China WindPower slows expansion

China WindPower Group Ltd plans to slow its expansion in the coming fiscal year as the global financial crisis makes it tougher to secure funding for the wind power plants that it builds, a company executive said. From about 10 wind power projects originally planned for the financial year ending in March 2010, the company now expects to build just half that number.

Each 50 megawatt wind project costs 450-500 million yuan. A third of the cost is usually paid in by the company and a local partner, which can own from 50 to 70 percent of the project.

HWL to invest in container berths in Shenzhen

Hutchison Whampoa Ltd (HWL), will team up with Shenzhen Yantian Port Group to invest in a container terminal in the city's Yantian East area. The East Port Phase I project will cover an area of 1.38 million sq m and will develop four container berths to handle ships of up to 9,500 twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEUs). Hutchison will have 53 percent of the project and Yantian Port will own the remaining 47 percent, Wang Yongzhen, head of the general office of Yantian Port said.

Hong Kong dollar steady, interbank rates ease

The Hong Kong dollar was little changed against the US dollar on Thursday, while local interbank rates slipped for a second day after the month-end effect faded and as US dollar LIBORs eased.

Local interbank rates fell across the board.

The one-month HIBOR was fixed at 1.26929 percent on Thursday morning, down from 1.49429 percent on Wednesday and has now dropped 38 basis points from Tuesday's fixing. The three-month HIBOR declined 12.8 basis points from Wednesday to 1.87071 percent.

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Honda likely to reduce more output next year

Honda Motor Co expects the US car market to fall by 5 percent next year, and Japan's No 2 carmaker said it could cut output further in the latest sign that deepening economic woes have made sales forecasts a moving target.

"Conditions are changing by the day, and it's difficult to see when the US market will recover," Executive Vice President Koichi Kondo told a news conference in Tokyo.

"We're assuming a total market of 12.5-12.6 million vehicles next year as we set our business plans," he said.

Reuters

(HK Edition 12/05/2008 page2)