What's news

China has agreed to import all varieties of apples from the United States, the US Department of Agriculture said on Jan 26.

The green light for the shipments follows an agreement signed by the USDA and China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine in San Francisco, California on Jan 25.

"The efforts will result in high quality, fresh US apple varieties being made available to consumers in China and boost sales for American apple producers," said Tom Vilsack, the US secretary of agriculture, in a statement.

Huawei signs major West Africa IT deal

Huawei Technologies, a telecom conglomerate in China, named Intercom Programming & Manufacturing Co Ltd, an information technology company in Ghana, as its new technology solutions partner for West Africa, Huawei said on Jan 23.

Executives from the two companies signed an agreement in China that will enable IPMC to use a number of Huawei software development technologies. More major IT firms in West Africa are now dependent on the technologies offered by the Chinese company.

Kenya Air to open more direct flights from China

Kenya Airways is expected to open nonstop flights from Beijing to Nairobi, Kenya, in May with four services a week on its Boeing 787 aircrafts, said a Kenya Airways sales executive.

The airline currently has daily flights from Guangzhou, Guangdong province, to Nairobi and four flights a week from Hong Kong to Nairobi.

"Preparations are underway for direct flights from Shanghai to Nairobi, which are expected to open later this year," said Koko Wu.

Opening new services in China would dovetail with tourism promotion campaigns launched on the Chinese mainland by the Kenya Tourism Board. The board plans to launch new tourism campaigns in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu, Sichuan province, this year.

CSRC deepens scrutiny of insider trading

The nation's securities regulator is intensifying their scrutiny of share sales by insiders at listed companies, according to reports, as the government tightens its grip on a stock market rally which some fear is being twisted by market manipulation. The official China Securities Journal said that the China Securities Regulatory Commission had begun reviewing every instance of a share sale in which a designated company insider managed to sell at the top of a price spike. The move addresses concerns that insiders have been abusing insider information to cash out of their positions at a profit at the expense of ordinary shareholders.

Alliance established to battle IPR infringements

An alliance to eradicate infringements of intellectual property rights and counterfeiting was established in Beijing on Jan 23.

More than 100 members of the nongovernment alliance called for modernized data sharing, a social management mechanism and a civilian monitoring system for IPR protection.

Hong Yunfeng, director of the alliance, said a public service platform based on big data analysis and information sharing must be established to prevent IPR infringements.

The organization is devoted to building a fair business environment and carving out a new image internationally for Chinese enterprises and products, he said.

Regulator lowers crowd funding threshold

China will lower the donation threshold for investors participating in crowdfunding, which raises funds for a project through monetary contributions from a large number of people, Chinese media reported on Jan 26.

The minimum investment in one project will be reduced from 1 million yuan ($162,910) to 100,000 yuan, according to a report citing a revised regulation issued by the Securities Association of China.

The regulation also requires investors to have a minimum of 1 million yuan in financial assets, down from the previous limit of 3 million yuan. The requirement for individual investors' annual income over the past three years will be cut from 500,000 yuan to 300,000 yuan. The regulator also scrapped its rule that institutional investors should have net assets of at least 10 million yuan.

COSCO Group returns to the black in 2014

China Ocean Shipping Group Co returned to profit in 2014 after registering three years of losses, chairman Ma Zehua disclosed.

Combined profits of COSCO Group came in at 5.04 billion yuan ($823 million) in 2014 despite the choppy global shipping market, Ma said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency.

Operational revenues of the company increased 2.02 percent in 2014, and overall costs fell 0.21 percent.

COSCO's asset liability ratio stood at 55.4 percent at the end of last year, down 4.4 percentage points.

COSCO Group aims to bring its annual profitability level between 4 percent and 5.5 percent by 2020.

Train maker announces major contracts

China CNR Corp Ltd, a major manufacturer of locomotives and rolling stock in China, announced major contracts worth 24.26 billion yuan ($3.95 billion) on Jan 25.

The company said in a statement filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange that 12 of its subsidiaries recently signed more than 30 contracts with both Chinese and foreign companies that involved high-speed trains, subway trains, locomotives and other products and services.

"The total volume of the contracts represented 24.95 percent of the company's 2013 revenue," the statement read.

Imported iron ore prices continue to fall

Prices of imported iron ore at 33 major Chinese ports continued a downward trend due to a sharp decline in the price of steel, a report showed on Jan 27.

For the week ending on Jan 26, the price index for iron ore imports with a 62-percent purity grade dropped two points from the previous week to 66. The index for imports of 58 percent purity grade went down one point to 59, according to a Xinhua-China Iron Ore Index report.

Inventories of imported iron ore stood at 101.73 million tons, up 2.86 percent, or 2.83 million tons, over the previous period (from Jan13 to 19).

The report said the sharp decline in steel prices led to the fall of iron ore prices last week. It is forecast that the lackluster steel demand will continue to push iron ore prices lower.

Pilot program likely for floats of tech firms

A pilot program is likely to be launched for the registration process of initial public offerings on the ChiNext board in Shenzhen, the Nasdaq-style board comprised of high-tech companies, Zhuang Xinyi, vice-chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said on Jan 28. Zhuang said the regulator is actively working on introducing the system gradually to the main boards in Shanghai and Shenzhen.

China Daily-Agencies

(China Daily Africa Weekly 01/30/2015 page18)