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November 2009 The heavy fog and storms that started to envelop the entire Yangtze River region from Shanghai to Chongqing on 10 November has impacted the safety and security of shipping, according to the Yangtze Maritime Safety Authority under the Ministry of Transport. An emergency code for accident-prevention at times of atrocious weather has been activated.
In Yichang alone, the local maritime authorities deployed 18 extra patrol boats involving 200 officials at the 12 rescue centres. Notices have been sent out stating that all vessels passing the middle reaches where there is currently a severe drought must have a draught of 2.8 metres or less, except those carrying dangerous goods whose draught must be 2.7 metres or less. Vessels that do not comply will be ordered to lighten at the Yichang Lightening Base. Eight service vessels at the base are on stand-by with a daily handling capacity of more than 20,000 tons.
In a separate move, the Yangtze police in Jiujiang are cracking down hard on organised crime involving stranded vessels. On 16 November, the Jiujiang Yangtze police arrested a main suspect, whose surname was given a Xie, who admitted that he and three accomplices (still at large) extorted money from stranded vessels on a false premise of helping them to lighten. The case continues.
Wuhan Mayor Ruan Chenfa said at a meeting on 24 November that his government would not allow the development of industries that consume large amounts of energy, following the natural gas crisis this month.
Natural gas has become increasingly popular since the end of 2004 when it was first introduced in the city; annual consumption increased by an annual average of 47 per cent to 420m cubic metres in 2008. By the end of this year, total consumption is expected to hit 770m cubic metres.
When demand started to exceed supply after the city’s first snow of the winter on 15 November, Wuhan Government announced a halt of supply to taxis from the following day as a measure to cope with the severe shortage. Supply of natural gas was also cut to industrial and commercial users.
The focus of the meeting was on the city’s long-term energy strategy. The mayor asked relevant government departments to predict future demand and co-ordinate the supply management of natural gas. The government also announced an investment of Rmb200m in building an emergency liquefied natural gas reserve station for the city. The station will have a capacity of 20m cubic metres, equivalent to about 10 days of emergency supplies for the city. Construction will start before the Chinese New Year and will be completed by the summer.
The government has also decided to look into the ongoing expansion of its reserve stations and supply pipes to make sure that they are operational by next winter.
Wuhan does not have local reserves of coal, oil or natural gas despite being an industrial centre with iron and steel and automobile assembly among its pillar industries.
China’s largest online air ticket booking agency Xiecheng Tourist Net started to offer huge discounts from 22 November on flights originating from Wuhan. One-way tickets from Wuhan to Beijing on one the country’s major airlines now cost as little as Rmb270, compared with Rmb272 for a middle hard bed on the Wuhan-Beijing sleeper. One-way air tickets from Wuhan to Shanghai cost just Rmb200, compared with Rmb274 for a lower hard bed on the Wuhan-Shanghai sleeper. Other destinations that attract extremely low prices are Xiamen (Rmb300), Qingdao (Rmb250), Nanjing (Rmb220) and Chongqing (Rmb240).
The deep discounts are partly due to promotions by all the major airlines ahead of the Spring Festival, which falls on 14 February 2010. Another reason is the intensified competition from rail services that have much improved after recent renovations and expansions, and whose prices remain low. Being a regional rail hub, Wuhan has easy access to most major cities and, as a result, competition for passengers is fierce between rail and air service providers.
Taiwan’s UNI Air started direct scheduled services to Chongqing on 18 November. The carrier will put on six flights a week between Chongqing and Taiwan, with return flights every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.
Air China and Sichuan Airlines have been operating five direct flights a week between Chongqing and Taiwan since the end of 2008, and average occupancy levels have been running at more than 80 per cent according to a Chongqing government website.
Increased competition has reduced fares. Return tickets cost in the region of Rmb1,800-3,000, around 30 per cent cheaper than when direct flights were first allowed.
The world’s first combined LNG/LPG/ethylene carrier was officially named on 15 November. Built by Shenghui Gas & Chemical Systems, the multi-gas vessel is due to be delivered by early January 2010 to its owner Singco Gas, a joint venture between Norway’s IM Skaugen Marine Services and GATX Corp of the US.
The innovative carrier was built in response to rising demand for the transport of clean energy fuels at a time of heightened concerns over greenhouse gas emissions. Named Norgas Innovation, the ship’s hull was built by Taizhou Wuzhou Shipbuilding Industry in Zhejiang province.
