IN BRIEF (Page 13)

Nation calls for coal savings

The Chinese government has called on the country's biggest energy users to save 250 million tonnes of standard coal in the five years ending 2015, the National Development and Reform Commission said in a release published on Wednesday.

The 17,000 companies, which annually consume more than 10,000 tonnes of standard coal each, or more than 5,000 tonnes for stipulated companies, accounted for more than 60 percent of total energy consumption in 2010, the commission said.

Grains probe is extended

China's Commerce Ministry said on Wednesday that it will extend an anti-dumping probe on imports of US distillers' dried grains (DDGs) until June 28 next year, before making a final ruling.

The ministry said the probe had been extended because the case was "special and complicated".

Since the probe, total DDG imports during the first 11 months of this year fell 48 percent from a year earlier to 1.5 million tonnes. Imports in 2010, all from the United States, had jumped 385 percent to 3.16 million tonnes, worth more than $753 million.

Firms vie for power project

Vimetco NV, a maker of aluminum products, said seven companies including China Huadian Engineering Co, Minmetals Engineering Co and Siemens AG placed bids to build a 250-megawatt power plant in Romania.

The project at the Alum Tulcea complex has financial support from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and commercial banks, the Amsterdam-based company said.

Chinese stocks trade lower

Most Chinese stocks fell as a jump in money-market rates to a two-month high signaled that small companies will have difficulty borrowing money.

About five stocks fell for every four that gained in the Shanghai Composite Index, which rose 0.2 percent to 2170.01 at the close. The gauge had slumped 1.5 percent earlier.

Agencies

(China Daily 12/29/2011 page13)