China

“Dreadful” ahead: EU businesses alert China of an impending regulatory conflict
28Sep By Online DeskNo Comments
Asia, China, Market

“Dreadful” ahead: EU businesses alert China of an impending regulatory conflict

Europe’s business leaders are warning that a raft of incoming EU legislation will put companies on a direct collision course with laws in China, which could lead to partial “decoupling” of some supply chains. One of the laws bans products made using forced labour and another requires big firms to conduct human rights and environmental audits of their overseas suppliers. Both have been adopted by the European Union but will take effect in 2027 after a three-year grace period. Businesses will be required to prove their suppliers are in line with EU environmental and social standards, and also that there is no forced labour in their supply chains. Companies fear the new rules will put them in the cross hairs of Chinese authorities. The EU Chamber of Commerce in China ...
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Top Cities in China Plan to Remove All Homebuyer Restrictions
28Sep By Online DeskNo Comments
China

Top Cities in China Plan to Remove All Homebuyer Restrictions

Officials in Shanghai and Shenzhen – two of China’s biggest cities – are getting ready to lift restrictions on home buying, sources have revealed. Potential buyers will no longer have to be vetted for eligibility and people from other places in China will be allowed to buy homes in the popular mega cities, four sources have told Reuters. Previously, officials tightly controlled access to these tier-1 cities, because of concern about excess speculation. But that restriction has been ditched because of the need to ease the country’s prolonged Shanghai, China’s commercial and financial hub, and Shenzhen, the country’s answer to Silicon Valley, will also seek to scrap limits on the number of homes that people can buy, three of the sources said. Both cities are expected to announce...
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Copper Breaks $10,000 Due to US Economic Strength and China Stimulus
28Sep By Online DeskNo Comments
Asia, China, Market

Copper Breaks $10,000 Due to US Economic Strength and China Stimulus

(Bloomberg) -- Copper rallied back above $10,000 a ton and iron ore broke through $100 after China’s top leaders stepped up efforts to revive economic growth for the world’s largest metals consumer. The price of copper rose more than 2% to a three-month high on the London Metal Exchange after the official Xinhua News Agency reported that China’s Politburo will push for the real estate market “to stop declining” and called for “forceful” rate cuts. That followed a Bloomberg report that China is considering a $142 billion capital injection into the biggest state banks. “They’re trying to restore confidence in their economy,” said Michael Cuoco, head of metals at StoneX Financial Inc. “They’re sending a message to their populace that they understand that there are problems and hardship...
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China questions Calvin Klein on cotton from Xinjiang
27Sep By Online DeskNo Comments
China, Market

China questions Calvin Klein on cotton from Xinjiang

China has announced it is investigating the company that owns US fashion brands Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein for suspected "discriminatory measures" against Xinjiang cotton companies. The move marks a new effort by Beijing to fight back against allegations from western officials and human rights activists that cotton and other goods in the region have been produced using forced labour from the Uyghur ethnic group. The US banned imports from the area in 2021, citing those concerns. China's Ministry of Commerce accused the firm of "boycotting Xinjiang cotton and other products without any factual basis". PVH, which owns the two brands and has a significant presence in China as well as the US, said it was in contact with Chinese authorities. It has 30 days to respond to off...
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China acknowledges new economic “problems” and promises to address the real estate industry.
27Sep By Online DeskNo Comments
China, Market

China acknowledges new economic “problems” and promises to address the real estate industry.

Beijing has this week unveiled a raft of measures to boost its ailing economy, which it has targeted to grow five percent this year -- an objective analysts say is optimistic given the many headwinds it faces. On Thursday, the ruling Communist Party convened a meeting of its top body, the Politburo, to "analyse and study the current economic situation". "Some new situations and problems have emerged in the current running of the economy," the Xinhua news agency reported after the meeting, which was attended by Xi. "We must view the current economic situation comprehensively, objectively and calmly, face difficulties squarely, (and) strengthen confidence," it added. Politburo members agreed on the need to "further improve the focus and effectiveness of policy measures" aimed at...
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Why China’s latest stimulus package is insufficient to address the country’s housing issue
27Sep By Online DeskNo Comments
China, Market