Its cargo system was built and installed by Shenghui Gas & Chemical Systems, based in Zhangjiagang in Jiangsu province. It will be capable of carrying two grades of segregated gases simultaneously, cooled and un-cooled, with a liquefaction system for LNG. The carrier is 137 metres long, 19.8 metres wide, has a maximum depth of 11.50 metres, and a capacity of 10,000 cubic metres.
The US-based technology company Dell claims to have become the first company in the PC sector to introduce packaging made from bamboo. The bamboo, regarded as a more sustainable alternative to paper pulp, foam and corrugate, is sourced from a forest in Jiangxi province.
Two of its netbooks will be shipped in packaging made of bamboo, and additional models will follow from early 2010.
China Eastern Airlines plans to co-operate with Sinotrans in air cargo services, according to a source quoted by China Business News.
Currently, both China Eastern and Sinotrans run air cargo businesses. China Eastern has a controlling stake in China Cargo Airlines, while Sinotrans is an investor in Grandstar Cargo International Airlines, which was established in December 2007 by Sinotrans Air Transportation Development and Korean Air.
According to the report, Sinotrans will seek to make use of China Eastern’s air transport capacity through co-operation. In August, it signed a strategic cooperation agreement Air China.
In a separate development, China Eastern said it would complete its acquisition of Shanghai Airlines by the end of 2009. In July, China Eastern announced the purchase of smaller rival Shanghai Air via a US$1.32bn share swap that would give it about half of Shanghai’s air travel market.
Liu Shaoyong, chairman of China Eastern, said that the rights issue and the transaction would be completed by the end of this year. He added that the airline was open to taking in foreign strategic investors.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Railways and the Chinese government have agreed in principle to form a consortium to carry out a feasibility study into a planned joint venture rail service between the two countries, Pakistan’s railways minister said.
The study will cover a new 350km track from the terminus in Kashgar, Xinjiang autonomous region, to Pakistan’s Khunjerab Pass. The railway would initially provide freight services and would later carry passengers as well.
The countries were also reported to be seeking a loan from international organisations for the project.
China is to extend its railways in western regions to more than 50,000km by 2020, according to Yan Hexiang, deputy director of the Ministry of Railways’ development planning department. Mr Yan said more investment would be channelled into railway construction in the west over coming years to serve local economic and social development.
The ministry will accelerate current building projects and push for the early construction of lines such as those connecting Chengdu and Guiyang, Chongqing and Guiyang, and Kunming and Nanning.
China launched its Go West strategy in January 2000 to help underdeveloped western regions catch up with the more prosperous east. Between then and the end of 2008, the operating length of railways in western regions increased from 20,000km to nearly 30,000km, accounting for 36 per cent of the country’s entire network.
Dense fog in Sichuan province on 18 November caused major disruption to transport in the province, with airports and expressways forced to close, according to China Daily.
In the provincial capital Chengdu, Shuangliu International Airport was closed for most of the morning as visibility fell below 50 metres. A total of 105 flights to and from the airport were delayed and more than 10,000 passengers were stranded. Some incoming flights were forced to land at airports in the nearby cities of Chongqing and Kunming.
At least four expressways, including those connecting Chengdu and Dujiangyan and Dazhou and Chongqing, were closed in the morning.
Similar conditions in Beijing also caused transport chaos in the Chinese capital.
The Kuwait-China Investment Co, an investment firm targeting infrastructure, real estate, agriculture and energy, plans to open its first China office as it seeks to provide a platform to establish private equity vehicles to invest in the country.
The company, part-owned by the Kuwait Investment Authority, said it plans to open the office in Shanghai next year.
Wacker, the Germany-based chemicals group, has officially opened its new dispersible powder and vinyl acetate ethylene dispersion plant in Nanjing, Jiangsu province. With an annual capacity of 30,000 tonnes of dispersible powder, the plant is the largest of its kind in China. Located in Nanjing Chemical Industrial Park, the new site covers an area of 100,000 square metres. First phase investment is more than Euro50m.
Wacker has been producing polymer powders and dispersions for the construction industry for more than 50 years. China’s growing demand for dispersible polymer powders is chiefly due to the need for lightweight and energy-efficient building materials. More and more Chinese houses are being lined with exterior insulation and finish systems.
The Singapore-based Neptune Orient Lines Group is to set up an administration and service centre in Chongqing, according to a statement by Chongqing Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Commission. It was reported that the centre will provide support services for Customs compliance, bill of lading production and invoicing for APL, the group’s container shipping business.
