News digest

Air China cuts spending

Air China, the country's flagship carrier, said it will further trim its capital expenditure by up to 30 percent after reporting a turnaround in the first quarter of this year, thanks to the sharp fall in fuel price and significant gains.

Air China said that it plans to cut capital spending to between 9 billion and 10 billion yuan this year from 12.9 billion yuan in 2008.

China Mobile profits dip

China Mobile said its first-quarter net profit growth slowed to 5 percent, despite a near double-digit rise in revenue. The company's March-quarter net profit was 25.2 billion yuan ($3.69 billion), up from 23.9 billion yuan a year earlier, while revenue rose 9.2 percent to 101.3 billion yuan.

Sanofi to boost output

Sanofi-Aventis, the world's fourth biggest drug maker, will invest $90 million to boost output of the insulin Lantus in China, the company said in a statement.

Local production of Lantus will begin by 2012, it said.

(China Daily 04/27/2009 page9)