48 Major Steel Mills in The Red
January 2, 2009
About two thirds of China’s major steel mills were in the red in November, suffering from high prices in raw materials and the decreasing prices of steel products.
Forty-eight out of 71 large and medium-sized domestic steelmakers saw a loss in November (six more than in October), with total losses for the month in the neighborhood of 12.77 billion yuan, China Securities Journal reported yesterday citing anonymous sources.
Analysts largely contributed the loss to high iron ore prices and dropping steel prices, and they remained pessimistic for the mills’ performance in December.
Chinese steelmakers agreed to pay a record of $92 per ton for iron ore in the 2008 long-term contract, and steel prices have dropped about 40 percent since June as a result of the global financial crisis.
Authorities are considering measures including buying some steel products for reserves to help the industry through the rough time, Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong recently said in Beijing.
Reports said the government would likely spend 10-15 billion yuan to establish a reserve of 3-5 million tons.
Some major steelmakers have increased steel prices on the news.
Angang Steel will raise the price of hot rolling steel by 350 yuan per ton from January; Shougang Group will rise by 300 yuan per ton and China’s largest steelmaker Baosteel will also raise product prices by 6 to 10 percent from February.
Analysts said building up stocks may provide some support to prices in the short term, but the policy could also mean producers take longer to emerge from the current slump in demand with a U-shaped recovery rather than a V-shaped bounce, since the government stocks may return to the market as prices recover.
The government could also increase export tax rebates on high-end steel products and will encourage industry reshuffling as well as innovation.
Source: China Steel Net.com
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As Inflation Falls,Time to Support Growth
October 19, 2008
As we frequently emphasized in our posts and told our clients, Chinese government was waging a war against inflation by tightening monetary policies which widely hurts exports of China. Now with the August inflation lowered to %4.9, China rapidly moved to support growth again:
It’s time for China to boost growth  (By Wang Yanlin, Shaghai Daily Newspaper)
IN the first eight months of the year, the government’s top priority, while framing macro economic policies, was the fight against inflation. But there has been a slight shift in emphasis.
Last Monday when Vice Premier Wang Qishan delivered a speech at the 12th China International Fair for Investment and Trade in Xiamen, Fujian Province, he said the current goal of the government was to “realize a stable and relatively fast economic growth” and “put the rising inflation under control.”
This is possibly the first time that “spurring growth” has been put higher on the agenda than “curbing inflation” by a heavy-weight government official during a formal business occasion this year.
Policy makers are usually very circumspect while commenting on policy issues in public. So is Wang’s public stance an indication that top decision makers could be considering the odds of adjusting macroeconomic policies? This may well be so.
Economists and analysts have been urging the government to shift focus from taming inflation to supporting growth.
The newly released economic data show China’s gross domestic product has slowed to 10.1 percent in the second quarter, down from 10.6 percent in the first three months and 11.9 percent last year.
The Consumer Price Index, the main gauge of inflation, grew at 4.9 percent in August – the slowest pace in 14 months. It has been on the decline for four consecutive months and the speed at which inflation eased went beyond economists’ boldest expectations.
Industry slowing
In contrast to the softening inflationary pressure, the risk of slower economic growth is intensifying.
In August, industrial production grew 12.8 percent, the slowest since February last year.
Among the sectors which dragged down output was the automobile industry, which used to be a major growth driver. The automobile sector fell 3.3 percent last month.
Exports, another key element of overall economic expansion, rose 21.1 percent in August, cooling down from a 22.9-percent jump a month earlier.
The slower growth came despite the government increasing export tax rebates for textiles and garments – the two sectors hardest hit by yuan appreciation and weaker demand from developed markets.
China’s urban fixed-asset investment increased 27.4 percent in the first eight months, keeping a stable growth momentum. But analysts said this was mainly bolstered by the demand created by the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan Province.
On the other hand, domestic consumption looks robust. Retail sales in August jumped 23.2 percent, slightly up from the July figure which saw the fastest rise since 1996.
