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By admin, 2010/03/13 10:48

Housing prices likely stable in \’10: expert

Housing prices in China are likely to be stable in 2010 and the number of houses to be sold will drop, an expert said at a real estate session of Boao International Tourism Forum on Saturday.
\”In 2010, housing prices will be stable in general, and I believe that fewer housing units will be sold compared with last year,\” said Zhu Zhongyi, vice chairman of the China Real Estate Association.
The government earlier this week ordered 78 central state-owned enterprises to quit real estate business as their land acquisitions are blamed for fuelling rise of urban housing prices, which Zhu said is a signal to curb rises in housing prices.

But Zhu remained cautious on housing prices in metropolises like Beijing and Shanghai.
\”It is hard to tell. We still have to wait and see,\” he said.
To curb the soaring prices is a very difficult task given the lack of property tax and local governments\’ reliance on land leasing for revenues, said Chi Fulin, head of Hainan-based China Institute for Reform and Development.
Housing demand will keep on rising in China in the coming years. China\’s urbanization rate will reach 55 to 60 percent from the current 41.8 percent by 2020, and each percentage point means 10 million new urban residents, who are in need of homes in cities, Chi said.
\”The demand for affordable housing will be rising, and the government should shoulder the responsibility,\” Chi added.
China\’s central and local governments rolled out a series of measures to dampen the overheated property market at the end of last year, including reimposing a sales tax on homes sold within five years of their purchase and raising the down payment requirement for families buying a second house or more with bank loans.
In another move to cool the property market, the People\’s Bank of China, the central bank, raised the deposit reserve requirement ratio in January, and in February for the second time.
The government also promised to build 3 million housing units with affordable prices this year.

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By admin, 2010/03/13 10:47

Tourism boosts Hainan\’s service industry

The booming tourism industry of South China\’s Hainan province have made major contribution to the island\’ s economy and will further bolster its service sector, a senior official has said.
\”As Hainan\’s top pillar industry, tourism has boosted the development of the whole service sector, accounting for 42 percent of the province\’s GDP. But we aim to increase the proportion to 60 percent,\” said Tan Li, Hainan\’s vice governor.

Hainan received more than 22.5 million visitors last year, increasing by 9.2 percent from the previous year. The island\’s tourism industry generated 21.17 billion yuan ($3 billion) in revenue, up 10.1 percent, according to statistics from the provincial government.
Driven by booming tourism, the sales of Hainan\’s real estate industry grew by 25.4 percent, and sales of hotel and restaurant industry reached 52.5 percent.
The central government in January announced a plan to build the island into a top international tourist destination by 2020, which Tan said was the biggest opportunity of development for the island since it became a separate province and the largest special economic zone of China in 1988.

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By admin, 2010/03/13 10:46

China to build yachting industry

 
 
A captain controls a yacht on Friday during the Haikou Yachting Industry Forum. [Guo Cheng / Xinhua]

