CX Daily: Canal Fever Grips China Amid Slowing Growth
TOP STORY
Canals?/
China is in the grip of canal fever.
As the government steps up its long-term strategy to turn the country’s inland waterways into a network of interconnected arteries that will boost trade and economic growth, at least five major canal projects costing hundreds of billions of yuan are either being built or planned by provincial governments. ?
FINANCE & ECONOMY
Hong Kong?/
Investors in the Hong Kong IPO of Chinese cosmetics firm Mao Geping Cosmetics Co. Ltd. got an early Christmas present on Dec. 10 when the company made its debut — the shares rose as much as 92% before closing the day 77% higher.
It was the best first-day performance in four years and a further sign that the three-year slump in IPOs on the Hong Kong stock market is finally over. ?
BUSINESS & TECH
BYD?/
领英推荐
Brazil’s government has launched an investigation after 163 people working at a BYD subcontractor’s building site in Bahia were found to be living in harsh conditions.
The workers were immediately relocated and the site closed. BYD has terminated its contract with the subcontractor.
Solars?/
Two of China’s solar equipment manufacturers have announced plans to scale back production to mitigate losses and pull the domestic industry back from a bruising price war.
Tongwei Co. Ltd. and Xinjiang Daqo New Energy Co. Ltd., two of China’s largest producers of polysilicon — a key material for making solar panels — announced Tuesday that they would carry out “orderly production cuts and controls” at their plants and would only restore production “according to market conditions.” ?
BRIEFING
A rundown of the news making headlines in and around China:
CATL’s new chassis: A subsidiary of state-run Chongqing Changan Automobile Co. Ltd. will be the first carmaker to build a vehicle off Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd.’s (CATL) new battery-integrated chassis. The tie-up between CATL and Avatr Technology Co. Ltd. highlights the changes taking place in China’s automotive industry in the era of electric vehicles (EV). The industry is seeing batteries and chassis grow more integrated in an effort to reduces costs and extend the range of EVs. CATL’s new chassis, called Bedrock, offers automakers a platform on which they can develop their EVs. However, CATL is also encroaching on automakers' home turf with its new chassis business, as the development of this core vehicle component has been a traditional strength of car manufacturers.
Corruption probe: The chairman of Shanxi province’s top political advisory body has been stripped of his membership to the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). On Dec. 16, Wu Cunrong was put under investigation by the Communist Party’s top graft-busters. The announcement did not explain why Wu was under investigation beyond the boilerplate language of “for serious violations discipline and law.” Wu is the second senior Shanxi official in recent years to have his career derailed due to a corruption probe. In March, Shang Liguang, a former deputy party chief in the province, was expelled for violations described as “reckless and boundlessly greedy.”
‘Two Sessions’ scheduled: Next year’s annual meeting of China’s National People’s Congress is set to start on March 5 in Beijing. The get-together of China’s roughly 3,000-member legislature is closely watched each year because the country’s obsessively watched annual GDP growth target is usually announced at the meeting. The annual meeting of the CPPCC, the country’s top political advisory body, is expected to begin on March 4. Called the “Two Sessions,” this pair of meetings is considered one of the biggest events on the Chinese political calendar. ?
Long Read?/