Business

The largest U.S. automaker General Motors Corp. reached a deal with the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) on franchise terms for the more than 3,500 dealers, reports reaching said Tuesday.

GM, which filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy for court protection on June 1, plans to keep about 3,500 dealers after it exits bankruptcy, GM and NADA said Monday night.

NADA issued a statement late Monday, saying it “supports GM’s amendments to the Participation Letter Agreement.”

On Friday, a House committee will take up the issue of GM and Chrysler’s dealership closures. In its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing Monday, the company said it would immediately try to cut 2,100 dealerships, far more than the 1,100 it had originally announced.

GM’s move to eliminate about 40 percent of its U.S. dealership network will result in 137,330 employees losing their jobs and eliminate an estimated 1.7 billion U.S. dollars in sales tax revenue for state and local governments, according to NADA.

(Xinhua News Agency June 10, 2009)

China’s crude oil output hit 93.49 million tons in the first half, a decrease of 1 percent year on year, according to the country’s economic planner on Thursday.

China’s crude oil output hit 190 mln tons in 2008 China’s refineries processed 175.13 million tons of crude oil in the first half, up 1.5 percent from the same period last year, the National Development and Reform Commission said in a report on its website.

Gas production reached 42 billion cubic meters, an increase of 7.6 percent year on year. The growth rate was 9.7 percentage points lower than the same period last year.

In the first five months, China’s petroleum and petrochemical industry reported profits of 94.7 billion yuan (US$13.9 billion), down 35.4 percent over the same period last year, according to the report.

Oil and gas exploration industry saw profits drop 75.8 percent from a year earlier to stand at 49.4 billion yuan in the first half.

(Xinhua News Agency July 23, 2009)

File photo taken on May 30, 2009 shows the exterior of Chrysler LLC in Michigan, the United States. The U.S. Supreme Court decided to temporarily delay Chrysler’s sale to Italian automker Fiat on June 8. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in an order that the sale is “stayed pending further order.”[Xinhua]

The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for Chrysler’s sale to Fiat, turning down a last-ditch bid by opponents of the deal. The court rejected a plea to block the sale of most of Chrysler’s assets to the Italian automaker. Chrysler, Fiat and the Obama administration had warned that the high court’s intervention could have scuttled the sale.

A federal appeals court in New York had earlier approved the sale, but gave opponents until Monday afternoon to try to get the Supreme Court to intervene.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ordered a temporary delay just before a 4 pm deadline on Monday.

Now the court has freed the automakers to complete their deal.

The opponents include a trio of Indiana pension plans, consumer groups and individuals with product-related lawsuits.

The court issued a brief, unsigned opinion explaining its action. To obtain a delay, or stay, someone must show that at least four of the nine justices find that the issue raised is serious enough to warrant hearing a full appeal and that a majority of the court will conclude the lower court decision was wrong.

“The applicants have not carried that burden,” the court said.

(China Daily June 10, 2009)

A domestic company’s purchase of the gas-guzzling Hummer brand is against China’s economic situation and the country’s development, said an official with the Development Research Center of the State Council, the country’s Cabinet, Tuesday.

“If the Chinese company is just trying to stir media hype, that is understandable; if it really takes this step to buy, relevant departments should be strict and cautious with the approval, or reject the application if necessary,” said vice director Lu Zhongyuan, at the China Opening-up Forum in Ningbo of eastern China’s Zhejiang Province.

Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co., which is based in southwestern Sichuan Province, said last Wednesday that it was buying Hummer and a preliminary deal had been inked.

“Buying a fuel-hungry and high-emission brand is directly against the current trend of energy saving and emission reduction,” Lu said.

“The entire society should form the concept of energy-saving and environmental protection, no matter producers, investors, or consumers,” he added.

The preliminary deal for a little-known Chinese company to buy Hummer from General Motors has triggered doubts and criticism from analysts.

Tengzhong has no experience in the passenger-vehicle market and mainly produces industrial machinery.

(Xinhua News Agency June 9, 2009)

China National Offshore Oil Corp and South Korea’s LG Chem Ltd will build a US$370-million petrochemical plant in south China.

They agreed to form an equally-owned joint venture for the plant to produce acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, or ABS, in Huizhou, Guangdong Province, LG Chem said yesterday.

ABS is a common thermoplastic used to make light, rigid and molded products such as home appliances and automotive parts.

The plant is set to produce initially an output of 150,000 tons a year in 2011 before expanding its production to 300,000 tons per annum by 2013, LG Chem said.

The Seoul-based company aims to generate sales of US$300 million by 2012 and US$600 million by 2014 from the project.