Yachting, a synonym of luxury for flamboyant wealthy people, may become an increasingly viable option for Chinese people\’s leisure life, industrial regulators and officials said on Friday.
\”In the coming few years, yachting will become a thriving recreational activity in China,\” said Haikou Mayor Xu Tangxian. \”Governments of coastal cities should work out development plans for yachting tourism in time.\”
He was citing an industrial manifesto the China Communications and Transportation Association (CCTA) and the country\’s yachting organizations released during the Haikou Yachting Industry Forum that opened in the provincial capital of Hainan on Friday.
Industrial analysts have predicted China\’s yacht market may grow as fast as its automobile market.
Various luxury brands, including yachts, are enjoying huge growth in China. But compared to the highly prosperous automobile market, yachts are still a young industry and its target customers remain small in number. Therefore, it promises a huge potential, Fairtheworld, a professional 3D virtual expo and expo media provider, said in a report last July.
\”China has entered a post-auto era With an increasing number of middle-class families, the yachting industry will experience rapid expansion,\” said the 2009-2010 China Yachting Industry Report, which was jointly released by CCTA\’s Cruise & Yacht Industry Sub-association and the Yacht Industry magazine on Friday.
The report proposed the government to reduce the taxes on imported yachts, which currently account for 40 percent of the total cost.
CCTA President Qian Yongchang said that now is the time for China to develop the yachting industry, even though at the beginning, the high-end recreational boats may be accessible only to high earners.
Industrial insiders said that during the beginning stage, it is unrealistic to expect the Chinese to purchase yachts with the same passion as they pursue cars or houses. Yacht renting will therefore be a major way that people can enjoy the luxury.
Last December, for the first time, the State Council, China\’s Cabinet, asked governments at various levels to foster yachting when developing tourism.
In January, the State Council asked Hainan Island to work out yacht management regulations and prepare to serve foreign yachts.
Chen Ci, Party chief of Haikou, said on Friday that the port city will take the lead in applying international practices when formulating regulations on yachting, exit-entry management and marketing of the recreational boats.
Haikou will build 1,000 wharves for the pleasure vessels in the next 10 years, with 400 expected to be complete by the end of this year, he said.

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By admin, 2010/03/13 10:45

Big miners eye copper assets

Central State-owned miners will accelerate acquisition of copper assets this year to capitalize on the price rally as the government encourages mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to streamline the industry.
The nation\’s top two copper producers, Jiangxi Copper Corporation (JCC) and Anhui-based Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Holdings Co Ltd, have received a series of M&A proposals recently.
Many central State-owned enterprises including China Minmetals Corporation and Aluminum Corporation of China Ltd (Chalco) have expressed interest in acquiring Tongling, said Wei Jianghong, the company\’s president.
Wei said the State-owned assets regulator of Anhui province will make a final decision on the lucky suitor.
The biggest shareholder of Minmetals and Chalco is the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, while local provincial governments own Tongling and JCC.
Cooperation between Jiangxi provincial government and Chalco was entrenched after they signed an agreement to develop rare metals in Jiangxi in March.
As part of the agreement, Chalco will take control of Jiangxi Rare Earth & Rare Metals Tungsten Group Holding Co Ltd and facilitate its initial public offering.
The next step in this cooperation will be Chalco\’s restructuring of JCC, according to industry insiders.
Chalco, the nation\’s largest aluminum producer, said it wants to be a leading copper producer. \”We must expand into copper and other metals as this is the key to our survival,\” said Chalco Vice President Lu Youqing.
Chalco bought 49 percent stake in the nation\’s third- largest copper producer Yunnan Copper for 7.5 billion yuan ($1.10 billion) in 2007.
Copper prices soared and shares of companies surged after an 8.8-magnitude earthquake hit the world\’s largest copper producer Chile in February.
\”Low interests rates and a weaker dollar have boosted copper stocks,\” said Peng Bo, an analyst at Guosen Securities.
Peng said central State-owned miners are aiming to build up scale and enhance competitiveness in the copper sector.
Kang Yi, president of China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, said the Tongling and JCC deals are in stagnation: \”I haven\’t seen any concrete progress because the assets are huge and there are local interests involved, though M&As are in line with the government policy and will help upgrade the industry and build mining giants.\”
In December, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology drafted a plan to upgrade the raw materials sector in Central China and called for provincial governments to support large central State-owned businesses in their M&A efforts.

