Chinese Economics Thread

[Martian]

Helicopters to swoop into first aid action

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"Helicopters to swoop into first aid action
China Daily, March 9, 2011

Police helicopters are expected to be mobilized in the city's emergency medical responses, according to the Shanghai Medical Emergency Center.

Two police helicopters fly past the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai on
Oct 2, 2009. The city's medical authority has reached an agreement with
the local police bureau to dispatch police helicopters for first aid.​

The center said it has reached an agreement with the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau's police aviation force, and starting this year police helicopters will be dispatched to improve the speed of first aid.

Introducing police helicopters into medical rescue will help develop the city's air ambulance and set up a three-way medical emergency system, combining roads, waterways and the air, Guan Min, an official from the center, said on Monday.

The city has indeed made great efforts to improve its emergency medical capacity and service. Last year, an emergency network covering the city's 72 second-level and above hospitals was established in which hospitals will receive a patient's health information and condition while the patient is en route.

"It (the helicopter) will help gain more time to save people because the ambulance can often get stuck in a traffic jam as a large number of cars hit the road every day," said Zhao Huaqiang, director of the Shanghai Medical Emergency Center.

Since last September, the city has seen the successful transferring of four patients by helicopter, each taking 10 minutes on average, which cannot be achieved on the road.

Xu Jianguang, director of the Shanghai Municipal Health Bureau, said the three-way medical emergency system will become common in the future.

In the United States, the five most comprehensive hospitals all have their own helicopters and landing pads. They have an average of six to eight flights each day, he said.

Currently, four hospitals in Shanghai - Huashan, Ruijin, Changhai and Changzheng - have helipads, as well as fast channels from the landing pad to the operating room.

However, not every patient can afford an air ambulance due to high service fees.

The cost for a single helicopter pickup reportedly exceeds 20,000 yuan (US$3,000).

Zhao Huaqiang said the detailed charging scheme is still in discussion."

 

[Spartan95]

Re: 40% pay increase for China's migrant laborers in 2010

I think shifting growth to other areas will not be a problem -- the longer term challenge they face is to retain its manufacturing capabilities while also having higher end sources of growth.

Shifting growth to other areas requires that the labour force be trained in the new areas it is shifting to. Yes, it can be done. The question is whether this responsibility falls on the provincial level or for the central government to push it.

Given that Premier Wen has talked about restructuring the economy, I'd say that the central government is looking at this issue.

As for retaining its manufacturing capabilities, that should not be an issue in the medium term as it will just shift inwards within PRC. However, when wages had increased significantly in a few decades time throughout PRC, and with the demographic bomb (shrinking labour force that some say is due to 1 child policy), the low cost manufacturing sector may prove unprofitable.

I understand two things are happening. Because of the improvement of the railways more lower wage factories have moved inland because they can now depend on timely transport of raw materials and products and have lower land costs and wages. They also attract people who don't like to work on the coast far from their families. The low wage factories moved inland or to Vietnam, Indonesia or Banghladesh. The remaining coastal factories had to raise wages very significantly, if not 40%.
In this way the investment in the railways provide for China a return on investment even before the income from transport rolls in. An important railway line will be the connection from Kunming to Myanmar and the Indian Ocean to be completed in 2015.
There is the notion by some Western economists that the raising of the cost of Chinese products, food and crude oil together will start inflation on a much larger scale than Mr Bernanke intents and this would lead to a massive loss of value for the US$. I read this in a.o. The Daily Telegraph.

The developing infrastructure between PRC and its neighbours has implications for the transport of people and goods. And coupled with the various Free Trade Agreements (in particular the China-ASEAN FTA), the barriers for manufacturing to shift out of PRC is much lower than before.

Thus, if there is an issue of inflation due to costs in PRC manufactured products, manufacturers will simply shift to a more profitable country. Yes, it takes effort. But that's what happened 2 decades back when manufacturers shifted into PRC.

As for the US$ issue, I'd say that the US budget deficit is the true killer, not some other country's inflation. Just as the Euro and British Sterling has depreciated due to their own national budget deficit, so too must the US$ (eventually).

 

[Hendrik_2000]

The day that western country can stop Chinese trade juggernaut with punitive tariff is over

WTO rules in China's favor in U.S. trade dispute
Associated Press

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March 11, 2011, 4:18 p.m.
China declared victory Friday in a precedent-setting case that limits the ability of its trading partners to set punitive duties on the world's biggest exporter.