However, the rest of the year may see a downturn with no new strong selling points, like the housing and automobile sectors of the past, to boost growth.
All figures now seem to point in one direction °?- that the government should take concrete steps to sustain economic growth. Huang Yiping, an economist with Citigroup, said the CPI which fell below 5 percent in August could help shift the balance of policy concerns toward growth.
Sops may work
“The probability of a policy reversal may rise significantly in the coming months, as global economic conditions continue to deteriorate and domestic corporate sectors increasingly feel the impact of growth slowdown,” said Huang.
“Although the People’s Bank of China has so far maintained its bias toward tight monetary policies, it has introduced a number of measures to fine-tune trade policies as well in recent months,” he added.
The analyst said that the central bank’s steps include expansion of credit quota, slowdown of currency appreciation and increases in export tax rebates.
“This shift in policy concerns should be reinforced to keep the CPI at a healthy level,” Huang noted.
But there is a major hurdle in the way of a complete turnaround as producer prices, the factory-gate inflation measure, also keep going up.
The Producer Price Index in August soared to 10.1 percent, the highest in 12 years. Rising factory-gate costs are generally passed on to the end users, but this may in turn affect consumer prices, analysts said.
Economists suggest China should continue with its fine-tuning measures for the time being. Relaxing the credit quota, slowing down yuan appreciation and selected reduction of tax burden could go a long way to boost the economy.
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China’s inflation cools at last
October 14, 2008
Inflation rates are crucially important for China’s economy. To me, it is the most decisive indicator in shaping government policies on economy, finance, trade etc.
For example, the soaring inflation at the beginning of the year was the main reason behind the tightening monetary policy which squeezes credits for factories, makes trade policies restrictive, quickens the appreciation of chinese currency. So every company making business with China needs to follow the inflation gadget to foresee possible risks and opportunities.
China’s inflation cools at last
By Lydia Chen (Sanghai Daily)
CHINA’S inflation rate dropped to the slowest pace since June 2007 with smaller gains in food prices, a boost to policy makers working on adjusting macroeconomic policies to support the country’s economic growth.
The consumer price index, a broad measure of inflation, rose 4.9 percent in August from a year earlier, after gaining 6.3 percent in July, the National Bureau of Statistics said this morning.
Food costs, accounting for a third of the CPI basket, surged 10.3 percent year on year last month. Within the category, meat and poultry prices soared 8 percent in August.
The cost of pork, the nation’s staple meat, increased 1 percent last month from a year ago while cooking oil prices rose 22.7 percent. Vegetable prices were down 0.5 percent last month from a year ago. Grain prices gained 8 percent in the period.
The combined CPI grew 7.3 percent from January to August, the bureau said.
Consumer-price inflation has slowed for four months. February’s 8.7 percent pace was the fastest in 12 years. The central bank’s target for the year is 4.8 percent, the same as the actual rate in 2007.
But producer-price inflation advanced 10.1 percent in August after rising 10 percent in July. The August jump was the fastest pace since at least 1996, according to the bureau today.
The faster producer inflation rate may lead policy makers to introduce more balanced measures to boost growth against the risk that inflation will accelerate again.
China may adopt tax cuts, a slower pace of yuan appreciation and more easing of lending restrictions to protect jobs and avoid an economic slump as export demand falters.
China’s economy expanded 10.1 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, slowing for a fourth straight quarter, as exports cooled. Many economists said the growth may ease to 9 percent this year.
Profit growth for listed companies slumped in the first half, helping push the key stock index in the Shanghai market down nearly 60 percent so far this year. Weaker overseas demand, rising costs and a strengthening currency have put pressure on exporters of shoes, toys and clothes.
Economists expect China’s monetary policy will steadily turn more growth-friendly, given the concerns and moderating inflation.
In July, the central bank eased restrictions on how much banks can lend. It raised the 2008 loan quotas for national banks by 5 percent and for regional lenders by 10 percent, according to reports by the Goldman Sachs Group Inc, BNP Paribas SA, and the China Merchants Bank Co.
