China provinces rail against Beijing plan to tackle overcapacity
Following the news of 6 million job cuts due to overcapacity in the China’s industries, there has been fresh criticism and concern as to who will fit the bill and re-position workers following mass redundancies. Beijing has admitted that workers will be laid off and stated that the Central Government is best positioned to fund the retraining of workers alongside both the local governments and companies who will also take a hit on their books. However the Finance ministry stated that the firms are best positioned to be a key player, with local governments co- coordinating and the central government providing support. Click here for the full article.
CRRC offshoot wins $1.3b order for Chicago rail cars
China Railway Rolling Stock Corp (CRRC) has made history closing a deal on the largest train orders in the Midwest, with 846 railcars at a cost of $1.3 billion. A purpose built plant will locally assemble the new cars and will be scheduled for delivery in 2019. Wang Mengshu, deputy chief engineer of China Railway Tunnel Group mentioned “another major breakthrough for the Chinese railway industry in the North American market”. While in Chicago the city’s mayor, Rahm Emanuel, said the deal would “go down in history”. Beijing has pushed train and rail companies to expand their operations overseas and build upon their global market share beating off competition from Japan, Serbia and Hungry. Click here for the full article.
Biggest fall in Chinese exports in seven years hits mining shares
The Chinese economy continues to demonstrate the slowdown in its growth, mining company exports in Februrury were down 25.4% on last year, and this has led to a fall in shares and replicates the worst performance since May 2009. David Liptop, MD of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) indicated that trade continues to slow down due to the weak import and export growth in three of the emerging markets (China, Russia and Brazil). China’s growth slowed down to 6.9%, which was its slowest in the last 25 years and will continue to be apparent as it sees an increase in the service industry and less reliance on exports. Click here for the full article.
China-Australia FTA cements Aussie competitive advantage: former trade minister
Andrew Robb (former Australian Trade Minister) has commented on how the ChAFTA (China Australia Free Trade Agreement) has cemented the competitive advantages for both nations. In Sydney he mentioned how the FTA has given Australia access to bringing over knowledge and expertise from its already well established service sector firms to fulfil the needs of China’s ever growing consumer orientated industry. The doors have been opened for Australia’s SMEs and they “have an opportunity not to be going through second or third parties … and start a business that’s got a market potential of over a billion people.” Click here for the full article.