IN BRIEF (Page 14)

Auto

Lifan eyes new assembly plant in Africa

Lifan Industry Group Co, a Chinese automaker, plans to spend $3.5 million (2.6 million euros) on a new vehicle-assembly plant in Ethiopia next year as it seeks to expand in Africa, general manager Liu Jiang said on Dec 14. The company's Ethiopian unit, Yangfan Motors Plc, may begin manufacturing cars and invest a further $30 million in five years if sales continue to grow. Lifan is basing its African operations in Ethiopia because of the country's "good relations" with China, its growing economy, low crime rate and political stability, Liu said.

Renault to sell $2bn Volvo stake

Renault SA, which is losing sales faster than any other European carmaker, is selling a stake in Volvo AB worth 13.3 billion kronor ($2 billion; 1.5 billion euros) to cut debt and pay for investments in France, Russia and China. Renault is selling its remaining 6.5 percent holding in the Swedish automaker in a private placement, the company said in a statement on Dec 13. Renault sold a 14.9 percent holding in Volvo in 2010. "What the market now wants to know is whether Renault is going to burn cash or not," said Philippe Houchois, an analyst at UBS in London.

BYD to make electric buses in the US

The Chinese battery and electric vehicle producer BYD Co Ltd will establish its first wholly owned overseas manufacturing plant in 2013, going to the US to produce electric buses, a company executive has said. The factory will be in California, in an exact location to be announced in March or April, Xinhua News Agency cited Li Ke, BYD senior vice-president, as saying. Li said in Los Angeles that the Warren Buffett-backed company will put the plant into operation in 2013 and will be able to produce 50 to 100 buses there in 2014.

Construction

Yuanda cleared in anti-dumping probe

Shenyang Yuanda Group, the biggest curtain-wall manufacturer in China, said on Dec 14 that it had been cleared in an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation case in Canada. The Canada Border Services Agency concluded its investigation on Chinese curtain walls, Shenyang's main product, on Sept 17 after the company won the case in the Canadian International Trade Tribunal. The probe had started two months earlier.

E-commerce

Amazon starts selling Kindle e-books in China

Amazon.com Inc, the world's largest e-commerce company, has started selling e-books through its China site, a week after the company announced it was doing the same in Brazil. Users can download Kindle software for free from the China website onto their iPhone, iPad or Android devices, which allows them to read Kindle e-books on those devices, according to information on the website. The site does not indicate precisely when sales of e-books began, nor does it offer Kindle devices.

Energy

China Gas to buy Fortune Oil's operations

China Gas Holdings Ltd, the supplier of natural gas to 172 Chinese cities, will buy Fortune Oil Plc's Chinese natural gas operations for $400 million (302 million euros). Hong Kong-based Fortune Oil will receive $200 million in cash and either a $200 million deferred payment or 250 million shares of China Gas, it said in a statement on Dec 17. Fortune Oil had a market value of 181 million pounds ($293 million; 221 million euros) as of Dec 14. Buying Fortune Oil's gas business will give China Gas pipelines across seven provinces, a coal bed methane block in Shanxi province and compressed and liquefied natural gas operations.

Sinopec says Canada investment still open

China Petrochemical Corp's international unit is weighing up Canada's new foreign-takeover rules and believes there are still opportunities to invest in the nation's oil sands. "We can still work by the joint-venture model or some other kind," Hou Hongbin, vice-president of Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration and Production in Beijing, told reporters in Toronto on Dec 12. Canada hasn't "closed the door" to state-owned enterprises investment, he said. Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Dec 7 allowed China National Offshore Oil Corp, another SOE, to acquire Calgary-based Nexen Inc for $15.1 billion (11.4 billion euros).

Finance

BNP Paribas to increase stake in Bank of Nanjing

BNP Paribas SA, France's largest lender, plans to bolster its stake in Bank of Nanjing Co to as much as 20 percent as the Chinese lender's profits defy the global economic slowdown on their way to a record high. BNP Paribas will buy the shares in the secondary market to increase its holding from about 15 percent to 20 percent, the maximum allowed under Chinese law, China Chief Executive Officer Clarence T'ao said on Dec 12 in Shanghai. A 5 percent stake would cost about $200 million (151 million euros) at Bank of Nanjing's share price on Dec 13.

Railway

Chinese companies may build Serbian railways

Two Chinese companies may participate in the building of a railway network in the Serbian section of the Pan-European Transport Corridor 10, Serbian Minister of Transport Milutin Mrkonjic said on Dec 17. Mrkonjic said China Railway Signal and Communication Shanghai and China Communications Construction Company International had excellent references and had so far showed extraordinary results in Serbia, after meeting with representatives from the two companies. The minister said if Serbia could reach an agreement with its Chinese partners, construction could start in spring next year. The Pan-European Transport Corridor 10, which includes rail and road networks, connects Austria to Greece through Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia.

Chinese train maker granted US patents

China CNR Corporation, the country's second-largest train maker, said on Dec 17 it had been granted four patents by the US Patent and Trademark Office. The four patents include car coupler designs, coupler buffering units, rescue passages for passenger trains and a comprehensive test bed for vehicles, according to the CNR. In addition to offering protection for the CNR's innovations, the authorization will help facilitate the company's overseas advances, said Sun Yongcai, chief engineer with CNR. As of the end of December, CNR had filed 90 patent applications abroad, and the company's products are being used in more than 40 countries and regions.

Telecom

Apple's iPhone 5 China sales top 2m

Apple Inc's new smartphone, the iPhone 5, has been warmly received on the Chinese mainland, with more than 2 million handsets sold in the company's second-largest market in the first three days after its Dec 14 launch. Customers can order the latest iPhone through Apple's online store and its retail outlets, and also buy it from resellers and stores of operator partners China Unicom and China Telecom. The highly anticipated debut, three months later than the product's initial launch, is widely expected to boost Apple's fourth-quarter sales as well as its share price.

China Daily-Agencies

(China Daily 12/21/2012 page14)