The People’s Bank of China has kept interest rates unchanged this year and hasn’t increased the reserve ratio for banks — the proportion of deposits that lenders are required to set aside — since June.
The Chinese yuan has climbed only 0.2 percent against the dollar this quarter after a 6.5 percent advance in the first half. Gains hurt exporters by making their products more expensive and less attractive in overseas markets.
The government has already cut taxes on exports of textiles and garments and encouraged more lending to small and medium-sized businesses. Officials are working on a plan for as much as 400 billion yuan (US$58 billion) in tax cuts and spending to prevent an economic slump, according to economists and reports in domestic news media.
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China Machine Tool Industry Research 2008
October 13, 2008
China Machine Tool Industry Research 2008
http://www.reportlinker.com/p091023/China-Machine-Tool-Industry-Research-2008.html
China’s machine tool industry plays an important role in world machine tool industry in recent years. In the aspect of output value, China has accounted 1/4 of the world machine tools. Therefore, the healthy development of China’s machine tool industry will promote the world machine tool industry continues to maintain a rapid development.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics data of whole machine tool industry, in 2007 the 4291 manufactories achieved RMB 274.77 billion in industrial output value, up 35.5 per cent year-on-year; RMB 268.1 billion of sale revenue, an increase of 36.2 per cent year-on-year; throughput of 97.6 per cent, an increase of 0.5 per cent year-on-year.
In 2007, the output of metal-cutting machine tool was 606,835 sets, an increase of 11.7 per cent year-on-year, among NC metal-cutting machine tool 123,257 sets, an increase of 32.6 per cent year-on-year; forming machine tool 172,766 sets, an increase of 9.2 per cent year-on-year, among NC forming machine tool 3,011 sets, an increase of 53.7 per cent year-on-year; Woodworking machinery production and casting machinery 19.2 per cent and 15.4 per cent year-on-year respectively, metal cutting tools fell 0.4 per cent year-on-year.
Machine tool export has continued to grow rapidly. In 2007 it made $5.2 billion, up 36.2 per cent year-on-year, including metal processing machine tool $1.65 billion, increased 39.2 per cent year-on-year, NC metal processing machine tool $500 million , an in crease of 48.2 per cent year-on-year, accounting for 30 per cent of the metal processing machine tool, metal-cutting machine tool $1.22 billion, up 31.6 per cent year-on-year, forming machine tool $430 million, up 66.5 per cent year-on-year.
In 2007, the imports of machine tool was $11.77 billion, an increase of 5.7 per cent year-on-year, among metal processing machines tool $7.07 billion, a decrease of 2.4 per cent year-on-year. China’s foreign trade deficit of metal processing machine tool reached $5.42 in 2007, lower than the same period last year $6.06 billion.
Considering the overheated economy and higher inflation, the central government has tied the monetary policy, which has already affected on some investments, particularly small and medium-sized machine tool investors. China’s machine tool industry is expected to slow down, but, on the other hand, high-value-added products such as NC machine tool, large and heavy machine tool will still keep a strong growth, especially the state key projects and 16 major science and technology projects will boost the domestic demand for high-technical NC machine tool. China is expected to maintain a strong demand for NC machine tool in the next three to five years; in particular the large-scale NC machine tools will remain a 30 per cent growth.
