The world-famous luxury cruise liner Legend of the Seas at Tianjin International Cruise Home Port on Tuesday at the start of the port's 2012 Cruise Season. The port is one of the most important in northern China for the ship's operator Royal Caribbean International. The port's passenger throughput is expected to reach 100,000 this year, increasing 38 percent year-on-year. Xue Liqiang / Xinhua

Local vehicle prices continue to drop

Prices of China's locally produced vehicles hit a record low in May, blamed by dealers on high inventories in a fiercely competitive market, in the middle of a price war.

According to the Price Monitoring Center of the National Development and Reform Commission, the prices of both locally built and imported vehicles in China's 36 big and medium-size cities all dropped in May, Caijing reported on Tuesday.

Statistics from the NDRC show that the locally produced vehicles dragged the downturn, with prices dropping by 0.53 percent from April and 1.14 percent over last year, the largest monthly decline in 2012.

Huarong sells shares in Bank of Wenzhou

According to a notice released by the Tianjin Financial Assets Exchange, China Huarong Asset Management Corp has sold 107 million shares in the Bank of Wenzhou for 440 million yuan ($69 million), 58 million yuan higher than the price it had listed at.

In April 2010, the China Banking Regulatory Commission issued the policy to regulate the shareholders of small and medium-sized commercial banks by allowing them to keep the shares of only one commercial bank.

Shanghai JV bank to open in July

Shanghai Pudong Development Bank and Silicon Valley Bank will start operating their joint venture bank in China in July at the earliest, the China Banking Regulatory Commission said.

The Shanghai office of the agency did not provide detailed information about the opening date, adding only that the branch will open in the "next few months", optimistically July.

Design of C919's engine completed

The design stage of the engine for the C919, China's first locally produced commercial aircraft, has been completed and the engine will start to be produced soon, the engine's manufacturer said on Tuesday.

The Leap 1C engine, manufactured by CFM International, is expected to power the debut flight of the C919 in June 2014, said Chaker Chahrour, executive vice-president of CFM, a joint venture between General Electric and Snecma.

Mengniu to set up more dairies

China Mengniu Dairy said it will invest 3.5 billion yuan ($551 million) in eight to 12 new dairies by 2015 to ensure the quality of its milk supply and rebuild consumer confidence amid recent tainted milk incidents.

Sun Yiping, who took over as chief executive of Mengniu in April, has decided to fast-track the dairy plan, originally scheduled for completion in 2017.

The move will allow the group to supply its own fresh milk, it said. At present, 80 percent of its milk is provided by other farms.

Wheat imports set to nearly double

China, the world's biggest wheat consumer, may nearly double its imports this year as feed-grain use grows and harvests in some regions may decline, researchers said.

Shipments will exceed 2 million metric tons this year, Zhang Zhixian, an analyst at Cngrain.com, said on Wednesday. China imported 1.26 million tons last year, according to data from the General Administration of Customs.

Rising incomes in China are fueling an expansion in the livestock industry and record domestic corn prices this year have boosted wheat as a replacement.

Wal-Mart removes products in China

Wal-Mart Stores Inc said it had removed some products from its stores and is conducting an investigation after news reports said regulators found diseased pork ribs in its warehouse in southwestern China.

The local administration of food and animal husbandry in Dazhou, Sichuan province, sent "notification" to Dazhou Wal-Mart, the retailer's spokesman Anthony Rose said, without specifying what was in the notice. In a routine inspection prior to the Spring Festival, officials found that some pork ribs in Wal-Mart's cold storage warehouse were from diseased pigs, the Chengdu Shangbao newspaper reported, citing an unidentified official.

First junk bond sale yields $7.8m

China's first junk bond sale last week showed companies are able to raise funds on the high-yield market at as much as half the cost of borrowing from pawn shops and credit agents, as China expands financing for small businesses.

Suzhou Huadong Coating Glass Co sold 50 million yuan ($7.8 million) in the debut offering on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The coupon of 9.5 percent on the two-year notes compares with the average 21.6 percent companies pay to borrow from so-called shadow banks in the coastal city of Wenzhou. Globally, junk bonds yield 8.4 percent, Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes show.

Virgin plans to add flights to China

Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd, the United Kingdom's No 2 long-haul carrier, plans to add flights to China and South America using slots being ceded by British Airways' parent at Heathrow Airport.

The airline has wanted to start flights to Beijing "for quite some time" and it is also looking at other cities in China, Chief Executive Officer Steve Ridgway said in an interview on Wednesday in Shanghai. He didn't name any specific South American destinations.

Virgin expects to hear by the end of the year how many takeoff and landing slots it will get at Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, following International Consolidated Airlines Group SA's acquisition of BMI in April.

Soybean costs 'need to rise'

Goldman Sachs Group Inc said new crop soybean prices need to rise to $14.30 a bushel to curtail China's import demand because supplies will be limited over the next six months.

The July corn futures "need to rally" to limit feed demand, Damien Courvalin, an analyst at the bank in New York, said in a report dated on Tuesday.

The 12-month corn forecast is $5.25 a bushel, Goldman said. Cotton prices will rise as the US Department of Agriculture will probably lower its US acreage forecast for the fiber on June 29, according to the report. The three-month cotton forecast is 80 cents a pound, Goldman said.

CNPC to invest in Venezuela

China National Petroleum Corp will continue investing in upstream projects in Venezuela, where it plans to pump 800,000 barrels a day of oil by 2017, said Wang Dongjin, the company's vice-president.

CNPC currently produces 200,000 barrels a day in the South American OPEC-member state, he told reporters on Wednesday in Vienna.

Relations between CNPC and Venezuela's government are "much better than before", he said.

In Iraq, CNPC is producing 120,000 barrels a day at the Halfaya field and 140,000 barrels a day at the al Ahdab field, Wang said.

Agencies - China Daily

(China Daily 06/14/2012 page14)