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Published: 14 Jun 2009 18:02:14 PST

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Published: 11 Jun 2009 06:11:41 PST

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Published: 09 Jun 2009 17:46:21 PST

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Published: 14 Jun 2009 17:26:50 PST

* Incentives aligned for investments in energy efficiency

* Efficiency the less-glamorous cousin to renewable energy

* 10 pct energy use cut could save US industry $6.6 bln/yr

CHICAGO, June 12 - The climate is ripe for U.S.
industries to cut energy consumption, with billions of dollars
of government incentives and mandates that could jump-start
efforts to revamp energy-wasting factories.

The $787 billion federal stimulus bill contains some $60
billion of grants and incentives aimed at cutting energy use.
In addition, 19 U.S. states have adopted mandates that
essentially compel electrical utilities to find and finance
energy savings for their customers.

The mandates aim to lower peak electricity loads so
utilities will not have to build expensive new power plants.
Companies also can earn carbon credits to sell later under the
anticipated federal cap-and-trade system. Congress is expected
to set an emissions baseline that precedes enactment of the
law, allowing companies to earn credits now.

But energy experts and consultants said some executives at
industries, which account for a third of U.S. energy demand,
may hold off on energy savings until the economy improves.

For now, companies may hoard cash while plants run below
capacity, analysts said.

“When cash is king and times are tight the returns have to
be there,” said John Rowe, chairman and chief executive of
utility Exelon Corp, who co-chaired a panel that recommended
changes to energy policy in a report for the Chicago Council on
Global Affairs.

“The economic difficulties we have right now only reinforce
the need for these efficiencies,” echoed co-chair John
Livingston of consultant McKinsey

Published: 14 Jun 2009 17:57:06 PST

Top 5 News From ChinaKnowledge.com
• China’s industrial output rises 8.9% in May
• CapitaLand China obtains land for RMB 78.76 mln in Hangzhou
• Wellington raises stake in Weichai Power to 5.21%
• China Railway Group to issue RMB 1 bln in financing bills
• TSMC to expand into LED, solar energy businesses

Jun. 15, 2009 (China Knowledge) - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC), the world’s largest contract manufacturer of microchips by revenue, plans to explore business opportunities in the green energy sector, including light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and solar energy.

The plan is in line with the company’s goal to diversify its revenue channels besides its foundry business.

Morris Chang, chairman and CEO of TSMC, said the green energy sector will help boost the company’s business and is estimated to bring US$2 billion in revenue by 2018. Meanwhile, revenue from its chip foundries will rise to between US$14 billion and US$15 billion.

TSMC has decided to set up a new business development unit and Rick Tsai has been appointed to head the unit.

During the first three months of this year, TSMC reported profits of NT$1.56 billion.

Copyright

The government’s decision to slash the minimum financial requirement for commercial property investment for the first time in 13 years, will help ease property developers’ capital strain and stabilize housing prices, analysts said.

The minimum amount of capital needed to jumpstart a new commercial property or an affordable housing project has been lowered from 35 percent of the total project cost to 20 percent, the State Council said in a statement on Wednesday.

The move was taken as a key adjustment in the government macroeconomic measure to buck the economic downturn and revitalize the ailing property market.

The last adjustment in this regard goes back five years, when the government raised the minimum capital requirement ratio to 35 percent to cool down the sizzling real estate market. At that time, Chinese commercial banks were not allowed to extend loans to real estate developers who have initial capital of less than 35 percent of the property project’s total investment.

Analysts said the current reduction of financial requirement indicated a lowered threshold for real estate developers to apply for bank loans.

The country’s real estate sector began to slow as the global financial crisis took a bigger than expected toll on the Chinese economy.

The momentum for real estate investment, a key driver of China’s domestic expansion contributing a quarter of the country’s total fixed assets investment (FAI), is quite weak by far, which is in stark contrast to the country’s galloping FAI growth this year.

In the first quarter, China’s real estate investment grew at a mild pace of 4.1 percent, reaching 488 billion yuan, down 28.2 percentage points from a year earlier, compared to the 28.6 percent FAI growth, or 2.36 trillion in value for the same period.

Analysts said the contrasting figures reflected sluggish private investment and the adjustment aims to boost real estate developer’s sentiment for new investments and help stabilize commercial property supply.

Liu Yuanchun, deputy head of school of economics at Renmin University of China, said real estate investments may start to pick up in the second half of this year thanks to government stimulus measures.

“The 15 percentage points reduction in financial requirement ratio is expected to release 300 billion yuan for investment in new property projects,” Liu said.

“The move will boost market vibrancy and increase property supply, and also help drag down property prices,” he added.

Home buyers, however, appear to hold a different view on the matter. According to a survey on Sina.com, the nation’s largest portal website, over 60 percent of the respondents believed the move will ease capital strain of real estate developers and propel property prices.

Nearly 50 percent of the respondents felt that the measures would help the property market recover.

(China Daily May 31, 2009)

China’s relaxation on the financial requirement ratio of commercial property investment will give an impetus to the country’s property market, Saturday’s China Daily reported.

The policy will help to ease property developers’ capital strain and stabilize housing prices, it said, citing analysts.

The State Council, the country’s cabinet, announced this week that, for the first time in 13 years, the minimum capital requirements for starting a new commercial property or an affordable housing project had been lowered from 35 percent of the total project cost to 20 percent.

The move was seen as a key adjustment in the government macroeconomic measure to fight the economic slowdown and revive the housing market, as the reduction indicated a lowered threshold for real estate developers to apply for bank loans, said analysts.

Liu Yuanchun, deputy head of school of economics at Renmin University of China, said real estate investments may start to recover in the second half of this year thanks to government’s stimulus measures.