Why China’s latest stimulus package is insufficient to address the country’s housing issue

China's all-out stimulus package will fail to meaningfully reverse ongoing chaos in the nation's property market, JPMorgan said in new research. Though Beijing committed on Tuesday to reduce mortgage rates and downpayment rules, the bank said these efforts will not bolster housing consumption as hoped. "These measures are unlikely a game changer," strategists led by chief China economist Haibin Zhu wrote. "Hence we maintain a cautious view on near-term housing market outlook." For years, high debt and low demand have stalked China's housing sector, and both issues have proven near-impossible to shake. These conditions have led to massive developer defaults, and even notched comparisons to the 2008 financial crisis. Since Chinese real-estate accounts for as much as&nb...
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China boosts markets by promising to provide further economic help.
27Sep By Online DeskNo Comments
Asia, China, Market

China boosts markets by promising to provide further economic help.

China’s leaders have vowed to intensify fiscal support for the world’s second-largest economy, fuelling markets with hopes of more intervention just days after the central bank announced the biggest monetary stimulus since the pandemic. The politburo, led by President Xi Jinping, pledged on Thursday to “issue and use” government bonds to better implement “the driving role of government investment”, in comments that come as analysts warn that China is in danger of missing its official economic growth target this year. The politburo usually does not hold economic sessions in September, suggesting “an increased sense of urgency” about growing deflationary pressures, Morgan Stanley analysts said. But they said China’s government did not yet appear to have reached a “whatever it takes” moment ...
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Anti-China EV Laws Won’t Keep America Safe Indefinitely
26Sep By Online DeskNo Comments
Asia, China, USA, World

Anti-China EV Laws Won’t Keep America Safe Indefinitely

You may look at the auto industry's current chaos in Europe and think that those problems won't come to America. That this country is now taking aggressive steps to protect its auto market with 100% tariffs on Chinese-made EVs or a software ban that will effectively prohibit those cars from being sold here entirely. From that, you may think that it's all problem solved—the U.S. keeps new players from China out for good. But the truth is that these protectionist measures are temporary at best, and even the auto industry seems to get it. Or at least, the smart folks in the business do.  That leads off this midweek edition of Critical Materials, our morning roundup of tech and industry news. Also on tap today: Hyundai's online sales program with ...
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Through negotiations on minimum EV pricing, China and the EU want to avert a trade war.
26Sep By Online DeskNo Comments
Asia, China, Market

Through negotiations on minimum EV pricing, China and the EU want to avert a trade war.

BERLIN — Brussels and Beijing are engaged in intense 11th-hour negotiations on Chinese electric-vehicle subsidies, raising hopes in Germany that EU duties — and a wider trade war — can still be avoided, officials familiar with the talks said. The discussions are an attempt to solve an ongoing dispute over Beijing’s subsidies for Made-in-China EVs, which the EU says are artificially lowering prices and making it impossible for its own industry to compete. Under discussion is the idea of setting voluntary minimum prices that would offset the market-distorting Chinese subsidies, thereby rendering the planned EU duties moot. One official described the concept as a “surcharge“ that would balance out the Chinese state aid. A meeting between Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao an...
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Since the epidemic, China’s central bank has unveiled the most powerful stimulus.
26Sep By Online DeskNo Comments
Asia, China, Market

Since the epidemic, China’s central bank has unveiled the most powerful stimulus.

BEIJING, Sept 24 (Reuters) - China's central bank on Tuesday unveiled its biggest stimulus since the pandemic to pull the economy out of its deflationary funk and back towards the government's growth target, but analysts warned more fiscal help was vital to hit these goals. The broader-than-expected package offering more funding and interest rate cuts marks the latest attempt by policymakers to restore confidence in the world's second-largest economy after a slew of disappointing data raised concerns of a prolonged structural slowdown. But analysts questioned how productive the People's Bank of China's liquidity injections would be, given extremely weak credit demand from businesses and consumers, and noted the absence of any policies aimed at supporting real economic acti...
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