China’s ports recorded a 2.6 per cent year-on-year fall in container traffic in October, handling 10.78m teu, according to the Ministry of Transport. Container traffic at sea ports totalled 9.67m teu, a fall of 2.7 per cent.
The port of Shanghai recorded the biggest volume but also the largest drop; its traffic decreased 9.6 per cent to 2.17m teu. The second largest port, Shenzhen, experienced an 8.4 per cent fall to 1.66m teu. By contrast, October container volumes at Guangzhou rose 11.6 per cent to 956,000 teu.
Over the first 10 months of the year, China’s port container traffic was down 7.1 per cent to 99.89m teu.
Nanjing International Airport said that three routes to North America would start by the end of November: the Nanjing-Beijing-New York service operated by Air China, and the Nanjing-Shanghai Pudong-Los Angeles and Nanjing-Shanghai Pudong-Vancouver services by China Eastern.
Currently, Lufthansa is the only foreign airline to operate services out of Nanjing, with its three-flights-a-week direct service to Frankfurt that started on 1 April 2008. The average occupancy on the Nanjing-Frankfurt route was 62 per cent during the first nine months of this year; in October, it rose to 80 per cent.
Earlier in 2009, Jiangsu provincial government set up a special fund to encourage the opening of more international routes, particularly those connecting Nanjing to the US, Canada, Europe and Australia. The fund is to subsidise airlines in the start-up period.
The new routes to North America will all be daily services.
Wuhan Iron & Steel Group, China’s third largest steelmaker, has signed a long-term iron ore supply contract with Corporacion Venezolana de Guayana, the only iron ore producer in Venezuela. The move is designed to help the Chinese company diversify its raw material sources.
Wisco said it would buy the iron ore using a different pricing mechanism from benchmark prices set each year by the world’s top three producers, although it didn’t explain how the mechanism would work.
An analyst at a domestic consulting firm told China Daily that the deal was in line with domestic steelmakers’ strategy to find new sources of iron ore. Xu Xiangchun, executive director of Mysteel, said it was easier for domestic companies to negotiate with smaller producers on prices.
This year, Chinese steelmakers have failed to reach a price agreement with suppliers Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and CVRD. The three producers account for 75 per cent of the global sea-borne iron ore trade.
China’s iron ore imports in October fell 30 per cent over the previous month to 45.47m tons, according to statistics released by the General Administration of Customs. However, the level was 49 per cent more than in the same month of last year.
Market analysts attributed the month-on-month plunge in October iron ore imports to a decline in steel prices in August and September. However, they believe import levels will rebound as a result of higher iron ore prices that have been rising since mid-October.
Wuhan Government announced on 15 November that all the fuel stations in the city would stop supplying natural gas to taxis from the following day as a measure to cope with a severe supply shortage. Supply of natural gas will also be cut among industrial and commercial users, the first tranche involving 56 manufacturing companies.
Wuhan has a daily supply of 1.5m cubic metres of natural gas but demand can exceed 2.1m cubic metres as the winter sets in. The city’s first snow of the winter fell on 15 November.
The government has promised taxi drivers a daily subsidy of Rmb100 for each car as long as the ban is in place. About 8,300 petrol-fuelled taxis in Wuhan have been converted to run on natural gas. Residential users have been told that their supplies will be guaranteed.
Chongqing’s outward investment is expected to reach US$180m in 2009, up more than 20 per cent year-on-year, according to Mr Li Jianchun, Director of the city’s Municipal Commission of Foreign Trade and Investment.
Prominent among the list of companies is Chongqing Iron and Steel, which bought a 60 per cent stake worth US$260m in an iron ore mine in Australia. Other companies that are reaching out overseas include: Chongqing Bosai Mining Group, which acquired 80 per cent in an aluminum ore mine in Ghana from Rio Tinto for a sum of US$30m; Chongqing Dingtai Energy, which bought Singapore Hydropower Investment Corp for US$26m; and Chongqing High Speed Boat Development, which is investing US$40m to set up a production base in Brazil.
Of the 23 major projects identified, most involve privately-owned companies, according to Mr Li.
The State Development and Reform Commission has approved the 952km Xian-Hefei railway line, a major route for energy products and raw materials. The double-tracked line will run parallel to the existing route.