“The 15 percentage points reduction in financial requirement ratio is expected to release 300 billion yuan (about 43.92 billion U.S.dollars) for investment in new property projects,” Liu said.

The move will boost market vibrancy and increase property supply, and also help drag down property prices, he added.

China’s real estate investment grew 4.1 percent to 488 billion yuan in the first quarter of this year. The figure was 28.2 percentage points lower from a year earlier.

The country’s fixed assets investment rose 28.6 percent, or 2.36 trillion yuan in value in the same period.

(Xinhua News Agency May 30, 2009)

The real estate market in Shanghai rallied in the first four months of this year as investment and sales rose.

A total of 41.94 billion yuan (US$6.14 billion) was invested in real estate development in the city between January and April, a year-on-year rise of 1.8 percent, the Shanghai Statistics Bureau said yesterday on its Website.

Although overall sentiment rose, there was a mixed performance by the different sectors. Investment in housing development fell 10.1 percent to 23.59 billion yuan and investment in office buildings jumped 10.2 percent to 5.58 billion yuan, the bureau said.

New property sales jumped 13.2 percent to 8.77 million square meters in Shanghai in the four months, the first year-on-year increase since December 2007. The bulk of the transactions was in new home sales, which jumped 21.4 percent from the same period a year earlier to 8.2 million square meters.

April, in particular, recorded the biggest jump when new home sales soared 77.8 percent to 2.77 million square meters while overall sales of new properties surged 65.5 percent to 2.91 million square meters across the city.

The central and local governments last year unveiled a series of boosting measures which include tax and fee cuts as well as favorable loan policies that helped trigger market demand, the bureau said. Property construction, however, slowed down during the period, the bureau pointed out.

Between January and April, a total of 7.04 million square meters of properties began construction in the city, an annual drop of 13.7 percent. In the same period, about 5.11 million square meters of properties were completed, a drop of 10.6 percent from the same period a year ago.

(Shanghai Daily May 27, 2009)

Demand for new houses in Shanghai continued to be robust last week, with the volume of area sold across the city hitting an 86-week high, but observers wonder if the growth can be sustained.

A total of 560,800 square meters of new homes, excluding those built for relocated residents, were sold in the city between May 18 and May 24, an increase of 15 percent from a week earlier, according to statistics released yesterday by E-House (China) Holdings Ltd.

“While new home transactions remained active over the past months, there has been actually growing concerns among industry players over whether the sales boom is sustainable,” said Xue Jianxiong, an E-House analyst.

Sales of new homes in Shanghai have been rising after the Spring Festival, with 787,600 square meters in February, 1.5 million square meters in March and 1.89 million square meters in April changing hands. By Sunday, May had seen sales exceeding 1.61 million square meters, according to research by Shanghai Uwin Real Estate Information Services Co.

“The volume of new home sales could possibly hit 2 million square meters this month if the strong sentiment can be maintained over the remaining days,” said Lu Qilin, a researcher at Shanghai Uwin. “And the robust buying demand would likely continue through June as the second quarter of the year has been usually the traditional peak season for home sales in Shanghai since 2005.”

Home sales usually fall in the summer due to the hot weather in July and August.

(Shanghai Daily May 26, 2009)

In April, nearly 29,000 second-hand flats changed hands in Shanghai, hitting a record high since 2006 for a single-month transaction in the city’s secondary market. But experts said the explosive trading volume resulted from several factors, and should not be seen as the signal of a broad rally.

Figures from housing consultancy E-house China show that 28,600 old flats were traded in Shanghai in April, up 11.3 percent month-on-month and up 101.4 percent over the same period in 2008. The average housing price stood at 11,674 yuan per sq m, up 4.3 percent from March, and gaining 993 yuan per sq m over 2008.

Latest statistics from the People’s Bank of China (PBOC)show that in April, personal housing loans from local banks increased 3.39 billion yuan, the highest monthly growth in 16 months. Among the increased loans, as much as 2.63 billion yuan goes towards secondary housing market, up 390 million yuan over March.

The remarkable increase in mortgage loans is a direct result of the burgeoning transactions in the housing market, said PBOC.

“The augmented trading volume came mostly from pent-up demand amid heightened fears of a global economic downturn since late last year,” said Chi Shengyu, analyst, Shanghai Existing Property Index Office (SEPIO).

According to Chi, the existing property price index is edging close to last September levels. “Apart from the increased demand, transaction of high-end properties, like Yanlord Town and Shimao Riverside Garden, which sell at 22,000 yuan per sq m and 30,000 yuan per sq m respectively, have directly pushed up the average prices,” said Chi.

Nearly 70 percent of the traded flats were bought by married youngsters, and those seeking better living conditions, said Huang Hetao, analyst, Century 21 China Shanghai. “Usually, transaction procedures in the secondary housing market take nearly one month to complete, so as early as March, buyers were coming back into the market,” Huang said.

“This could explain why we saw a 10 percent drop in trading volume in April, but the figures showed an opposite trend. The transaction decline will start to show in May,” said Huang.

Although Chi said buyers still have enough time to enter the market, he said the fundamental trend in Shanghai housing market has been improving. “Massive reconstruction and newly built infrastructure started since last October for the upcoming World Expo 2010. The construction boom will trickle down to the property market, too. The government’s tax cuts on house purchases and lowered mortgage rate for first home-buyers, will also help boost demand,” said Chi.

Statistics from China Real Estate Index System (CREIS) indicate that in April, a total of 24,065 new flats were sold, up 73.59 percent year-on-year, a record high since 2005, showing a similar trend.

To give further impetus to the realty market, the Nanhui District has been given the clearance to merge with the Pudong New Area, to create a super-size economic powerhouse. “In the short term, the property in and around Anhui will be in demand, but over the long term, housing prices will hinge on the location and the quality of property,” Chi said.

(China Daily May 15, 2009)