Appliances expo

Shunde Exposition for Household Electrical Appliances, China's largest household electrical appliances exhibition, will be held in October, the expo's organizer Koelnmesse GmbH announced yesterday.

This will be the eighth expo Guangdong-based Shunde will hold in the home appliances industry.

Chinalco rumor

BHP Billiton Ltd, the world's biggest mining company, rose as much as 6 percent to a record in Sydney trading on speculation Aluminum Corp of China may be seeking a stake, mirroring its share raid on Rio Tinto Group. There's talk Aluminum Corp, known as Chinalco, could offer between $56 and $58 a share for the stake, Leigh Gardner, head of sales trading at ABN Amro Holding NV in Melbourne said.

Yuan trade

China will allow more non-bank financial institutions and companies to trade in the interbank foreign-exchange market as demand increases, said Wang Xiaoyi, deputy director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

Increased use of currency derivatives may help exporters' profits by offsetting the rising yuan, which lowers profits earned overseas. The China Foreign Exchange Trade System offers a currency trading platform on which member banks can trade the yuan and foreign-exchange swaps and forwards.

Gladstone plan

Gladstone Pacific Nickel Ltd, planning a $3.5 billion nickel refinery and mine in Australia, may seek to sell a stake to its Chinese partner.

China Metallurgical Group Corp, which signed an initial construction and funding accord with Gladstone in January, may want a 30 percent stake in the project, John Downie, managing director of the Brisbane-based company said.

Agencies-China Daily

(China Daily 05/15/2008 page14)