Contents1 The Circumstance of Global Machine tool industry1.1 Production1.2 Consumption1.3 Import and Export1.3.1 Export1.3.2 Import1.3.3 Total Amount of Imports and Exports1.4 Summary2 The Circumstance of China’s Machine Tool Industry2.1 The Performance of the whole Industry2.2 The Products of Metal-Cutting Machine Tool2.2.1 Output2.2.2 Value of output2.2.3 Value of output/per unit2.3 Import and Export of Machine Tool Industry2.3.1 Import and Export Amount2.3.2 Export destination2.3.3 Import region2.3.4 Export Products2.3.5 Import Products2.4 The competition pattern in Machine Tool Industry2.4.1 Types of Ownership2.4.2 Concentration of Machine Tool Industry2.5 Impact of Policy3. The future development trend3.1 The Domestic Products will Gradual Substitute Overseas Products3.2 Upgrading of Product Structure and high-technical Products3.3 Expansion of Export3.4 The Rising Price of Cast Iron and Increasing Cost4 key Companies4.1 Kunming Machine Tool4.1.1 Brief4.1.2 Performance4.1.3 The main Business-machine tool4.2 Zhejiang Tianma Bearing Co., Ltd / QIQIHAR HEAVY CNC EQUIPMENT CORPORATION LIMITEDFigure IndexThe Proportion of China’s NC Machine Tool of Metal-cutting Machine Tool 2000-2007The Output Value and Year-on-Year Growth of World Major Manufacturing Countries of Machine ToolsThe value of Output of World Major Manufacturing Countries of Machine tools 2002-2007The Market Share of World Major Manufacturing Countries of Machine Tools 2007The World Machine Tool Consumption of Major Countries 2002-2007The World Machine Tool Export of Major Countries 2002-2007The Output and Growth of China’s Metal-Cutting Machine Tool and NC Machine Tool 2000-2007The Output and Proportion of various products of China’s Metal-cutting Machine ToolThe Output and Proportion of various products of China’s NC Metal-cutting Machine ToolThe Output Value/per unit of China’s machine tool Metal-Cutting tool ProductsForeign Trade Deficit of China’s Machine Tool IndustryThe Amount of Export and Import and Growth rate of China’s Metal-working Machine Tool 1995-2007Foreign Trade Deficit of China’s Metal-working Machine Tool 1995-2007The Export Destinations and Growth of China’s Metal-working Machine Tool 2007The Share of Import Countries of China’s Metal-working Machine Tool 2007The Share of Export Countries of China’s Metal-working Machine Tool 2007The Amount of Exports and Growth of China’s Metal-Cutting Machine Tool Products Jan-Oct 2007The Amount of Imports and Growth of China’s Metal-Cutting Machine Tool Products Jan-Oct 2007The Ownership of Machine Tool IndustryThe Impact of tax policies on Machine Tool listed companiesComparison of Market Share Between Import and Domestic Metal-working Machine Tool 2001-2007The Amount of Foreign Trade Deficit and Growth of China’s Metal-cutting Machine Tool ProductsThe Output, Import and Growth of China’s Machining CentreThe Value of Output of Machining Centre and Proportion of Total Metal-Cutting Machine Tool of Major Countries 2006The Amount of China’s Metal-Cutting Machine Tool Exports and the proportion of Output Value and compared with the world average LevelThe Price Index of China’s scrap, cast iron, cokeThe Cost of Machine Tool IndustryThe Incomes and Growth of Net Profit of Kunming Machine Tool 2002-2007The Revenue of Kunming Machine Tool Main Business 2004-2007The Revenue of Machine Tool Business of Kunming Machine Tool 2003-2007Comparison of the Gross Profit Among Major Machine Tool CompaniesTable IndexThe Operation of Metal-Cutting Machine Tool IndustryThe Top 10 Output and Value of Output of Metal-Cutting Machine Tool Manufactories 2006The Top 10 Output and Value of Output of NC Metal-Cutting Machine Tool Manufactories 2006Bain Model of Industrial ConcentrationCosts Constitute of HT250 Hot MetalThe Impact of Rising Costs of Cast Iron on the Machine Tool industry’s Cost and Gross ProfitTo order this report:
China Machine Tool Industry Research 2008
http://www.reportlinker.com/p091023/China-Machine-Tool-Industry-Research-2008.html
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Need a parking place? Good luck
September 6, 2008
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“You always hope it will be better,” said Bracey, who ended up parking a half-mile from the shop where he was buying a gift for his brother.