Estimated to cost Rmb43bn, the project will be financed jointly by the Ministry of Railways and the governments of Shanxi, Henan, Anhui and Hubei, the provinces that the line will pass through. It will take three-and-a-half-years to complete.
Xian is a major city in China’s interior. This railway project will be the seventh involving Xian that has been approved by the SDRC in 2009. Hefei, the capital of Anhui province, is on a Yangtze tributary and is well connected via road and railway with the cities of Anqing, Chizhou, Tongling, Wuhu and Maanshan, all situated on the Yangtze trunkline.
Chongqing Maritime Safety Authority announced a list of 30 landslide hazards in the Three Gorges reservoir area under its jurisdiction. Among the hazards, 17 are located on the northern bank and nine on the southern bank along the 408km stretch of water between Wushan county and Fuling district. The other four hazards are on a tributary of the Yangtze, near the reservoir.
The authorities published the information to alert passing vessels to the dangers.
It is not yet clear whether these hazards are related to the regular rise and fall of the water level behind the Three Gorges dam. Looking forward, the plan to raise the water level at the dam to 175 metres for the first time by the end of this year may be abandoned due to the urgent need to release water to alleviate the severe draught in the middle reaches, according to the Yangtze River Administration.
Meanwhile, Chongqing has been busy removing another danger to water traffic. The 37-year-old Baitao Wu River Bridge in Fuling district was demolished on 15 November. It was the last remaining bridge in the Chongqing Three Gorges Reservoir area that the authorities have identified for removal.
ScinoPharm, a Taiwan-based supplier of active pharmaceutical ingredients, has started construction of a new plant and R&D centre in Changshu, Jiangsu province. It should be operational in 2011.
“The Changshu plant will serve as a launching pad for the rapidly expanding Chinese pharmaceutical market as well as a back-up site to our customers,” said Dr Jo Shen, president and CEO of the company.
Japan Airlines Corporation is cancelling 16 loss-making international and domestic passenger routes in a bid to improve profitability. The international routes include services from Tokyo Narita Airport to Hangzhou, Xiamen and Qingdao, and the Hangzhou route from Kansai.
China’s foreign trade value fell 10.7 per cent year-on-year in October, according to the General Administration of Customs. Imports totalled US$86.8bn, a decrease of 6.4 per cent compared with the same month last year, while exports dropped 13.8 per cent to US$110.8bn.
Over the first 10 months of the year, imports and exports fell 19.9 per cent year-on-year; the trade surplus was down 27.2 per cent at US$159.23bn.
One positive development has been the continued improvement in the rate of export decline. The 13.8 per cent fall in October was the smallest fall since January. In September, the rate stood at 15.2 per cent. This hints at the prospect of improved demand from overseas, according to Zhang Junsheng, an international trade expert at the University of International Business and Economics. However, he forecasted that exports would continue to fall until the first quarter of 2010.
Petrol and diesel fuel prices were raised by Rmb480 per tonne on 10 November, according to the National Development and Reform Commission. The benchmark price of petrol is now Rmb7,100 per tonne and the price of diesel fuel is Rmb6,360 per tonne.
The retail price of petrol has been increased by Rmb0.36 per litre, while that of diesel fuel has risen by Rmb0.41 per litre.
The commission said that the price increase was made in response to recent changes in the international price of crude oil, which had climbed more than 4 per cent to around US$80 per barrel over the previous 22 trading days.
This is the ninth adjustment since China adopted a new fuel pricing mechanism at the start of this year, which links domestic oil prices to international oil prices in a controlled manner.
Chinese road haulage companies have suffered from a spate of armed robberies in recent months, especially in the south of the country, according to an article on the China Supply Chain Council website.
The head of the Youyi Logistics based in Fuyang city, Anhui province, claimed his company had suffered losses of around Rmb1m from highway robbery over a period of two months. He said that many logistics companies have been robbed in the area around Shaoguan, in the northern part of Guangdong province, by people wielding broadswords and other weapons.
Local media reported that there was also a serious problem on the Heyuan and Huizhou sections of the expressway linking Guangdong to neighbouring Jiangxi province.
Trucks carrying medicines and garments made in the south seem to be particularly vulnerable. For example, the high price of Type 2 diabetes medicine and its ready availability in shops make it particularly attractive to robbers.
Many logistics companies are uninsured because the premiums are so high, so the robberies are straining client relationships, according to the article.
“We only make a few hundred yuan per load, and insurance costs a few thousand yuan,” said the boss of Huachuan Logistics, surnamed Shen. “The goods themselves are only worth a few million, and the insurance is three or four thousand.”