China had brought the case before the World Trade Organization in September 2008 to challenge U.S. duties set on steel pipes, woven sacks and some off-road tires. Last October, a WTO panel rejected almost all of China's claims.

But China asked WTO appeals judges to take another look, and Friday, in a big reversal, they found largely in China's favor.

China's mission to the WTO in Geneva said it welcomed a decision that "strikes at the heart of how the United States has applied countervailing duties to Chinese products, not only in the four investigations at issue in this dispute but also in the many investigations that have come since."

The appeals judges decided that the U.S. had illegally imposed two classes of punitive duties of up to 20% on Chinese exports in 2007. They found that the U.S. could not apply both anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on the pipes, sacks and tires.

"The WTO has conclusively established that the United States acts unlawfully in the methods by which it calculates and imposes countervailing duties on imports from China," the Chinese mission said in a statement.

The first of those duties is aimed at preventing a country from selling goods below cost; the second is intended to compensate for government aid to industry.

The decision is a blow not only to the U.S. but also to the European Union and other trading partners with China because it limits their ability to impose punitive duties on Chinese exports.

It also gives more momentum to China at a time when it is fighting off disputes at the WTO brought by trading partners who complain about a state-subsidized manufacturer that dumps goods in foreign countries below cost to saturate markets. China overtook Germany last year to become the world's largest exporter, and it also has the world's second-biggest economy.

Last year China had $1.6 trillion of exports and a trade surplus of $184.5 billion.

But it also recently lost two big WTO rulings that said the export behemoth improperly put export tariffs on raw materials to protect supplies and would have to break up a monopoly it had for processing some credit card payments.

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk called the report by the WTO appeals judges deeply troubling.

"It appears to be a clear case of overreaching," he said in a statement. "We are reviewing the findings closely in order to understand fully their implications."

The WTO's dispute settlement body is expected to adopt the appeals judges' report with 30 days.

 

[Blitzo]

^ oh snap

 

[Martian]

China's largest trade partners for 2009

In 2009, the Chinese economy became the largest exporter in the world and surpassed Germany. China comprised 9.6% of world exports and the total value was higher than $1,200Bn, according to data from the World Trade Organization (WTO).

China's largest trade partners for 2009

 

[Martian]

Taiwan compares favorably to BRIC billionaires

After the United States, China is number two in the world with 115 billionaires. Russia, India, and Brazil have 101, 50, and 30 billionaires respectively on the Forbes 2011 list.

Taiwan's 25 billionaires compare favorably with Brazil's 30 billionaires. May I propose adding Taiwan to the BRIC billionaires club? How about T-BRIC?

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"Talk of the day -- Taiwan's billionaire list
By Sofia Wu
2011/03/11 23:12:17

HTC Chairwoman Cher Wang

The number of Taiwanese billionaires on Forbes Magazine's 2011 rich list increased to 25 from 18 a year ago, largely thanks to a robust economic recovery from a global recession.

Most of those on the list remained the old families that control Taiwan's major corporations, the New York-based biweekly said.

The global smartphone craze resulted, however, in a new face at the top of the list of Taiwan's richest people -- HTC Chairwoman Cher Wang.

Forbes ranked Wang and her husband Wenchi Chen, president and CEO of silicon platform provider VIA Technologies Inc., as Taiwan's wealthiest couple, with a net worth of US$6.8 billion.

The couple, rated Taiwan's 11th richest last year, ranked 143rd worldwide on Forbes' 2011 billionaire list.

The following are excerpts from local media coverage of the issue:

United Daily News:

Cher Wang, a daughter of the late founder of the Formosa Plastics Group, founded VIA in 1987 with a loan of NT$5 million (US$169,000) from her mother.

Under her leadership, the computing and communication platform provider's stock hit NT$629 per share in 2000, making it the most expensive stock at the time.

In 1997, she founded HTC after sensing the market potential of mobile phones. At first, the company produced phones on a contract basis for major foreign brands, but in 2006, she decided to launch smartphones using the HTC brand.

Forbes Magazine said Wang "made a fortune manufacturing phones and gadgets sold under other companies' brands; now she is getting even richer by marketing them under her own HTC."

Sales at HTC nearly doubled last year to US$9.6 billion and net profit rose by three-quarters to US$1.4 billion, according to the magazine.