CNOOC would provide the feedstock for the plant from its refinery and naphtha cracker facilities. CNOOC’s first major refinery, a 12-million-ton-a-year plant, started in Huizhou in March.

LG Chem said it would also expand the output of an ABS plant in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, to 700,000 tons a year from 580,000 tons by 2012.

The new Huizhou plant and the Ningbo expansion would lift LG Chem’s ABS capacity to 1 million tons a year in China and 1.6 million tons overall. The firm also operates a 600,000 ton-a-year ABS plant in South Korea.

Beijing-based CNOOC is the parent of Hong Kong-listed CNOOC Ltd, the nation’s top offshore oil and gas producer.

(Shanghai Daily July 22, 2009)

The Chinese government started a pilot program on Tuesday to provide subsidies to solar-power projects to boost the solar industry as a new growth point for the country’s economy.

The Ministry of Finance said on its Web site that it will offer 50 percent of investments for solar power projects of more than 500 megawatts and the transmission and distribution network over the next two-to-three years.

The solar power projects in the remote regions will receive subsidies of 70 percent of the investment.

The total generating capacity of such pilot projects in each province should not exceed 20 megawatts, the ministry said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 22, 2009)

China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec), the nation’s largest oil refiner, said Tuesday that it processed 86.9 million tonnes of crude oil in the first half of 2009, up 1.82 percent year-on-year, despite the economic slowdown.

Sinopec reported earlier that the amount of crude oil it refined fell 3.27 percent year on year in the first quarter.

The company, also a leading oil producer, said in a preliminary report that its crude oil output rose 1.18 percent year on year to 149.12 million barrels in the first half of 2009.

Sinopec saw gasoline output rising sharply by 21.01 percent to 16.99 million tonnes in the first half from a year earlier, the company said.

China’s warming economy had contributed to the increases in its rising output, said the company.

China’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 7.9 percent year on year in the second quarter, after the world’s third largest economy tumbled to 6.1 percent in the first three months, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

However, Sinopec’s output of certain products still saw decline amid the economic slowdown.

Diesel production fell 5.4 percent from last year’s level to 32.4 million tonnes in the same period, according to the company.

Also in the first half, Sinopec’s natural gas production dropped by 1.12 percent to about 4 billion cubic meters from a year earlier.

Ethylene, synthetic resins, synthetic fibers and synthetic rubbers output declined by 10.1 percent, 4.19 percent, 7.64 percent and 11.09 percent respectively.

Domestic sales of refined oil products declined by 8.42 percent to 57.71 million tonnes.

Sinopec reported its net profit in the first quarter rose 85.1 percent year on year to 11.219 billion yuan (about US$1.64 billion).

The company predicted a more than 50 percent rise in net profit for the first half of 2009 because of lower international crude oil prices and adjustments in refined oil prices on the domestic market.

Listed in Hong Kong, New York, London and Shanghai, Sinopec is the listed subsidiary of China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group).

Share prices of the company in the mainland A-share market rose by 2.01 percent to 12.16 yuan on Tuesday, but down 0.93 percent in the Hong Kong market to 6.39 Hong Kong dollars.

(Xinhua News Agency July 21, 2009)

Shanghai Electric has started construction on the second phase of its manufacturing base for nuclear equipment in Lingang New City.

The 1-billion-yuan (US$146 million) second phase project will almost double the company’s nuclear equipment manufacturing capacity when it comes on stream in 2012, and Lingang will also become the world’s largest and most concentrated base for nuclear equipment by that time, the company said in a statement.

Shanghai Electric has spent 6 billion yuan in Lingang’s first phase and another nuclear equipment facility in Minhang District.

(Shanghai Daily July 21, 2009)

China’s power generation in the first 10-day period of July rose by 3 percent year on year, continuing the rebound in June, according to the power dispatch center of State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC).

Power consumption and generation resumed growth in June, putting an end to eight consecutive months of decline since last October.

Power consumption in June rose by 4.3 percent year on year, compared with a 2.57-percent fall in May, said China Electricity Council(CEC).

Power generation saw a year-on-year increase of 5.2 percent, compared to a 3.55-percent decline in May, according to National Bureau of Statistics.

Analysts said the June rebound was partly a result of increased industrial activity, especially in the secondary and the tertiary sectors, while high temperatures in late June also boosted consumption.

In spite of possible ensuing fluctuation, China’s power consumption is expected to rise by around 3 percent this year, said Hu Zhaoguang, deputy head of Beijing Economic and Technological Research Institute of the SGCC, citing China Securities News.

(Xinhua News Agency July 21, 2009)

Osram, one of the world’s largest lighting manufacturers, is expanding its research, development and production capacity in China.

The company, which has its headquarters in Germany, this month will open an expansion of its R