Last month, according to Xinhua, police in Anhui arrested a gang of robbers who were operating on expressways across five provinces, seizing loads worth tens of millions of yuan.
PYI Corporation, the Hong Kong-based bulk cargo port and infrastructure group, has completed its investment of Rmb114m for a 51 per cent equity interest in Yichang Port Group.
Tom Lau, Managing Director of PYI, said the move represented a key step in extending the company’s port network on the Yangtze River.
Yichang port in Hubei province is situated on the middle reaches of the Yangtze, near the Three Gorges Dam.
Yichang Port Group, which is principally engaged in transport logistics and property investment, is the leading port and terminal operator in Yichang. It owns 11km of shoreline and is engaged in bulk cargo and container handling, and storage.
Consumer associations from 17 major Chinese cities such as Beijing, Wuhan, Chongqing and Hong Kong have jointly called for information on air tickets to be written in Chinese. At the moment, details such as the name of the carrier and airline terminal, and the date of departure are all written in English.
A joint proposal has been handed to the Ministry of Transport, the Civil Aviation Authority, and all domestic airlines and representative offices of foreign airlines. The proposal stated that consumers have the legal right to be properly informed.
While consumers are now exerting greater power, the airlines are offering more heavily discounted tickets to attract passengers and boost business in the economic downturn. For example, one-way airfares between Shanghai and Seoul have been reduced to Rmb410, down from Rmb1,800 a year ago.
Yangtze Phoenix, the listed arm of Sinotrans Yangtze National Shipping Corp, the largest shipping line operating on the Yangtze, has announced the withdrawal of its fleet of 106 tugs of 2,000dwt with immediate effect.
Although the average age of the tugs was 27 years, well below the threshold of compulsory withdrawal, the company said that barges and tugs on the Yangtze have had their day and have now been replaced by self-propelled, modern and specialised vessels.
A feasibility study of the Chengdu-Xian railway project has been approved by the State Development and Reform Commission. The 519km double tracked railway line will cater mainly for passengers. It will start at Chengmianle Railway Station in Chengdu and end at Xian North Railway Station. The estimated cost is around Rmb69bn.
The detailed plan is now with the Ministry of Railway for approval. Construction is expected to start before the end of this year and should be completed by 2013.
According to China Waterway Transport, by end of October this year, more than 90 per cent of vessels passing the Three Gorges Dam were equipped with GPS. The system allows vessel operators to request a passing slot just four hours in advance rather than 24 hours that is the case for vessels without one.
Because GPS-equipped vessels are more accurate in estimating arrival time, the number of wasted slots has been reduced sharply. As a result, passing the dam is now more efficient.
During the first 10 months of this year, 408 vessels installed GPS, joining the 2,300 vessels that were already equipped with the system.
Record low water levels are affecting the lower reaches of the Yangtze as much as the middle reaches, according to statistics from the Yangtze River Administration. Between 6 and 11 November, the water level in Nanjing ranged from 1.35 metres to 1.94 metres. In Zhenjiang, it stood at 2.22 metres on 6 November before falling to 1.82 metres five days later.
In the middle reaches, the problem was even more acute. The water level in Yichang, for example, fell from 1.60 metres on 6 November to just 0.45 metres on 11 November. The water level in Jingzhou was well below one metre throughout the five-day period.
The Three Gorges Dam is continuing with its programme of replenishing water in the middle and lower reaches.
A Nanjing land auction held on 10 November saw the price of a second-hand plot in Jiangning ETDZ plummet by 35 per cent. The 24,000 sq metre plot was originally bought in November 2007 by Nanjing Huaguang Real Estate for Rmb202m after fierce bidding. But by July 2008, the company still hadn’t paid the full balance and the local state assets management department legally withdrew the plot and confiscated the company’s down payment of nearly Rmb55m.
The plot was put up for auction again, but it attracted only two bidders. Baoren Real Estate won with a bid of Rmb133m, only 65 per cent of the price the first time round.
By contrast, retail property prices in Nanjing are on an upward trend. The city reported a 5.8 per cent average year-on-year increase in retail housing prices in October, one of the biggest increases in the country.
Novartis, the world’s third largest pharmaceutical company, said it plans to invest US$1.25bn in two Chinese R&D centres over the next five years. It will invest US$250m in a new R&D centre and manufacturing facility in Changshu, Jiangsu province, and another US$1bn to add 1,000 researchers at an existing centre in Shanghai that currently employs 160 people.
