Economy/Resources - 237. page

Central Government-owned enterprises are taking over the local state-owned rare metal and rare earth companies and building large conglomerates to compete for global pricing power over these resources, Xinhua reported.

On September 26, 2010, the Aluminum Corporation of China (Chinalco) signed an agreement to assume a major stake in the Jiangxi Rare Earth and Rare Metals Tungsten Group (JXTC) for 10 billion Yuan ($1.5 Billion). Chinalco will spend that money over 3 years to make JXTC an enterprise with 50 billion Yuan in revenue each year. In May this year, China Minmentals Corporation signed a contract to invest 4.5-5.5 billion Yuan on tungsten and rare earth production in Chenzhou City, Hunan Province.  Its subsidiary, China Minmetals Rare Earth Co., Ltd., announced in February 2009 that it would invest 2 billion Yuan to build the world’s largest rare earth enterprise group, which would cover mining, processing, and application.

China has the world’s largest Tungsten reserve, production, and sales volume, but it does not control the global Tungsten price due to price competition among Chinese production companies and low value-added products.

Source: Xinhua, September 27, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2010-09/27/c_12612433.htm

The state’s intervention in the market, China’s “invisible hand,” is putting pressure on private sector real estate developers, while encouraging a state monopoly in the real estate market. This leaves little hope for housing prices to fall, says China Youth Daily. 

Tightening bank credit lines, coupled with the rejection of second offerings in the stock market, are dramatically narrowing the financing sources available to local real estate developers. 

On the other hand, State-owned enterprises are expanding rapidly and their monopoly has become obvious.
 

China Youth Daily further suggests, “Obviously, when a monopoly exists, it will be much easier for the central government to reap benefits from this market. Therefore, falling housing prices, which is what people foresee, will never materialize.” 

Source: China Youth Daily, September 21, 2010
http://zqb.cyol.com/content/2010-09/21/content_3416171.htm

During the evening rush hour on September 17, downtown Beijing had a record number of traffic jams – 140 roads were jammed. This broke the earlier record of 90 roads blocked by snow. During the rush hour, the average traffic speed was less than 20 kilometers per hour. It was believed that the main reasons for the traffic situation were: (1) the fall holiday season, (2) rain, (3) the weekend, (4) increased fender-benders, (5) only cars with tag numbers ending in 4 or 9 were not allowed to be on the road, (6) an ever increasing number of cars. Currently there are 4.5 million automobiles in Beijing. Experts believe that the Beijing traffic problem is ultimately a city planning issue, which is a comprehensive topic. The growing population is becoming a heavy burden. The government is asking drivers to avoid busy roads and even to avoid driving.

Source: Beijing News, September 18, 2010
http://news.bjnews.com.cn/2010/0918/91423.shtml

At the second Latin America-China Investors Forum (LA-CIF) held in Beijing on September 15 and 16, Vice Governor of China’s Export-Import Bank Zhu Xinqiang spoke about actively supporting Chinese enterprises to open up businesses in Latin America. The Exim Bank will “fully make use of its good relations with Latin American countries and bountiful information about local policies, laws, and business protocols to provide consulting services for the enterprises and help Chinese enterprises with project evaluation and risk assessment. At the same time, it will provide financial products and services to support China-Latin America business and trade cooperation.”

The Exim Bank, with total assets of over 1 trillion Yuan (0.15 trillion $US), is offering financial support for Chinese enterprises in more than 150 countries and regions; its Latin American outstanding loans are as high as 40 billion Yuan (US$6 billion).

Source: Xinhua, September 15, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2010-09/15/c_12573296.htm

According to an article that Xinhua published, China’s Vice Minister of Finance Yi Xiaozhun said on September 14 that China is willing to provide certain aid to other developing countries under the framework of South-South cooperation, but it is different from the aid between North-South countries. It is not fair to ask China to assume the responsibility that developed countries should take. Yi released the information just before Premier Wen Jiabao was about to visit other countries.

Given this background, China will encourage enterprises to invest in and open markets in developing countries.

Source:
Xinhua, September, 14, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2010-09/14/c_13494963.htm

On September 8, 2010, the International Herald Leader, an official newspaper under Xinhua, reported that 90% of the underground water across China has been contaminated; 60% of the water has been seriously polluted. 

Underground water is an important source of drinking water in China. Nearly 70% of the Chinese people drink underground water.

“In 2005, the EPA conducted an inspection of 206 centralized drinking water sources in 56 cities nationwide. It revealed that the water sources were polluted by 132 types of organic pollutants, 103 of which belong to the category of pollutants that must be controlled either inside or outside of China.”

Source: International Herald Leader, September 8, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2010-09/08/c_13484211.htm

On September 10, 2010, Xinhua republished a news report from http://www.gov.cn/ regarding unemployment problems in China. Below are the major points:

There is an oversupply of laborers in the job market. This year in the cities, around 24 million people are in need of employment; there is work for only 12 million of them. There are 6.3 million college graduates this year plus 6 million middle and high school graduates who will not pursue further studies. In the rural areas, there are over 100 million surplus laborers. At the same time, a large number of urban laid-off workers and retired military personnel need to be replaced.

In recent years, it has been found that "recruitment difficulties" and "employment difficulties" coexist. It is difficult to recruit migrant workers in the spring, while college graduates have a hard time finding jobs in the fall, after they graduate. This phenomenon highlights the aggravated structural problem in the area of employment. 

Source: Xinhua, September 10, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2010-09/10/c_12540420.htm