Key China General & Technology News:


China's 2010 GDP growth may hit 10%: PBOC
2011-01-05

BEIJING - China's 2010 economic growth is estimated to reach about 10 percent, according to central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan.

In a speech published Tuesday by the People's Bank of China on its website, Zhou said he was not quite confident that the nation's economy has returned to normal, as external conditions continue exerting an important impact on China's economic recovery.

Zhou stressed that China should be prudent in its macroeconomic policies and needs to conduct counter-cyclical adjustments against "over-expansion."

He also reiterated that the government would promote a market-oriented reform of the interest rate regime in a gradual and unwavering way. (Jan. 2011).


Youku.com Surges 161% in Biggest Advance for U.S. IPO Since Baidu in 2005

Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Victor Koo, chief executive officer of Youku.com, talks about the outlook for China's largest online video company, which had its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange today.

Youku.com Inc. had the largest gain for a U.S. initial public offering in five years and E-Commerce China Dangdang Inc. almost doubled in its debut after investors flocked to buy into China’s Internet boom.

Youku.com, China’s largest online video company, soared 161 percent to $33.44 yesterday, after completing a $203 million IPO. The first-day advance was the biggest since Beijing-based Baidu Inc., owner of China’s most-used Internet search engine, more than quadrupled after its offering in August 2005. China Dangdang, the country’s biggest book retailer, gained 87 percent after its $272 million initial sale.

The offerings were the first of five mainland Chinese IPOs scheduled in the U.S. this week. The four previous Internet companies from China that completed sales this year surged an average of 57 percent in their trading debuts, Bloomberg data show. China, home to more than 400 million Internet users, may expand four times as fast as the U.S. next year, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Youku.com and China Dangdang are “two companies that excite investors’ imagination,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Chicago-based Harris Private Bank, which oversees $55 billion. The IPOs represent an “intersection of China and the Internet, and so everyone’s jumping on board for that theme,” he said (Dec. 2010).


CNOOC's oil and gas output exceeded 60m tons last year

BEIJING - China has joined the world's elite club of offshore oil producers after China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) announced that its oil and natural gas output surpassed 60 million metric tons in 2010.

The country's largest offshore oil explorer's oil and gas production last year totaled 64.13 million metric tons of oil equivalent, of which 50 million was produced domestically, said its president Fu Chengyu on Tuesday.

"It marks a milestone that China has become one of the world's largest offshore oil producers after the United States, the United Kingdom, and Norway ... And the marine petrochemical industry will boost the country's energy supply," Fu said.

China's surging energy demand has led the nation's foreign oil dependence ratio to reach a new high of 55 percent in 2010.

"We estimate that 60 percent of China's oil consumption will be imported by 2020," said Wang Jiacheng, a researcher at the Academy of Macroeconomic Research under the National Development and Reform Commission.

Consequently, offshore oil exploration, which is still at an early stage, has become a major factor in quenching the nation's thirst for the natural resource.

"We expect our gas and oil output to exceed 200 million metric tons of oil equivalent by 2020, including 50 million tons of LNG (liquefied natural gas)," Fu told China Daily.
He added that about 800 billion yuan ($121 billion) to 1 trillion yuan would be invested during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), with the majority going to offshore oil exploration.

The company's total profits exceeded 90 billion yuan in 2010, up over 70 percent from 2009's 52.4 billion yuan, Fu said.

Offshore oil will make up 40 percent of the world's oil output by 2015, compared with 34 percent in 2004, according to figures from the China Petroleum and Petrochemical Engineering Institute. Offshore gas will account for 35 percent of the world's gas output over the same period.

China's central government said in its 12th Five-Year Plan that the country should develop and implement a marine development strategy, and improve technical ability and comprehensive management.

CNOOC has tapped into Africa, South America, the Middle East, and Australia for cooperation opportunities in oil and gas projects.

"We hope to integrate into the global economy through international cooperation and support other countries' development," Fu said.

In addition, CNOOC has also tried to develop deepwater oil and gas resources, an area that has a large growth potential.

The company has invested 15 billion yuan into manufacturing state-of-the-art deepwater equipment, including drill-ships and geophysical and survey vessels. The equipment is expected to be used in 2011, said Zhou Shouwei, vice-president of CNOOC (Dec. 2010).


China on target to achieve green goals

TIANJIN - China needs to cut its energy consumption per unit of GDP by 5 percent this year and the target is "within reach", China's top climate official said.

As part of Beijing's efforts to tackle climate change, the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) set the goal of reducing energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent in 2010 compared to 2005.

"We only achieved a cut of 15.6 percent by the end of 2009, so we have to cut the remaining 5 percent this year to reach our target," Xie Zhenhua, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at a press conference during the ongoing United Nations Climate Change Conference in Tianjin.

"It's very challenging to further cut energy use and reach the set goal," Xie said.

Eighteen municipalities, provinces and autonomous regions are on track to meet the target, while six to seven other provincial-level administrative areas have encountered obstacles, he said. (Oct. 2010)


GM's high hopes for bumper Year 2010 in China market
M's Buick display area in 2007 Shanghai Expo in the file photo taken in 2007.

Although it is facing the biggest challenge worldwide in its century old history, General Motors has found the Chinese market is giving it a glimpse of hope for business survival.

Last year, the US auto firm harvested record profits in China, benefiting from the robust economic growth in the country.

The US automaker reported 1.83 million units sold across the country, an increase of 67 percent from the previous year.

It compared with a 46 percent year-on-year increase for China's total automobile sales in 2009, spurred by the Chinese government's prompt stimulus package for the automobile industry amid global stagnation. The stimulus included halving taxes on smaller cars with an engine capacity of or less than 1.6-liters and subsidies for trading in old vehicles.

"The year of 2009 was very successful for GM in the China market. We forecast further growth in 2010 as we are confident in the Chinese government's active moves to support the local economy in such a global slowdown," said Tim Lee, president of Shanghai-based GM International Operations, which operates in all GM's markets outside North America.

"The biggest concern for a promising future here is that the Chinese government is increasing money supply," said Lee. He told China Daily that he believed China's investment climate was "still very good this year".

He continued: "GM will continue to invest business here, not only bringing more products but also adding capacity for every joint venture."

In addition to expanding its capacity through adding production shifts and developing its existing assembly lines to meet robust market demand, Lee said that GM was still considering building a new plant in China in the near future to accommodate strong growth in the world's largest auto market.

"We have enough capacity to build the cars we need to sell this year and we need to continue to look for ways of increasing our capacity. That will mean we will have to add a new plant some time in the near future," said Kevin Wale, president and managing director of GM China.

For the first two months of 2010, GM's sales in China rose 73.6 percent from a year earlier to a record 393,498 units.

"Our February sales numbers, with year-on-year growth rate of 51 percent, exceeded our expectations despite the Spring Festival holiday," said Wale. "The continued strong market demand portends another record year for both the industry and GM in China in 2010." (Jul. 2010)