So far, the Switzerland-based company has invested more than US$300m in China and has more than 4,100 employees in the country working on vaccines, generic drugs and animal health products.
Air Products of the US has opened a new amines plant in Nanjing, Jiangsu province. The facility will support customers in the growing polyurethane additives and epoxy markets.
Located in Nanjing Chemical Industry Park, the new plant is designed to manufacture many of the amine chemistries marketed by the business globally. Air Products already operates two large air separation plants and a pipeline system to serve customers in the park.
Air Products is a major supplier of gases and performance materials to the industrial, energy, technology and healthcare markets.
Wuhan-based Dongfeng Motor Corp is set to export several of its light goods vehicle models to South Korea next year, according to various media reports.
Dongfeng China reportedly signed a deal with Dongfeng Motors Korea to import the vehicles starting early next year, and they will be priced at around 30 per cent less than their domestically built Korean rivals.
Dongfeng’s own brand sedans are expected to follow the goods vehicles into Korea once they have passed Korean vehicle safety and emission standards.
John Elkann, vice president of Fiat, has held discussions with Chongqing vice mayor Tong Xiaoping, about the Italian auto giant’s plan to establish a new engine works in Chongqing.
Fiat has two existing enterprises in the city and Mr Elkann said the new plant would provide high quality engines for customers across the country. Mr Tong said Fiat would play an important role in developing Chongqing as a motor city in west China.
Meanwhile, passenger car sales by Ford Motor’s joint venture with Chongqing Changan Automobile rose 80 per cent in October from a year earlier to 20,027 units, Dow Jones reported. In the January-October period, passenger car sales of Changan Ford Mazda Automobile rose 40 per cent year-on-year to 188,244 units.
In late September, Changan Ford Mazda broke ground at a US$490m new plant in Chongqing, which will increase the passenger car venture’s annual capacity to 600,000 units by 2012.
The construction of high-speed railways in China poses a threat to the nation’s airline industry, warned Si Xianmin, chairman of China Southern Airlines.
“Over 80 per cent of the domestic aviation market will be impacted and about 518 flights are expected to see a 50 per cent plunge in traffic when the planned high-speed rail lines enter service,” he said at a conference in Beijing.
Indeed, competition from high-speed trains is already apparent. Si claimed that China Southern’s weekly traffic on the Shanghai-Wuhan route, for example, has dropped by 30 per cent since high-speed train services started between the two cities.
Expansion of the high-speed train network is a core component of the government’s fiscal stimulus programme. By 2020, China will have built 18,000km of passenger rail lines where trains can travel at speeds of more than 250kph. The network is expected to account for more than half of the world’s total high-speed rail lines.
The Yangtze port city of Taicang signed 29 investment agreements worth a combined Rmb7.2bn at its economic and trade fair held in late October, reported China Daily. Eighteen of the projects involved foreign companies, with a total investment of US$686m.
Taicang, situated in eastern Jiangsu province to the northwest of Shanghai, has become an important destination for foreign investors. Its main industries are petroleum and chemicals, power and energy, paper-making and warehouse logistics. New projects signed at the fair covered equipment manufacturing, machinery, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, and real estate.
The fair also held discussions on cross-Straits port logistics and manufacturing partnerships. During the past three years, Taicang has spent more than Rmb6bn on its port infrastructure, building 48 berths and initiating more than 70 domestic and foreign routes.
In the first three-quarters of 2009, the port recorded a total throughput of 35.5m tons and 1.08m teu − up 26 per cent and 2.8 per cent, respectively, compared with the same period last year.
Air China will hold a 51 per cent stake in its air cargo venture with Cathay Pacific that is hoped to be finalised in the first half of next year, a Chinese airline executive was quoted as saying by China Daily.
Reuters reported that the two carriers will provide 10 Boeing 747-400 freighters to their Shanghai-based venture.
In August, Air China bought a further 12.5 per cent stake in Cathay, lifting its stake to 29.99 per cent.
The venture could give both carriers a foothold in Shanghai, where China Eastern Airlines will have a market share of around 50 per cent after its planned merger with Shanghai Air.
For the first 10 months of 2009, Zhangjiagang’s imported waste steel increased by 887 per cent to 3.28m tons, according to the city’s Inspection and Quarantine Bureau. The total value of the imports increased four-fold to US$1.2bn.
