China Trade Information

PetroChina Company Ltd<857> <PTR>, a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation, will invest RMB 10 million in developing new energy resources by 2020, focusing on coalbed methane, geothermal energy, oil liquid gas and wind power, said its vice chairman Hu Wenwei in the first Science and Technology Innovation International Forum on Sep 15 in Beijing.

According to Hu, PetroChina has a right to develop 300 million cubic meters of coalbed methane. It also built a state-of-art coalbed methane lab with three international patents. Another coalbed gas treatment plant is under construction, which is expected to have the treatment capacity of 3 billion cubic meters coalbed gas.

PetroChina has built 88 logistics centers for ethanol gas in nine provinces and reconstructed 5,778 gas stations during the tenth Five-Year Plan(2001-2005). It has also signed biological energy resources contracts with Sichuan, Yunnan and Shandong provinces to construct 400,000 hectares industry raw material forests and 200,000 tons biological diesel oil plant.

The first Science and Technology Innovation International Forum was hosted by Ministry of Science and Technology in Beijing on Sep 15 and Sep 16. The subject of the forum this year is renewable energy technology innovation and policy support.

Motorola recently celebrated its 20 years’ presence in China, and pledged commitment towards the Chinese community. Since its entry into the Chinese market in 1987, the company has accumulated total investments of US$3.6 billion.

During the celebration, Chairman and CEO of Motorola, Ed Zander, marked the importance of the Chinese market and emphasized on the company’s efforts in growing with this emerging nation.

Over the years, Motorola has been investing heavily into the country, with the aim of enhancing its manufacturing capacity and research and developments projects. Since its first research and development center was built in China in 1993, the company has invested a total of US$800 million in this sector.

Motorola’s commitment to the Chinese community also led to the donations of more than US$5 million towards providing education for more than 23,000 children.

Motorola has won the trust of many loyal customers in China and is set to expand. Last week, the company launched its first official online store, motostore.com.cn, in China and its second such store in the world. This move was targeted to tap into the pool of 160 million Chinese users online.

WildPackets Inc., a U.S.-based leader in network and application services, has extended its operations into China with the opening of a new branch office in Beijing.

With a new branch geographically set in China, the company will be in closer proximity to its Chinese consumers, thereby it will be able to provide a more comprehensive service. Read the rest of this entry »

Le Meridien, one of the nine brands under the Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, announced yesterday to open the third hotel in Hainan Province in 2008.

The new hotel, namely Le Meridien Shimei Bay Beach Resort & Spa, is located China’s south coast on Hainan Island. It will set on over 11 hectares of landscaped grounds, including 261 luxurious oversize rooms and suites and 5 meeting and banqueting places. It is expected to open on Oct 1, 2008.

As one of the largest hotel and resort company in the world, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide have 9 brands, including Sheraton, Four Points, Alof Hotel, Element, Westin, St Regis, the Luxury Collection, W Hotel and Le Meridien. It entered China in 1965. Now it has 19 hotels and resorts and 17 hotels and resorts are under construction.

Driven by the economic development, China sees great demand for high-end hotels. Le Meridien, as well as Starwood, would like to expand its portfolio in the Asia-pacific region, especially in China and Thailand. It plans to increase its suites and rooms to 12,139 units in China by 2008.

CITIGROUP Property Investors Asia Ltd plans to sign an agreement with China’s Ginwa Enterprise Group Inc to invest in real estate and related assets in major Chinese cities, the Chinese firm said yesterday.

The unit of the largest United States bank will buy properties such as shopping centers and hotels, including the Howard Johnson Ginwa Plaza Hotel in Xi’an in northwestern Shaanxi Province, Ginwa said in a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange yesterday.

Xi’an-based Ginwa may join with Citigroup to buy other projects.

The two parties are still in the letter-of-intention stage, which doesn’t mean any compliance force, the Chinese firm said.

The company’s shares were halted from trading yesterday until the official signing of the memorandum of understanding.

The Chinese company has been losing money for three straight years and is at the risk of being delisted.

The property unit is part of Citigroup Alternative Investments, one of the bank’s four main business divisions. The unit has outlets in Hong Kong, New York, Shanghai, London and Los Angeles and Mumbai.

Continued expansion of retailers in China spurs robust retail property demand, CB Richard Ellis Group said in an August report.

Driven by rising consumer and tourist spending, developers in the first-tier Chinese cities remained keen on building prime shopping centers in the second quarter, the Los Angeles-based commercial real estate services firm said.

The China division of Citigroup said it hasn’t been informed of the move yet.

Citigroup is one of the first four overseas banks to be locally incorporated on the Chinese mainland.

China Shenhua Energy Co, the nation’s biggest coal producer, has won permission from the Chinese stock market regulator for a Shanghai share sale that may raise US$9.2 billion for buying mines and building railroads.

Shenhua’s application to sell as many as 1.8 billion yuan-denominated A shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange was approved, the China Securities Regulatory Commission said in a statement posted on its Website yesterday.

The coal supplier will use the proceeds to expand mines, power production, railroads and harbors and to fund acquisitions.

Shenhua, whose Hong Kong-dollar H shares have traded since 2005, will sell stock to Chinese mainland investors for the first time, tapping the best-performing market this year, Bloomberg News said. Shenhua shares have doubled this year, outpacing the 23-percent gain in the benchmark Hang Seng index, and closing at HK$40 (US$5.13) yesterday. At that price, the sale may prove the largest in China this year.