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By admin, 2010/03/13 10:44

Hainan vows to clean up tourism market

A high-ranking official in south China\’s Hainan Province pledged Thursday that they would make great efforts to improve local tourism market.
Vice Governor Tan Li told a press conference for the Boao International Tourism Forum, scheduled to open Saturday in Sanya, a tourist resort in Hainan.
\”It\’s a fact that Hainan drew criticism over its high hotel room prices during the Spring Festival, and that the hotel room prices did jump too much,\” said Tan.
Some five-star hotel room prices stood above 10,000 yuan (1,464 U.S. dollars) per night during the Spring Festival season in cities like Sanya.
\”Hainan will exert efforts to clean up its tourism environment through the whole year of 2010,\” he said.
\”The government has been taking a series of measures including cracking down on hotel price overcharging and rocketing home prices. The island will show up in a brand new image in the May 1 International Labor Day holiday ,\” he said.
The forum has attracted more than 2,000 people from tourist sectors worldwide, who will exchange their views in boosting tourism amid the global financial downturn.
Sponsors of the forum included Hainan Provincial government, the National Tourism Administration and the United Nations World Tourism Organization.
Hainan became a province and also China\’s largest special economic zone in 1988, enjoying preferential development policies.
The island boasts year-round tropical weather, beaches, forests and diverse ethnic cultures.
The central government announced Jan. 4 in a guideline that it aimed to build Hainan into a top international tourist destination by 2020.

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By admin, 2010/03/13 10:43

China\’s subway reaches 933 km in 2009

China\’s urban rail transit lines in service reached a total 933 km at the end of 2009, said an official with the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development Thursday.
Ten mainland cities operated 33 rail lines at the end of last year, said Li Xiaojiang, director of the ministry\’s subway and light rail center, at a forum on urban rail transport in the eastern city of Changzhou.
Shanghai had the longest network of about 300 km, followed by 250 km in Beijing. Shanghai will put another 120 km of urban rail line into operation ahead of the World Expo 2010, which starts on May 1 and runs till October 31.
Li, also director of the China Academy for Urban Planning and Design, said 1,400 km rail transit lines were under construction and 2,610 km more were planned.
China would invest 700 billion yuan (102.5 billion U.S. dollars) on urban rail construction in the five years to 2015, the official said.

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By admin, 2010/03/13 10:42

China: Safety checks on Boeing \’routine\’

China\’s government Thursday said safety checks on tail flaps of aircraft made by U.S. giant Boeing were just \”routine inspections,\” after media reports said those checks indicated a \”potential safety hazard\”.
Wednesday\’s National Business Daily (NBD) said the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) Monday issued an \”Emergency Airworthiness Directive\” for the \”tail flap mechanism\” of more than 400 Boeing 737 jets, which the newspaper said indicated a \”potential safety hazard\”, quoting an unidentified source with the CAAC.
The CAAC Thursday posted a \”clarification statement\” on its website, saying it did order safety checks on the aircraft, but they were just \”routine inspections\” to ensure flight safety.
Altogether 160 aircraft covering six Boeing 737 models were involved, it said, differing from the reported number of \”more than 400\”.
CAAC Vice Minister Li Jian said the airworthiness directive was a regular CAAC flight safety management procedure. The administration issued approximately 300 such directives last year to urge airline companies to strengthen daily safety checks.
It had altogether issued 6,502 airworthiness directives during the 1986-2009 period, he said.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) last week issued a directive urging immediate inspections of the elevator tab control device on tail flaps of the six models of Boeing 737s, after a Ryanair jet was diverted from its destination due to severe vibrations.
The problem could result in loss of aircraft control and structural integrity, it said.
According to the directive on the FAA website, the Boeing Company Friday issued an alert service bulletin describing the problem and repair procedures.