This month, millions of Americans could find themselves in a similar predicament, fruitlessly orbiting packed parking lots in shopping centers, malls and downtowns as the holiday shopping season builds toward a peak.
They are the victims of a growing national parking crunch, the product of ever-increasing numbers of cars and scarcer places to put them in many cities.
In the past four decades, the number of registered vehicles has risen nearly 170% and the ranks of licensed drivers have doubled, Federal Highway Administration figures show.
The infrastructure is struggling to accommodate the crush. Many cities are experiencing downtown rebirths with new condos, hotels and office buildings, but the amount of parking on streets remains largely a fixed asset.
The value of parking in a tony urban neighborhood can be seen dramatically in Boston, where spots can be sold. An anonymous buyer bought a space in a Back Bay alley for a record $250,000. Prices for downtown spaces are up 14% this year over last year and have almost doubled since 2001, according to Listing Information Network, which tracks Boston real estate trends.
Parking structures aren’t always the solution. Although 2.8 million parking spaces were built in structures from 1996 through last year, the number of construction starts fell from a peak of 465 in 2001 to about 405 this year, says Dale Denda, research director for Parking Market Research in McLean, Va.
Part of the reason for the reluctance to build new parking structures is cost. Construction costs alone are up more than 35% in the past six years to an average of about $13,900 a space. That doesn’t include the soaring price of urban land.
“The world has changed,” says Donald Shoup, an urban planning professor at the University of California at Los Angeles and author of The High Cost of Free Parking, which advocates letting market forces set on-street parking rates as a way of revitalizing cities. “We’re realizing that the new parking is wildly expensive and hard to pay for.”
Some planners are starting to look to technology for help. Borrowing ideas from Europe, they’re coming up with solutions such as robotic garages that whisk cars around on metal pallets, and parking spots reserved by cellphones or found through in-car navigation screens.
‘Find alternatives’ to parking
Some cities are trying to wean themselves and their residents away from the driving that requires more parking. Instead, they’re plotting to lure shoppers, diners and workers onto public transit, bikes or their own feet.
“There are cities all across the country that are actively saying, ‘We want to limit the amount of parking we provide,’ and, ‘We want people to find alternatives,’ ” says David Fields, senior planner for Nelson/Nygaard Consulting Associates in New York.
Even shopping centers and malls, traditional homes to expanses of free parking big enough to be their own small countries, are trying new ideas to ease parking hassles for their customers. Westfield, a big shopping center operator, has close-in spots for expectant moms at all its 59 properties. The lines are painted pink.
It’s also experimenting with call-ahead reserved parking, preferential paid parking in a gated lot and a parking shuttle at various California centers.
General Motors is sponsoring valet services at two malls, Phipps Plaza in Atlanta and Town Center at Boca Raton in Florida. Cadillac drivers get free valet parking at both. At Town Center, so do Saab and Hummer owners.
But even when valet parking is available, some people are reluctant. Hector Rodriguez, 40, a Los Angeles hair salon owner, says he hesitates to hand the keys to his customized Chrysler 300C to an attendant. “I don’t want people driving my car.”
In car-dependent Los Angeles, the time it takes to find a parking spot on the street has doubled in the past five years, estimates Shanette Madden, 40, a Los Angeles property manager. She pulled her Nissan Versa into a no-parking zone and sent her daughter Malika, 16, off on an errand along Melrose Avenue one Sunday afternoon. She says she had hunted for 15 minutes to find a metered space, then gave up. Parking is not only hard to find, she says, but becoming more expensive. “It’s just like gas (prices). What can you do?”
Bracey, 40, pausing as he hoofed back from the shop, says he won’t even venture into Santa Monica, the affluent, liberal enclave to the west where the popular outdoor mall is rimmed by often-crowded parking structures.
Santa Monica is one of those communities that knows it has a problem and is trying to find a solution. Last month, it started a website, www.parkingspacenow.smgov.net, that gives the availability of spaces in 14 downtown lots and garages. It’s updated every five seconds.