Zhangjiagang is home to Jiangsu Shagang Group and Fengli Group, two major waste steel importers. Shagang is currently China’s largest electrical steel producer while Fengli is a major waste steel processer. The competitive price of imported waste steel, combined with low shipping prices and increasing demand for the two companies’ products, are contributing factors to the increased import volumes.
In a separate development, Mitsui OSK Lines has signed a 10-year iron ore transport contract with Jiangsu Shagang Group. MOL will transport iron ore from Australia and Brazil to the private Chinese company’s berth in Zhangjiagang.
A 207,000-tonne iron ore carrier, to be constructed for the contract, is scheduled for completion in late 2011.
Founded in 1975, Jiangsu Shagang is one of China’s leading steelmakers. In 2008, its annual steel production was 23.3m tonnes, and its annual iron ore imports totalled 16.34m tonnes.
The Ministry of Transport has fined 10 shipping lines for not filing freight rates with the Shanghai Shipping Exchange on time after new rule became effective on 1 August. The list includes both Chinese and Western shipping companies, including Dalian Shipping, MCC Transport Singapore and Maersk Shipping. By 27 October, six out of the 10 had paid the fine of an undisclosed amount.
The new regulation is an attempt by the ministry to stop a raging price war between international shipping lines as a consequence of the global economic downturn. From 15 June, all international shipping lines operating in China were asked to register their freight rates with the Shanghai Shipping Exchange. A grace period of 45 days was given, making 1 August the first day of operating the new rule.
According to the ministry, by 25 August, all 120 international shipping lines had filed their rates as required. The ministry will monitor the effectiveness of the measure at some point in future and penalise those who are suspicious of unfair dealings.
The municipal government of Chongqing has signed an agreement with Citic Infrastructure, Citic Guohua and Chongqing Expressway Group to build the Chongqing-Fuling section of the Chongqing Riverside Expressway at a cost of Rmb8.43bn. Work on the 96km section linking Chongqing city proper with Fuling is scheduled to start by the end of this year and to be completed in four years. It will contain 34 bridges and five tunnels, all with a designed maximum speed of 80 kph.
The 475km-long Chongqing Riverside Expressway is Part of the municipality’s expressway network that leads to Shanxi province.
Statistics from the Yangtze River Administration under the Ministry of Transport show that October’s cargo throughput in the ports along the Yangtze trunkline increased by 31.3 per cent year-on-year to reach 107.4m tons. The total also represented a 3.1 per cent improvement over the previous month. Foreign trade-related cargo throughput rose by nearly 55 per cent to 12.32m tons, up 0.3 per cent over the previous month. Container throughput reached 720,000 teu, an increase of nearly 23 per cent year-on-year and 5 per cent over the previous month.
For the first 10 months, the total cargo throughput was up 9.7 per cent to 929m tons, while container throughput fell 3.2 per cent to 5.62m teu, compared with the same period last year.
Two ocean-going specialist tar-carrying vessels built in Chongqing safely passed the seasonally low waters in the middle reaches of the Yangtze on 29 October, joining another vessel that was delivered earlier in the month. This is the first time that vessels as large as 10,000 dwt have passed through the middle reaches in the dry season.
Bound for Nanjing and Nantong, the vessels are each 130 metres long and nearly 30 metres wide. Maritime safety authorities dispatched 25 pilot boats involving more than 300 people along the way to facilitate the delivery.
Typically, only 3,000-5,000 dwt vessels can pass the middle reaches during the dry season.
At 5:30am on 1 November, a vessel carrying 100 tons of hydrochloric acid collided with another vessel carrying sand in the Ezhou section of the Yangtze River in Hubei province. Two crew members were rescued from the water, but the vessel carrying the chemical sank.
By 9am on 4 November, tests taken within a 3km radius of the accident showed that the PH value was between 7.5 and 8.0, within the normal range. The local maritime safety authorities dispatched two boats to salvage the sunken vessel, and had begun an investigation into the cause of the collision.
Hydrochloric acid is used as a chemical reagent in the large-scale production of vinyl chloride for PVC plastic and MDI/TDI for polyurethane. It has numerous smaller-scale applications including household cleaning, production of gelatine and other food additives, descaling and leather processing. Concentrated hydrochloric acid (fuming hydrochloric acid) forms acidic mists. Both the mist and the solution have a corrosive effect on human tissue, with the potential to damage respiratory organs, eyes, skin and intestines.
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