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By admin, 2010/03/13 10:41

More Chinese to spend overseas


A crowd gathers at the Exit-Entry Administration Office of Nanjing public security bureau on Tuesday to apply for overseas trips. During the first half of March, more than 16,000 Nanjing citizens submitted their applications.[Wang Chengbing/For China Daily]
More mainland tourists are expected to spend money on overseas travel this year, said a report by a think tank to the national tourism authority.
The Annual Report of China Outbound Tourism Development 2009-2010, released by the China Tourism Academy on Thursday, estimated that 54 million tourists would go abroad this year, up from 47 million in 2009.
They are expected to spend 48 billion yuan ($6.86 billion) overseas, up 14 percent from a year earlier, the report said.
\”The outbound travel market of the Chinese mainland will remain brisk this year, continuing to contribute to the recovery of the world economy and helping to offset China\’s trade surplus,\” said Jiang Yiyi, director of the academy\’s international tourism development institute.
Despite the continued growth in numbers, the global financial crisis exerted an influence on mainland tourists\’ choice of destinations.
Only some 12.88 million tourists visited foreign countries last year, accounting for 27 percent of the total, which is lower than 34 percent in 2008 and 29 percent in 2007.
According to Jiang, the report showed many people cut their travel budgets, choosing to visit neighboring regions, rather than those far away.

The majority, 73 percent, visited Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, as well as Taiwan province.
The academy, which interviewed 2,600 tourists in major cities in January, found the demographics of this market are people aged between 25 and 44, with high incomes and educational backgrounds.
While more than half of them said shopping is their biggest expenditure, the survey found mainland tourists tend to give a low score when asked to rate their satisfaction over shopping and the service of travel agencies.
Dai Bin, deputy chief of the academy, said countries should provide more services and facilities in Chinese, in order to enhance satisfaction rates.
China is now the biggest tourist market in Asia, with 100 million people forecast to travel overseas by 2020.
Spotting the huge market potential, countries have increasingly started to do what they can to lure more tourists.
Zhang Jun, marketing manager of the German National Tourism Board\’s Beijing office, said Germany\’s railway system would soon open an office in China to provide more information to Chinese tourists who wish to travel by train in Europe.

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By admin, 2010/03/13 10:40

China\’s home prices \’won\’t drop too much\’

