Biz Scene

Market

Port investment

China Shipping Container Lines Co, Asia's second largest cargo-box carrier, has set up a venture to operate two container berths in the northeastern city of Yingkou, the company's first port investment.

Shanghai-based China Shipping invested 16 million yuan for 40 percent of the venture, company secretary Ye Yumang said yesterday. Venture partner Yingkou Port Group owns the remaining 60 percent, he said.

"The port can give us a stable return," Ye said. "The investment also has a synergic effect on our container business."

About 90 percent of the traffic handled by the port is for domestic trade, Ye said.

Profit up

Shanghai International Port (Group) Co, operator of the world's busiest port, said yesterday that net profit last year totaled 3.64 billion yuan, on 16.3 billion yuan in revenues.

In 2006, net profit was 2.96 billion yuan on revenues from core operations of 12.5 billion yuan, but the numbers are not comparable with last year's figures because of accounting changes, the company said.

Acquisition completed

Focus Media, one of China's leading multi-platform digital media companies, has completed its acquisition of CGEN Technology Co Ltd, China Tech News reported yesterday.

In accordance with the share purchase agreement on December 10, Focus Media made a cash payment of $168.44 million to CGEN shareholders and CGEN shareholders delivered 100 percent of the equity interest in CGEN to Focus Media. With this acquisition, Focus Media said it had significantly expanded coverage of its digital advertising displays in large chain stores in China.

Grapevine

Project delayed

PetroChina is expected to delay the launch of a new 100,000 barrels-per-day refinery in China's northwest by almost a year to late 2008 due to construction problems, Reuters reported yesterday.

"It's very difficult to build a new refinery in the Gobi desert. We have pushed it back by about a year," Reuters quoted an unnamed company source from Dushanzi City, near the Kazakhstan border, as saying.

PetroChina now aims to begin operations of the new refinery in the fourth quarter of this year, instead of the original schedule of early 2008, the report said. The oil major will also push back a 1-million-ton-per-year ethylene project to 2009 from an earlier plan of 2008.

Biz Moves

New COO

CDC Games, a subsidiary of CDC Corp, recently appointed Xuan Wenhao (left) as chief operating officer. Xuan will take full control of the company's games business in China, including the management of Optic Communications Corp, 17 GAME and Yiqi Century Technology Network Corp. Xuan will report directly to Ye Keyong, CEO of CDC Games.

Xuan joined CDC Games in 2007 and was appointed operating officer of Optic Communications Corp.

Nokia VP

David Tang was promoted to vice-president of Nokia Global as of January 1 and will take control of sales in the Greater China region and report to Colin Giles, senior vice-president of Nokia Global, the company announced on Tuesday.

Tang, who joined Nokia in 2004, was in charge of the handset business in China, including sales, marketing and after-sales service. In 2004, he successfully managed the reorganization of four joint ventures in China and established Nokia Mobile Communications Corp, the biggest manufacturing and export company in the industry in China.

Sany president

Xiang Wenbo, the former executive president of Sany Heavy Industry Corp, has replaced Liang Wengen as president, while Liang remains the board chairman, according to the company's statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

Sany Heavy Industry is mainly engaged in R&D, manufacturing and distribution of engineering machinery.

Biz Unusual

QQ food

Some fast food restaurants near Xiamen University are doing a roaring business through QQ, a popular online communication software.

Simply by adding the restaurateur in their QQ friend list, students in Xiamen University can send their meal order to the restaurateur over the Internet. Within half an hour, the meal is delivered to the dorm.

"QQ reservation appeals to students because it is more convenient and saves them phone calls," said a restaurateur. "Every day dozens of orders come through QQ."

Family tutors

Family tutors, a career popular in the West, have begun to catch on in China's big cities as many parents are finding out that they need help in educating their children.

According to China International Talents Development Center, about 80 percent of Chinese families have one or more education-related problem, such as examination pressure and unclear career plan. Worse, children are often at risk of getting hooked on the Internet.

Statistics from the center show there is one family tutor for every 300 people in Europe and other developed countries. And there are about 800,000 family tutors in the US.

Special watermelons

Watermelons from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region are famous for their sweet taste, and the key to this unique feature is the difference in temperature. The same conditions can now be simulated in Xi'an of Shaanxi Province to produce equally tasty watermelons.

Watermelons are put in special red bottles and hung up. The bottles, which look like red lanterns, are made of a special PVC and can prevent the fruit from pests, insects and diseases.

The red color of the bottles can reflect ultraviolet radiation, keeping the temperature inside the bottles between 12 C and 50 C. A mature bottled watermelon usually weighs 3 kg and can be priced at 188 yuan, much higher than the ordinary ones.

Local

E-commerce push

The State Council Informatization Office and China Mobile will jointly promote the establishment of a national mobile e-commerce demonstrative area in Chongqing Municipality, China Tech News reported yesterday.

As part of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between China Mobile and the Chongqing municipal government, the demonstrative area will be designed to make information access more convenient and make new breakthroughs in the hi-tech sector while enhancing the city's e-commerce capacity through wireless system integration and a financial electronics service platform.

(China Daily 01/04/2008 page15)