BEIJING

Producer prices rise in October

China's producer prices, a guide to the future trend of consumer prices, rose 1.2 per cent in October from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.

Producer prices, which are measured at the factory gate, rose 1.4 per cent in September from a year earlier after growing at the same rate in August and July.

The prices rose an annual 2.3 per cent in the first 10 months of this year, the bureau said in a statement.

Domestic crude oil prices climbed 3.1 per cent year-on-year in October, slowing from the 7.5 per cent annual rise in September, the bureau said.

AV standard draft revealed

The Audio Video Coding Standard (AVS) working group released the final committee draft of its video standard and called for a verification of all patents involved in the draft.

If there are no objections to patent claims in the draft by December 10, it will be submitted to the Ministry of Information to make it an industrial standard in China, which may become a national standard next year said Huang Tiejun, secretary general of the working group.

The AVS working group, including 64 leading research institutes, universities and companies from home and abroad, aimed to formulate a Chinese audio and visual coding and decoding standard to change the situation that Chinese enterprises and consumers have to pay heavy royalties to foreign patent holders for devices like DVD players, digital TVs.

Solar equipment contract signed

Shell Solar GmbH has won a contract to provide solar-powered electricity to 26 remote villages in Southwest China's Yunnan Province and West China's Xinjiang Urgur Autonomous Region. The contract is valued at about 2.7 million euros (US$3.1 million).

Shell Solar will install centralized systems in the villages in the next year. The total installed power will be 200 kilowatts for the villages, nine of which are in Xinjiang and the rest in Yunnan. These villages have a total of about 1,300 households.

The contract is for the pilot phase of a larger, solar electrification programme under the government's Brightness Programme covering villages also in Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia and Qinghai.

Satellite education platform ready

To bolster online remote education and training, China Satellite Communications Corporation (China Satcom) yesterday inked a co-operative agreement with www.beidabiz.com, an online distance education organization launched by Guanghua School of Management of Peking University.

According to Zhang Hainan, president of China Statcom, the co-operation is to combine the company's satellite-based services with Peking University's professionals to build up a flagship online remote education and training organization in the country.

The website is now offering services to more than 300 big domestic companies and 10,000 individuals.

BEIJING

Notebook computer

China Great Wall Computer Shenzhen Co Ltd announced on Tuesday it will enter the notebook computer market in China, vowing to become one of the top three domestic vendors by 2005 and one of the top three among all makers by 2006.

The company said in Beijing it will spend 70 million yuan (US$8.45 million) next year on its notebook business.

Great Wall Shenzhen released six products including the T2000, the lightest of its products with a 15-inch screen.

SHENZHEN

Anti-dumping case

Konka Group Co Ltd said the US Department of Commerce issued a preliminary judgment on the colour TV anti-dumping case, imposing a 27.94 per cent anti-dumping tax rate on the company. The company holds that the judgment is unlikely to have an obvious impact on the company's 2003 results.

The company is preparing for the coming on-site inspection by the US Department of Commerce as well as the final judgment made by the US Department of Commerce and the US Federal Trade Commission.

HONG KONG

Power stake

Conglomerate CITIC Pacific Ltd will take a 20 per cent stake in Chinese mainland's sixth power group to be formed early next year, Wen Wei Po reported yesterday.

Northern Power Group, which will have registered capital of 10 billion yuan (US$1.21 billion), will be incorporated in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in January, the paper said.

Inner Mongolia Electricity Co will be the largest single shareholder, contributing 40 per cent of the capital, with the remaining 60 per cent equally shared by three companies, including CITIC Pacific, it said.

Shares of CITIC Pacific edged up 0.29 per cent at HK$17.50 on Wednesday trade and have gained about 4 per cent in three months.

COSCO move

COSCO International Holdings said yesterday it plans to boost its stakes in two paint manufacturing companies for a total of 57.99 million yuan (US$7 million) in cash.

The COSCO International, which invests in property and ship trading, said in a statement it had agreed to buy a further 28.88 per cent stake in both Shanghai Kansai and Tianjin Kansai, taking its total holding to 63.07 per cent in each.

Profit after tax at Shanghai Kansai more than tripled in 2002 to 21.1 million yuan (US$2.55 million) but Tianjin Kansai fell 11 per cent to 14.6 million yuan (US$1.77 million) in 2002.

Shares in COSCO International closed on Tuesday at HK$0.58. The stock was down more than 6 per cent for the month.

Vehicle maker

Mainland truck and sport-utility vehicle maker Great Wall Automobile Holding plans to price its initial public offer (IPO), worth up to US$196 million, more cheaply than shares of other Hong Kong-listed carmakers, sources close to the deal said.

Great Wall, which is expected to list in Hong Kong in mid-December, will price its IPO shares at 9.5-12.6 times forecast 2003 profits, sources said yesterday.

(China Daily 11/27/2003 page6)