong this year

The world’s second-largest economy has been so far proved doubters wrong for the past 30 years and counting actually.

 

[艹艹艹]

The second largest economy in the world is still a developing country with a large population