HTC share prices also soared to new highs last year. At one point, HTC prices on the Taiwan Stock Exchange more than quadrupled from NT$277.5 on Feb. 8, 2010 to its highest point of NT$1,140 in February 2011. It closed at NT$1,035 Friday. (March 11, 2011).

China Times:

Terry Gou, chairman of electronics contract manufacturing king Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., was dethroned as Taiwan's richest man after a tough 2010 in which the company attracted international attention following a spate of suicides at its operation in China.

Gou, who led Taiwan's list of richest people last year, fell to third place this year, with a net worth of US$5.7 billion and a world ranking of 179th.

Forbes Magazine said Hon Hai, better known in the industry by its trade name Foxconn, still has a strong customer list that includes Apple and HP. Gou founded the company in 1974 with NT$100,000. (March 1, 2011).

Liberty Times:

On the 2011 list that was released by the New York-based magazine on Wednesday, Fubon Group founder Tsai Wan-tsai and family ranked No. 2 in Taiwan, with a combined fortune of US$6.3 billion. The Tsai family ranked 156th on the global list.

Want Want Group Chairman Tsai Eng-meng was fourth in Taiwan, with a fortune of US$5.2 billion. He was one of four Taiwanese billionaires to make the top 200 richest on the Forbes global list at 196th.

Tsai was followed by Formosa Plastics Group President Wang Yung-tsai, with a fortune of US$3.5 billion, which earned him a global ranking of 310th.

Rounding out the top 10 in Taiwan were Quanta Group Chairman Barry Lam; Lin Yu-lin, one of Taiwan's most prominent landlords; real estate tycoon Lin Rong San; Cheng Shin Rubber Co. founder Luo Jye and family; and Cathay Financial Holdings Vice Chairman T. Y. Tsai.

Thanks to a touch screen craze triggered by the iPhone, TPK Holdings Co. Chairman Michael Chiang made the Taiwan top 25 list for the first time at 18th and was 833rd on the global list. (March 11, 2011)."

 

[Player 0]

Re: Taiwan compares favorably to BRIC billionaires

China and Russia drive growth of billionaire population.

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(Reuters) - Rising global commodities prices and Asia's economic boom led to a big increase in the number of billionaires in Russia, China and Brazil in 2011.

China nearly doubled its number of billionaires to 115, while Russia and Brazil posted two-third jumps to 101 and 30, respectively, Forbes said in its annual list of the world's richest people.

It was the first time any country outside the United States, which has 413 billionaires, had more than 100. Moscow is now home to the most people on the list with 79 billionaires, easily outstripping New York, which has just 58.

The world's richest man, Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, retained his crown for the second year in a row and made more money than any of the other 1,209 billionaires in the past year: $20.5 billion, taking his fortune to $74 billion.

Russia's billionaire growth was attributed to a commodities boom. Brazil also benefited from higher commodity prices, as well as stricter disclosure rules and a stronger currency. In China and India, which has 55 billionaires after adding six, strong economies helped create wealth from a range of sectors.

"The bottom line is BRICs, commodities and Asia Pacific," Forbes Chief Executive Steve Forbes told a news conference on Wednesday. "There is a global commodities boom. But as we should have learned ... commodities can go up very sharply, they can go down very sharply."

The Reuters Jefferies CRB commodities index .CRB rose 17 percent last year and is up another 8 percent this year as copper and gold hit record highs, grains are near their 2008 peaks and, most recently, oil surged beyond $100 a barrel.

Brazil, Russia, India and China produced half the world's 214 new billionaires, double last year's 97 newcomers.

Among the newbies in the Forbes list are four billionaires whose fortunes are tied to social networking site Facebook -- co-founders Dustin Moskovitz and Eduardo Saverin and investors Yuri Milner and Sean Parker. They join Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, who soared to No. 52 from No. 212 and now has an estimated worth of $13.5 billion, and Facebook investor Peter Thiel, who was also previously on the list.

One of the biggest movers up the list was U.S. casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who posted the biggest increase in wealth behind Slim.

He is worth $23.3 billion, up from $14 billion, and soared to No. 16 from No. 73 last year in a remarkable turnaround for a businessman whose Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS.N) came close to defaulting on its debt in 2008.

While India's number of billionaires did not increase much, their "average net worth ... is huge -- $4.5 billion for an Indian billionaire versus $2.5 billion for a Chinese billionaire," said Forbes.

Russia is also trumping China with 15 billionaires in the top 100, compared to China's one, while India has seven and Brazil three.

