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比中经贸委员会 BELGIAN-CHINESE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE CONSEIL ECONOMIQUE ET COMMERCIAL BELGIQUE-CHINE ASBL BELGISCH-CHINESE ECONOMISCHE EN COMMERCIELE RAAD VZW
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Yangtze Newsletter |
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02/09/2010 This information is supplied by Yangtze Business Services, a publisher and event organiser that specialises in Yangtze transportation issues”. For more information, please go to http://... Cabinet meeting focuses on Yangtze China’s Premier Wen Jiabao chaired a State Council meeting on 25 August that focused on the development of the Yangtze and other inland rivers. The meeting decided on a target of building a modern, efficient, safe and eco-friendly network of inland rivers within the next 10 years. This means well-connected waterways, a network of major ports and a varied shipping capability, a modern safety regulatory regime and emergency response mechanism, a balanced relationship between shipping and the environment, and the development of multiple modes of transport to facilitate social and economic development. Yangtze throughput up 10.7% in August Statistics from the Yangtze River Administration, the Ministry of Transport show that cargo throughput reported in the major Yangtze trunkline ports increased by 10.7 per cent year-on-year to 110m tons in August. Container throughput in the same month jumped by 21.2 per cent to 770,000 TEU. Between January and August, cargo throughput reached 886m tons, up 24.3 per cent year-on-year and container throughput hit 5.77m TEU, up nearly 30 per cent. Yangtze-Mississippi conference The inaugural Yangtze Mississippi Strategic Cooperation Forum will take place between 17 and 19 October in Chongqing. The forum is the first high-level platform for dialogue between the US and China on issues concerning inland waterways transportation and economic development. It will provide a platform for government officials and industry executives to share experiences about the development of shipping, logistics and regional economic issues along the rivers, and exchange views on strategic cooperation. The three principal themes of the event are inland waterways transportation, river hinterland economic development and opportunities and preferential policies for foreign investors in inland China. It will be jointly organised by the American Society of Transportation and Logistics (ASTL), the China Communications and Transportation Association, Chongqing municipal government, the Department of Water Transport under China’s Ministry of Transport, the Yangtze River Administration of Navigational Affairs under the Ministry of Transport, and the US Department of Transportation Maritime Administration. For further information, please contact Sherry Liu at ASTL on +86 10 5820 6271 or email sherry@astl-china.org. CSCL returns to profit China Shipping Container Lines has reported a first half net profit of Rmb1.17bn, reversing a Rmb3.41bn net loss in the same period last year, Shipping Gazette reported. The Hong Kong-listed company said that, despite a complicated business outlook, it remained confident about future prospects. “The recovery of major economies around the globe had led to a general increase in consumption, which stimulated transportation directly,” the company said. “Cargo volume of the group grew 11.6 per cent over that of the same period last year, thus idle shipping capacity was fully utilised.” Traffic jams plague northern China A 30km traffic jam on 27 August brought traffic to a standstill in a Hebei province section of the Beijing-Tibet expressway. The tailback was triggered by a car accident and road maintenance work. The jam was the second serious hold-up on the road in the past two weeks. Other sections in Inner Mongolia, Shanxi and Hebei province also experienced congestion. The worst jam began on 14 August, lasted nine days and trapped thousands of vehicles in a tailback that extended for more than 100km. That jam was caused by road maintenance work and an exceptionally large number of heavy trucks, especially ones carrying coal from China’s inland provinces to coastal ports. While transporting coal by truck is more than twice as expensive as shipping it by rail, rail freight capacity is overloaded, the Financial Times commented. China is investing huge sums in road and rail expansion programmes and coal shipments are a priority for the railways, but the expansion is programme isn’t happening fast enough to the relieve the railway transportation bottlenecks. An increasing number of commuter journeys is another contributory factor, according to Zhao Jie, deputy director of the Urban Transport Institute under the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design. He told China Daily that highways have to cope with increasingly heavy traffic and commuter demands. “Take Beijing for example, the city now has more than 4m vehicles and traffic jams are becoming common,” he said. Wuhan adds another direct flight to Taiwan Starting from 28 August, Wuhan has added a new direct air service to Taiwan, bringing the weekly total of services to eight. There are now two daily services on Mondays and Saturdays and one service on all other days except Sunday. Air cargo JV wins CNDRC approval Air China and Cathay Pacific Airways have received permission from the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission to establish an air cargo joint venture, reported IFW. The tie-up still requires the permission of the Ministry of Commerce. The two airlines initially announced they were forming a JV in February 2010, and a launch date is now expected in the fourth quarter of the year. It is anticipated that Air China’s existing cargo airline, Air China Cargo, will be the platform for the new venture. Air China Cargo will take control of four Cathay Pacific B747 freighters and the partners will offer international services from Shanghai and Beijing, with a focus on developing its share of the Yangtze River Delta market. Upon completion of the transaction, Air China will hold 51 per cent of Air China Cargo, while Cathay Pacific will acquire a 25 per cent equity interest and fund an offshore trust, in the form of a loan, to hold the remaining 24 per cent. Chongqing Iron & Steel confirms plant switch In a review of its operations in the first half of 2010, Chongqing Iron & Steel Group confirmed that it has closed its manufacturing operations in Dadukou district and moved to a new facility in Changshou district. Phase one of the new operation will begin next June, producing 6.5m tons of steel a year, making it China’s largest manufacturer of steel for ships. Once operational in Changshou, the group said it would reduce annual emissions of 15,600 tons of carbon dioxide, 10,600 tons of dust and 13.5m tons of wastewater. Sinopec announces expansion plans Sinopec has said that its subsidiary China Petroleum and Chemical Corp plans to increase annual crude oil processing capacity of Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical by 56 per cent to 12.5m tons, or 251,000 barrels a day. In addition, the annual high-sulphur crude oil processing capacity of Yangzi Petrochemical’s plant in Nanjing will be increased to 9m tons, or 180,700 barrels a day. Sinopec said in an internal briefing that the expansion projects, which are expected to cost Rmb7.3bn, have secured regulatory approval. Pledge to invest more in hydropower China will boost its installed hydropower capacity by 90 per cent to 380m kW by 2020 in an effort to meet the country’s pledge at last year's Copenhagen climate conference to generate 15 per cent of its power from non-fossil sources by 2020, said a top energy official. National Energy Administration Director Zhang Guobao said the expansion was necessary for China to meet its target of reducing carbon intensity by 40-45 per cent by the end of the decade based on 2005 levels. Zhang said that the new projects would be developed under stricter approval procedures than were applied before, paying more attention to environmental protection, the rights of relocated communities and land resources. Hydropower will have to account for 60 per cent of China’s non-fossil energy by 2020 if the country is to meet its target, he added. To meet the target, around Rmb1,000bn would be invested in building dams over the next five years. |
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