China\’s property prices won\’t plunge this year, two of Hong Kong\’s biggest developers with operations on the mainland said yesterday, as the World Bank joined economists and hedge fund managers warning of a bubble.
\”China\’s home prices won\’t drop too much, as the government can\’t allow prices to plunge because the real estate market is an important pillar of the economy,\” said Henry Cheng, managing director of New World Development Co and son of its billionaire founder Cheng Yu-tung.
Property prices in China rose 10.7 percent in February, the steepest gain in almost two years, even after banks raised mortgage rates. The surge — along with a stock market rally, quickening economic growth and inflation — led the World Bank to say China should raise interest rates to help contain the risk of a bubble, and sparked warnings of a potential crash from hedge fund manager Jim Chanos, Gloom, Boom & Doom publisher Marc Faber and Harvard University professor Kenneth Rogoff.
China has banned banks from providing loans to developers found to be hoarding land or holding back sales of apartments to wait for higher prices, the China Securities Journal reported today, citing an unidentified person. The government has also raised banks\’ reserve requirements twice this year, and re-imposed a tax on home sales.
\”The government\’s policies may create volatility in the market, but price drops would be limited this year as the real estate market fundamentals haven\’t changed,\” Wong Siu Kong, chief executive of Kerry Properties Ltd, said yesterday. The Hong Kong-based developer controlled by the family of Malaysian billionaire Robert Kuok yesterday posted a 45 percent gain in revenue from its China property unit for 2009.
New laws
On the same day that China\’s statistics bureau announced the February property price gain, the Ministry of Land and Resources said buyers must pay a 50 percent down payment on land acquisitions within a month of signing the contract. They must also pay a deposit, equal to 20 percent of the minimum price for the land, when taking part in auctions, the ministry said in a March 10 statement.
\”If too many people lose their money on real estate, it will be bad for the economy; it\’s the same rationale in Hong Kong,\” New World\’s Cheng said at a briefing in Hong Kong yesterday. He didn\’t give a forecast for China home prices this year, and said Hong Kong residential values may rise 10 percent in 2010 as there isn\’t likely to be a big increase in supply.
The Chinese central government and government of the Hong Kong special administrative region have expressed concern about the gains in home prices. Hong Kong, a financial and trade hub of China, has pledged to supply more land and sell more than 4,000 subsidized homes after residential prices rose 5.2 percent this year, adding to 2009\’s 29 percent increase.
Bubble talk
China\’s Premier Wen Jiabao warned of \”latent risk\” to the nation\’s banks after record new lending last year and pledged to crack down on property speculation, in a speech to the country\’s annual parliamentary meeting in Beijing this month.
The nation\’s \”massive monetary stimulus\” risks triggering large asset-price increases, a housing bubble, and bad debts from the financing of local-government projects, the Washington-based World Bank said in a quarterly report on China released in Beijing. The group raised its economic growth forecast for this year to 9.5 percent from 9 percent in January.
China is in the midst of \”the greatest bubble in history,\” James Rickards, former general counsel of hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management LP, said this week, warning it \”is a bubble waiting to burst.\”
Harvard\’s Rogoff said Feb 23 that a debt-fueled bubble in China may trigger a regional recession within a decade, while Chanos, founder of New York-based Kynikos Associates Ltd., predicted a slump after excessive property investments.
Earnings from China
Property earnings and prices for New World\’s projects in China will be better in its second fiscal-half from the first as they were rising from a low base, Cheng said. Some sales would also be booked in the second half ending June 30, he said.
Cheng is also chairman of New World China Land Ltd, which is 71 percent owned by New World Development. New World China, which develops properties in the mainland, said yesterday net income more than doubled to HK$940 million ($121 million) in its first half ended Dec 31 as property sales jumped more than four times to 5.5 billion yuan ($806 million).
New World Development yesterday reported first-half net income of HK$5.35 billion, from a HK$992 million loss in the same period a year earlier. On an underlying basis which strips out revaluations, profit rose 83 percent to HK$1.86 billion. Its shares rose 1.7 percent to close at HK$15.54 yesterday, the highest since Jan 5.
Chairman Cheng Yu-tung is Hong Kong\’s fourth-richest person, according to Forbes Magazine rankings, with an estimated wealth of $6.8 billion.
Kerry, which yesterday said underlying income fell in 2009, against analysts\’ projections of a gain, dropped 2.9 percent, the most since Feb18, to HK$38.85 yesterday. The chairman of the company\’s parent, Robert Kuok, was ranked 33rd on Forbes Magazine\’s list this year, with a net worth of $14.5 billion.

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By admin, 2010/03/13 10:39

Safety fears force checks on B737s in China

China has ordered domestic airlines to perform safety inspections of more than 400 Boeing 737 airplanes due to concerns over the tail flap mechanism, Friday\’s National Business Daily reported.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), issued an \”Emergency Airworthiness Directive\” on March 15 and an official from CAAC\’s north China branch said the order affects Boeing 737-600, -700, -700C, -800, -900 and -900ER, according to the report.
The official, who did not give his name, said CAAC\’s directive means the problem is a \”potential safety hazard\” and if airlines do not follow the order, the aircraft will not be allowed to take off.
CAAC\’s directive followed a similar one issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on March 12. FAA ordered that all above-mentioned series of Boeing 737s be checked for loose elevator tabs caused by fractured mounting lugs that help control the tail flaps, according to Bloomberg.
Bloomberg said Boeing identified the problem after an incident when a flight crew noticed excessive vibration and was forced to divert but finally made a safe landing.
Boeing\’s China branch said it has informed its Chinese customers about the problem and promised to provide technical support. The airlines in China also confirmed to Boeing that they are aware of the problem and are inspecting the planes, National Business Daily said in its report.
CAAC ordered all domestic airlines to report the result of inspections within 10 days.
Boeing 737 is one of the most popular airliners in China. National Business Daily said by this February, at least 603 B737s are in service on the Chinese mainland and over 400 of them are involved in safety inspections this time.
All of the three major Chinese airlines – China Southern, Air China and China Eastern – have a large B737 fleet.