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Tesla faces suit over trademark in China

Tesla Motors Inc, the United States-based electric car producer, is being sued in China for trademark infringement.

Zhan Baosheng, who registered rights to the name before Tesla entered China, wants Tesla to shut its showrooms, service centers and supercharging facilities in China; stop all sales and marketing activities in the country; and pay him 23.9 million yuan ($3.9 million) in compensation, according to a lawsuit filed July 3 in Beijing.

Simon Sproule, a spokesman for Tesla, said the company, which has lodged complaints against Zhan to Chinese authorities and won, has not been served with or seen the lawsuit, he said.

Buick and Cadillac deliveries rise

General Motors Co, whose largest market is China, sold 9.1 percent more vehicles in the country last month, helped by deliveries of Buicks and Cadillacs. Sales in China rose to 257,798 units, the Detroit company said. Deliveries rose 10.5 percent in the first half. Deliveries of Buick vehicles rose 14 percent last month compared with a year earlier, and Chevrolet sales rose 1.5 percent.

Energy

Baosteel set to take control of Aquila

Baosteel Group Corp, the owner of China's biggest publicly traded steelmaker, will take control of Australia's Aquila Resources Ltd after the third-largest shareholder accepted its bid.

Baosteel and partner Aurizon Holdings Ltd "entered into an agreement with Aquila to facilitate the orderly transition of control and management", the bidders said in a statement. Baosteel's A $3.40 per-share cash offer values Aquila at about A $1.4 billion ($1.3 billion).

The deal will give Baosteel a share of the A$7.4 billion West Pilbara iron ore mine, port and rail project in Western Australia. It is seeking to accelerate development to meet steel demand in China, the world's biggest market.

Generator increasespower station output

The Xiluodu hydropower station, China's second-largest in terms of capacity, started full output after its 18th and final generating unit came online, the project operator said on July 2. The Xiluodu station, in Yunnan province, has total annual generating capacity of 13.86 gigawatts.

Natural gas pricesset to rise

The government is expected to raise non-residential natural gas prices, possibly this month, a report by China Securities Journal says. It originally planned to lift non-residential natural gas prices by 0.4 yuan a cubic meter, but the real price rise could be 0.2 yuan to 0.3 yuan a cubic meter, the market information supplier ICIS said.

Trade

Shanghai zonestreamlines tax

The China (Shanghai) Free Trade Zone will help corporate taxpayers by setting up an online platform that streamlines tax registration and payment. The State Administration of Taxation will pilot 10 measures in the zone, including the automatic generation of entity tax codes, tax approval and registration, tax inquiries, declaration and payment, through the Internet. Under the initiative, corporations will be able to skirt sophisticated procedures to apply for registration at local tax bureaus.

WTO members discuss tariff cuts

Diplomats from the United States, China and the European Union began negotiations on July 8 with 11 other members of the World Trade Organization toward a new deal that would cut tariffs on almost $1 trillion of environmental goods. The proposed agreement would cover 86 percent of trade in environmental goods.

Policy

More foreign fundingof hospitals studied

The government is conducting research on allowing foreign investors to set up wholly funded hospitals and medical care institutions in some key Chinese cities, an official with the Ministry of Commerce of China said in Geneva. Wang Shouwen, assistant to the commerce minister, said the government is considering allowing wholly foreign-owned hospitals in seven cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, which is a move to further open China's service industry to overseas investors.

Finance

Central bank plans toensure steady growth

The People's Bank of China, the central bank, said on July 7 that it will use various monetary tools to maintain reasonable growth in credit and to keep overall liquidity at an appropriate level. In a statement to summarize the second-quarter monetary policy committee meeting, the People's Bank of China also said it would continue to implement prudent monetary policy, while pushing ahead with interest rate and yuan exchange rate reforms.

Indonesian coal minertransfers stake to CIC

Indonesian coal miner PT Bumi Resources Tbk has transferred a 19 percent stake worth $950 million in its unit, Kaltim Prima Coal, to China Investment Corp as part of its debt repayment to the sovereign wealth fund. With the transfer, Bumi's debt to CIC was cut to $1.04 billion, the company said.

Printing pressesrunning red hot

China became the world's second-largest printing market last year. The State Administration of Press Publication, Radio, Film and Television showed that value of output in the country's printing industry exceeded 1 trillion yuan ($160 billion), 9.3 percent higher than the year before.

UK insurer sellsChina business

RSA Insurance Group Plc has reached an agreement to sell its business in China for 71 million pounds ($119 million), one of several smaller asset sales aimed at shoring up the British company's finances. The sale to Swiss Re Corporate Solutions is expected to result in a gain on the sale and an addition to the company's tangible net assets of about 26 million pounds, RSA said.

Economy

Moderate growth ininflation predicted

An upcoming release of official economic data is likely to show that the consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, may moderate to growth of between 2.3 and 2.4 percent in June, down from 2.5 percent in May, economists say. A median forecast by the Bank of Communications said the index probably grew 2.4 percent last month.

Logistics activity picks up pace

China's logistics activity picked up last month as the economy showed more signs of stabilizing, official data showed. The logistics performance index for June came in at 56.7 percent, 1.5 percentage points higher than a month earlier, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said. In a breakdown, the index for new orders stood at 55.3 percent, recovering 1.6 percentage points from that in May.

Investment

Australian party to call for higher threshold

The opposition Australian Labor Party plans to call for the threshold for Chinese investment to be raised from A$200 million ($187 million) to A$1 billion as part of the country's free-trade agreement with China, The Australian newspaper reported. Under the plan, higher Chinese investment would need no regulatory approval but would be restricted to non-sensitive sectors, the party's trade spokeswoman, Penny Wong, said.

China Daily-Agencies

(China Daily European Weekly 07/11/2014 page18)