DHL has launched a new style of high-fashion logistics center on the outskirts of Shanghai. Provided to China Daily

Investment

DHL opens centerin Shanghai

DHL Global Forwarding, the air and ocean freight arm of DHL, has launched what it is calling a new style of high-fashion logistics center at a site on the outskirts of Shanghai. With an investment of 4.3 million euros ($5.6 million), the 10,500 square meter Fashion Center of Excellence is designed to meet the needs of high-fashion and luxury industries, said Kelvin Leung, CEO of DHL Global.

Kimberly-Clark plans $100m Nanjing center

Kimberly-Clark Corp, the US personal care product company, plans to build a $100 million (75.88 million euros) manufacturing center in Nanjing, Jiangsu province. It will occupy about 100 hectares and have fully automated production lines. The center will primarily manufacture Huggies-brand diapers and training pants to meet growing demand in China. The site will eventually become one of the firm's largest and most advanced manufacturing centers, the company said.

Chinese firms snapping up foreign brands

Chinese firms investing overseas are increasingly buying businesses with technology, brands and know-how as they move up the value chain and counter falling margins at home, private equity fund A Capital said. Europe, the top destination for Chinese investment last year, will remain attractive due to moderate valuations, the absence of regulatory hurdles and a "strategic match" in areas of interest to China, such as services, according to an April 16 report by A Capital, which is based in Brussels and Beijing and is backed by China's sovereign wealth fund.

Zimbabwe grants CMEC contract

Zimbabwe has awarded a $1.3 billion (986.44 million euros) contract to expand the Hwange thermal power plant by 600 megawatts to China Machinery Engineering Co. The Chinese contractor outbid Sinohydro Group Ltd, China's biggest hydroelectric dam builder, said Zimbabwe Power Co managing director Noah Gwariro.

"No date has been set as yet on when the contractor would move onto the site," Gwariro said.

Business council established

The Australian government and Guangdong province on April 11 signed an agreement to set up an Australia-Guangdong Business Cooperation Council to expand ties between the two sides. The signing ceremony in Guangzhou was witnessed by Guangdong Party chief Hu Chunhua and Australian Minister for Trade and Competitiveness Craig Emerson.

"Southern China is a center of Australian small and medium-sized business activity and the new council will help to deepen long-standing economic cooperation and commercial ties between Australia and Guangdong," Emerson said.

Glencore-Xstrata deal wins approval

Glencore International PLC, the world's largest publicly traded commodities supplier, cleared the final regulatory hurdle in its $30 billion (22.76 billion euros) takeover of Xstrata Plc after gaining approval from Chinese authorities, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. China's Ministry of Commerce allowed the takeover to proceed, the sources said. The deal won agreement from South Africa's antitrust regulator in January and the European Union in November.

Economy

Yuan climbs to 19-year high

China's yuan rose to a 19-year high after the central bank set a record fixing against the dollar, before paring gains, as the government reported an unexpected slowdown in economic growth. The People's Bank of China raised its daily reference rate by 0.08 percent to 6.2454 per dollar. The yuan is allowed to trade as much as 1 percent either side of the fixing. The yuan gained 0.08 percent to 6.1871 per dollar in Shanghai, prices from the China Foreign Exchange Trade System show.

Credit outlook cut to stable from positive

Moody's Investors Service lowered its outlook for China's credit rating to stable from positive, saying the nation has made less progress than anticipated in reducing risks from local government debt and credit expansion. "Structural reforms" under the new leadership may not be sufficient over the next 12 to 18 months to justify an upgrade, Moody's said on April 16 as it affirmed China's Aa3 rating, the fourth highest level. Moody's also cut the outlook on Hong Kong's Aa1 rating to stable.

BHP expects China growth to slow

BHP Billiton Ltd, the world's biggest mining company, expects annual economic growth in China, its largest customer, to moderate toward 6 percent.

"With what you have seen over the past couple of years, I don't expect the double-digit growth rates to continue," said Graham Kerr, CFO of the Melbourne-based company, on April 10 at the Bloomberg Australia Economic Summit in Sydney. "Their moderated growth is around the 7 percent to 8 percent mark for the next couple of years, then trending down toward the 6 percent mark."

Finance

More QFII accounts opened in March

A record 26 new Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors accounts were opened in March, bringing the total number of QFII accounts to more than 400, according to China Securities Depository and Clearing Co Ltd. Analysts said growth in QFII accounts shows overseas investors' increasing interest in China's stock market. The pricing of China's stocks and the low price of some stocks with potential for return are the major appeals to investors.

African Minerals seeks China debt funding

African Minerals Ltd, the Sierra Leone iron-ore producer that received a $1.5 billion (1.14 billion euros) investment from a Chinese steel mill last year, may seek debt funding from the Asian nation for a mine expansion scheduled for 2016.

"We have a range of different options," CEO Keith Calder said on April 10, referring to the $2.1 billion development plan. "We have the opportunity for project-level debt, which would be a combination of perhaps Chinese and Western banks."

African Minerals began shipments from the Tonkolili mine in November 2011. On April 10, it said it expects to reach its targeted production rate of 20 million metric tons annually this quarter.

Fitch cuts yuan debt rating

Fitch Ratings Ltd cut China's long-term, local-currency debt rating, citing increasing risks to the country's financial stability given the lack of transparency in the increased borrowing of local governments. Fitch lowered its assessment by one step to A+, the fifth-highest grade, the London-based company said. It estimates total credit in China's economy, including various forms of shadow banking, may have reached 198 percent of gross domestic product at the end of 2012, up from 125 percent four years earlier.

Trade

Copper drops as exports from China fuel concern

Copper fell in London as weaker-than-estimated exports from China, the world's biggest consumer of the metal, fueled concern supply will exceed demand. Shipments gained 10 percent in March from a year earlier, Chinese customs figures showed on April 10, below the median estimate of 11.7 percent in a Bloomberg News analyst survey. Imports were stronger than predicted. Inventories of copper tracked by the London Metal Exchange are the highest since September 2003.

"Macro sentiment remains shaky as nervous market participants look for more signs of gaining momentum in China's economy, eventually driving seasonal demand for metals," Andrey Kryuchenkov, an analyst at VTB Capital in London, said in a report on April 10.

China Daily-Agencies

(China Daily 04/19/2013 page14)