RICH AND GENEROUS

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates held on to second place, growing his wealth to $56 billion from $53 billion last year, and investor Warren Buffett again came in third with $50 billion, up from $47 billion.

Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc has fared better than Gates' Microsoft. Microsoft shares now trade about where they were a decade ago, while Berkshire shares have roughly doubled.

Forbes said that Gates would have still been the richest man in the world if he had not so far given $28 billion of his wealth to his foundation. He was only knocked off the top spot on the list twice between 1995 and 2010.

The wealth of the world's billionaires jumped 25 percent to $4.5 trillion and their average net worth rose to $3.7 billion from $3.5 billion. There were 47 people who dropped off the list, 42 who returned and 10 people who died. The number of women grew to 102 from 89 last year.

While positions have shifted, the top 20 was largely unchanged. New this year were Adelson, Russian steel baron Vladimir Lisin and David and Charles Koch, brothers behind an energy and manufacturing empire. They recently hit the headlines for their controversial support of conservative U.S. causes.

The Asia Pacific's growth in wealth has also fueled a luxury goods demand, helping grow the fortune of Europe's richest man, LVMH (LVMH.PA) Chief Executive Bernard Arnault, to $41 billion from $27.5 billion. He rose to No. 4 from No. 7.

"The global economy is recovering, but it is not all spread across the board," said Forbes. "Yes, there are increases (the number of billionaires) in Europe, but primarily it is Russia. The United States barely registered an increase."

"In terms of wealth, the dog that isn't barking is Japan," said Forbes, referencing a Sherlock Holmes novel. "(It has) a fairly small number of billionaires compared to the size of the economy."

The number of U.S. billionaires rose to 413 from 403.

Facebook's Moskovitz is also the youngest billionaire in the world at 26 and with a fortune of $2.7 billion, while the honour of being the oldest goes to Swiss tech billionaire Walter Haefner, who is 100 and worth $4 billion.

Canadian David Thomson, who controls Thomson Reuters (TRI.TO), widened his lead over his financial news and data rival, New York City Mayor and Bloomberg owner Michael Bloomberg. Thomson rose three spots to No. 17 with $23 billion, while Bloomberg fell seven spots to No. 30 with a fortune of $18.1 billion.

Forbes ranked the billionaires' fortunes at the close of global stock markets on February 14, 2011. The full Forbes ranking of the world's billionaires can be seen at

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(Editing by Mark Egan, Martin Howell and Gary Hill)

 

[Martian]

China’s $8.3 Billion Art Market Bests U.K. as World’s No. 2

Chinese Art Dragon Box Blue and White Longqing Period Ming Dynasty

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"China’s $8.3 Billion Art Market Bests U.K. as World’s No. 2, Research Says
By Scott Reyburn - Mar 14, 2011 12:37 PM ET

China has overtaken the U.K. to become the world’s second-largest art market after the U.S., according to research published today.

Auction and gallery sales in China totaled the equivalent of almost 6 billion euros ($8.3 billion) in 2010, giving the country a 23 percent share of the global market, said the British Art Market Federation. The U.S. continues to dominate, with 34 percent. The U.K. remains Europe’s biggest auction center, with 22 percent of international sales.

The full survey is scheduled to be released later today by the Netherlands-based European Fine Art Foundation three days before the world’s largest art and antiques fair, Tefaf, previews in the Dutch city of Maastricht.

Since 2006, the U.K.’s share of the global art market has fallen to 22 percent from 27 percent, the BAMF said in an e- mailed statement. Europe’s share has fallen even more sharply.

“This study makes alarming reading for us,” said Anthony Browne, BAMF’s chairman, in the statement.

He warns that sales are being damaged by a European Union levy that entitles living artists to a portion of the resale value of their work. “The EU alone applies this levy,” he said. “It does not exist in China, the U.S. or Switzerland, our main global competitors.”

Levy Extension

The levy was introduced in the U.K. in 2006 under a European Union directive. The BAMF was set up in 1996 to represent the interests of Britain’s auction houses and art trade associations. It’s campaigning against European Commission plans to extend the levy in the U.K. in 2012 to the work of deceased artists 70 years after their deaths.

The European Fine Art Foundation’s study “The International Art Market in 2010: Crisis and Recovery” comes as more than 260 dealers prepare for Tefaf. The event will offer 30,000 works with a total value of more than 1 billion euros, said insurers.