“The city doesn’t really like parking,” says Lucy Dyke, Santa Monica’s transportation planning manager. It “doesn’t want to waste money on parking spaces we really don’t need.”
Instead, the Web page is aimed at making better use of spaces, encouraging people to find other means to get downtown when lots are full.
New solutions
The rebirth of downtowns and resulting crunch, combined with new electronic devices, are leading to a “parking technology revolution,” says Dennis Burns, vice president of consultants Carl Walker.
Some of the ideas include:
•Automated parking. Think of a vending machine in reverse. In automated parking, motorists drive their cars onto a steel plate in a garage and get out of the car. The plate is then whisked away like a pallet in a warehouse, all robotically, to a parking space.
“Your car can never be stolen or dented,” says Lee Lazarus, president of A.P.T. Parking Technologies in New York.
Eliminating ramps, walkways — even lowering the ceiling — allows a developer to dramatically reduce the size of the structure. It can pack almost double the number of spaces of a conventional garage, Lazarus says.
While they’re popular in Europe, the USA so far has only a few automated garages, including a 312-space garage in Hoboken, N.J., and a 74-space structure in Washington, D.C.
While they free vital space in a building that can be used for people instead of cars, automated parking is expensive, at more than $20,000 a spot, Lazarus says.
•Finding parking through in-car navigation. XM Satellite Radio is one of three companies working to develop a system that would allow the navigation screens in vehicles to be used to hunt down available parking spots. XM is working with one of the nation’s largest parking providers, Standard Parking, and a technology company, Quixote Transportation Technologies. The system would use color-keyed icons to show how many spots are available in a garage or lot.
•Reserving by cellphone. A company called MobileParking is developing a system in which drivers can call ahead on their cellphones to reserve parking spots. Early next year, MobileParking hopes to create a network of 3,100 parking structures in the 30 biggest U.S. cities where drivers can call or message ahead. In some cases, parking attendants will rope off a special area for MobileParking customers, says President Jason Boseck.
In addition to the parking charge, customers will pay a $1.75 service fee.
•Paying by cellphone. Rather than having to run out to feed the meter, motorists who park at one of about 90 spaces along the famed Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, Calif., can arrange to get a call on their cellphone asking them if they want to extend their time on the parking meter.
“You pay for parking and if you want to add time, you can do that with a cellphone,” says Chris Chettle, vice president of Digital Payment Technologies, which co-developed the system.
It works because instead of standard parking meters, the spaces are connected to kiosks — one for every nine spaces — that accept payment by credit card or currency.
So far, though, not many parkers have registered to use the cellphone feature, says Oscar Delgado, the city’s parking operations manager.
A San Francisco company, Spark Parking, is creating a cellphone payment system for garages. Instead of barriers and ticket machines, a parking structure would be open. Motorists would drive directly to an open space. A sensor in the stall would keep track of how long they parked and bill them, says CEO Cooper Marcus.
The system will help give planners a better picture of how lots and structures are used, helpful in setting parking rates.
For every car, three spaces
Higher rates might actually help consumers, he says, by creating more turnover of spaces.
“If pizza was free, everyone would eat lots of pizza. If parking is free, everyone is going to use lots of parking,” Marcus says.
Parking consumes enormous amounts of space.
“Every car needs three spaces: one at home; one at work; and one at play,” says Steve Shannon, president of ParkingMan, a consultancy in Pitman, N.J. “It’s difficult to accommodate all these cars.”
The key appears to be striking a balance of need. In Ann Arbor, Mich., University of Michigan students compete with other residents for coveted parking spaces downtown. At its worst, motorists sometimes can take 10 minutes finding a spot, says Susan Pollay, executive director of the city’s Downtown Development Authority.
The city is studying the parking issue but hopes that parking is only one solution, along with buses, bikes and walking.
“We have become smarter in realizing that parking is not the silver bullet,” Pollay says. Rather, it’s just “a tool in the toolbox” to a total transportation solution.
Source:Â Â Â http://www.usatoday.com
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