International sales of art and antiques totaled 43 million euros in 2010, a 52 percent increase on 2009, when the market suffered from economic worries, the Tefaf report said.

The recovery was strongest in the U.S. and China. Art sales in the latter have nearly doubled in value since 2009, according to the report, prepared by Clare McAndrew, founder of the Dublin-based consulting company Arts Economics. The headline figures combine transactions made by both dealers and auction houses.

Modern and contemporary art represented 58 percent of the 2010 sales with pre-1950 pieces accounting for six times the value of more recent works. The auction sector has become dependent on individual lots selling for more than 50,000 euros.

Results such as the record $106.5 million paid for Picasso’s 1932 “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” accounted for 81 percent of the market by value, though only 5 percent by volume.

“Buyers were seeking higher quality or well-established works, whereas sales in the middle of the market were recovering more slowly,” the report said.

The Tefaf preview for VIPs is on Thursday March 17."

 

[Martian]

Iran, China planning world's tallest dam, hydro project

HIGHEST DAM: The world's highest arch dam at Xiaowan Hydropower Station in southwest China's Yunnan Province with a height of 292 m (958 ft).

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"Iran, China planning world's tallest dam, hydro project

TEHRAN, Iran 3/3/11 (PennWell) --

Iran and China are planning a deal for construction of Bakhtiari Dam in Iran. Bakhtiari would be the tallest concrete dam in the world, according to media reports.

Bakhtiari Dam is to be a 315-meter-high arched dam on Bakhtiari River within the Zagros Mountains. The dam will have the reservoir capacity equivalent to 4.8 billion cubic meters and would include a 1,500-MW hydropower plant, reports indicate.

The two sides agreed to settle different issues so as to ink the contract by March 15, reports indicate.

China's Sinohydro Corporation has a historical precedence in construction of large dams and has cooperated with Iranian companies in the past, officials told media.

Recently, Sinohydro signed a deal to build a 108-MW hydropower project in Iran, the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) reported.

According to the SASAC, the RMB 10.035 billion (US$1.5 billion) project will be constructed on a 101-meter-high dam and will take Sinohydro approximately 60 months to complete."

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"Sinohydro inks $2 bn deal to build Iran dam: report
(AFP) – 1 day ago

TEHRAN — Chinese company Sinohydro has signed a $2 billion deal to build a hydroelectric dam in Iran's southwest, state media reported on Monday.

Chinese workers look at the Chinese-funded Kamchay dam under construction in Cambodia in 2009

Under the contract signed with Iran's Farabi, Sinohydro will construct a 315-metre (1,033 feet) high dam with a capacity of 1,500 megawatts on the border between Lorestan and Khuzestan provinces, said the website of state television.

China and Iran have become major economic partners in recent years, partly thanks to the withdrawal of Western companies in line with sanctions against the Islamic republic over its contentious nuclear drive.

Annual trade between the two nations is worth about $30 billion, according to Assadollah Asgaroladi, director of the Sino-Iranian Chamber of Commerce, who added the target was to raise this to $100 billion.

Last month, an Iranian public company said it signed a contract valued at about $13 billion with China to build more than 5,300 kilometres (3,300 miles) of railway lines in the country.

China has also significantly strengthened its presence in Iran's oil and gas sector by signing a series of contracts, in place of companies from the West and even Japan.

Iran is OPEC's second largest oil exporter, and also has the second largest gas reserves in the world after Russia."

 

[Martian]

China lands $7 billion Chad railway contract

Chinese President Hu Jintao (L) and Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno (R) review the honor guards made of the three services of the Chinese People's Liberation Army during the welcome ceremony for the latter on Tian'anmen Square in Beijing, Sept. 20, 2007. Deby arrived here Thursday morning, starting his state visit to China. [photo: Xinhua]

Map of Chad

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"China lands $7 billion Chad railway contract
by Staff Writers
N'Djamena (AFP) March 14, 2011

Chad signed on Monday a $7-billion (five-billion-euro) contract with China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) to build a railway in the oil-producing nation.

Infrastructure and Transport Minister Adoum Younousmi said construction should begin next year of the first two lines of the 1,344 kilometres (835 miles) of railway, linking the country with neighbouring Sudan and Cameroon for transportation of goods.

A second phase would link the two lines via the capital N'Djamena.

China will finance the construction of the railways and the mode of repayment will be decided later.

Chad, which only began to produce oil in 2003, launched a major programme of public works construction in 2009."