China to raise renewable power tariffs within 2 years
BEIJING | Thu Mar 31, 2011

(Reuters) - China plans to raise the price of power generated from renewable sources over the next two years in order to stimulate clean energy investment, China's electricity regulator said on Thursday.

When China's grid firms sell electricity from renewable sources they are currently allowed to charge 0.004 yuan ($0.001) per kilowatt-hour more than "conventional" thermal power.

According to the official China Power News, the China Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) will increase the "additional" levy to 0.006 yuan per kilowatt-hour either this year or next.

Huang Shaozhong of the CERC's price monitoring department said China had to address the growing "subsidy gap" in order to meet its goal to raise the share of non-fossil fuel energies to 15 percent of the total by 2020.

Chinese group makes billion-dollar bet on B.C. coal
DAVID EBNER Globe and Mail
Mar. 30, 2011

A Chinese group is making a $1-billion bet on coal in British Columbia to secure a key raw material for its steel making industry, the latest in a series of moves this year by international companies to stake a claim on Canadian resources.

A consortium of Chinese companies, including Shougang Group, one of the country’s top steel makers, plans to develop three underground coal mines in northeastern B.C., a region rich with coal that fell on hard times in the 1990s but is now booming again.

The goal is to start construction on the first mine late next year, with the companies “moving forward at a very rapid rate,” said Pat Bell, B.C.’s jobs minister.

“They have the fiscal resources already in place to do it,” said Mr. Bell, who met with executives at Shougang and other consortium partners in Beijing this week on a trade mission to the country. “It’s a very big deal.”

China renewable sector eyes govt support amid nuke safety fears
BEIJING, March 30 2011

(Reuters) - Officials from China's renewable energy sector called for more government support on Wednesday as an ongoing reactor crisis in Japan put Beijing under increasing pressure to scale back its ambitious nuclear building plans.

Speaking at an industry conference, they said the promotion of clean energy sources such as wind, solar or hydropower could help fill the supply gap that might arise were China's nuclear programme to slow as a result of safety concerns.

"We have a large scale renewable energy capacity with such rich natural resources, really good industry technologies and none of the safety risks," said Shi Dinghuan, chairman of the China Renewable Energy Institute and an adviser to China's cabinet, the State Council.

"I believe we need to put more focus on renewable energy development in our future development plans," he said.

Li Hejun, chairman of the China New Energy Chamber of Commerce, which lobbies on behalf of the renewable sector, said the disaster at Japan's Fukushima nuclear complex should lead to a reassessment of China's long-term energy strategy

China comes in first in clean-energy investment
(Agencies)
2011-03-29

China came in first and Germany second in clean-energy investment last year, while the United States fell one spot to third place, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing a Pew report.

US investment in clean energy totaled $34 billion last year, the report "Who's Winning the Clean Energy Race" by Pew Charitable Trusts, an independent, nonprofit group. That was up 51 percent from the previous year but below the $54.4 billion invested by China and the $41.2 billion invested by Germany.

China unveils targets for carbon emission cuts
(Xinhua)
2011-03-28

China aims to reduce energy use and carbon emissions per unit of industrial value-added output by 4 percent this year, relative to 2010 levels, Zhou Changyi, director of energy conservation and comprehensive utilization department with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said at a conference in Nanjing, capital of eastern Jiangsu province.

Water use per unit of industrial value-added output will be slashed by 7 percent this year, he said.

China accounts for 9.5% of world total GDP
(Xinhua)
2011-03-25

BEIJING - China's gross domestic product (GDP) accounted for 9.5 percent of the world's total in 2010, nearly double the five percent in 2005, said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Thursday.

China's GDP ranked the second in the world in 2010, up from the fifth in 2005, the NBS said in a statement on its website.

The NBS also said that China's 2010 GDP was equal to 40.2 percent of the figure of the United States, which is up from 2005's 17.9 percent.

China Gold Int'l says plans to acquire overseas
By Polly Yam
HONG KONG | Wed Mar 23, 2011

China Gold International, 42 percent owned by state-owned gold mining major China Gold Corp, aimed to acquire gold and copper-gold mines in neighboring countries of China, including Russia and Mongolia, Jerry Xie told Reuters on the sidelines of the Mines and Money Conference in Hong Kong on Wednesday.

"We are in talks with 5-6 targets," Xie said, without identifying them.

China Gold International operates a gold mine in the northeastern Chinese region of Inner Mongolia and a copper and gold mine in the western region of Tibet.

PetroChina Plans to Add Oil, Gas Assets as Japan Earthquake Boosts Demand
By Bloomberg News - Mar 17, 2011

“We will accelerate our global expansion,” PetroChina President Zhou Jiping said at a media briefing in Hong Kong yesterday, after the company posted a record quarterly profit. “The nuclear plant closure in Japan will boost its demand for oil and gas. That will have a pretty big impact as Japan is the world’s largest liquefied natural gas importer.”

Gas prices rose to a two-year high in Europe after the March 11 temblor crippled Japan’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant, triggering the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. PetroChina bought a $5.4 billion stake in Encana Corp.’s Cutbank Ridge shale-gas assets last month and is intensifying exploration to supply the world’s fastest-growing major economy.

“What is happening in Japan means China will use more fossil fuels in coming years than originally planned,” said Neil Beveridge, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in Hong Kong. “China will have to speed up the development of its gas resources at home and look for more resources overseas.”

FDI continues to be strong
By Bao Chang (China Daily)
2011-03-16

BEIJING - China's foreign direct investment (FDI) maintained its robust growth in February, driven by overseas investors' appetite for the planned industrial restructuring, which tops the agenda of the country's economic development over the next five years.

The Ministry of Commerce said on Tuesday that China's FDI increased 32.2 percent to $7.8 billion in February from a year earlier, following an increase of 23.4 percent in January.

Rare earths to be more tightly controlled
2011-03-08
By Zhang Qi and Bao Chang (China Daily)

BEIJING - China will more tightly control the exploration for rare-earth minerals and unify the distribution of precious metals in North China to regulate the previously over-exploited sector, government officials said on Monday.

The Inner Mongolia autonomous region's Bayan Obo Mine in Baotou city - the world's largest rare-earth producer and the source of 97 percent of the country's reserves - has unified the exploration of rare-earth minerals. And it will further unify the distribution of the metals, Hu Ercha, deputy head of the standing committee of the autonomous region's people's congress, said during the annual national legislative meeting on Monday.

Hu said Inner Mongolia's Baotou Steel Rare-Earth (Group) Hi-Tech Co, the country's largest light rare-earth producer, will further consolidate companies from Fujian and Jiangxi provinces, which are rich in heavy rare-earth metals.

12th Five-Year Plan to boost domestic consumption
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-03-03

It's widely expected that the plan is likely to contain measures to boost domestic consumption - a sign that China's leadership is gradually steering its economy away from export and investment-led growth.

"The 12th Five-Year Plan is probably China's most important (economic) plan in terms of its depth, complexity and the challenges (it seeks to address)," said Yolanda Fernandez Lommen, head of the China economics unit at the Manila-based Asian Development Bank.

Lommen said the Chinese government aims to restructure and rebalance the economy and reduce inequality. It's also important, she notes, to promote equal income distribution that the recent gains from the economic boom will benefit the majority of China's population.

Lommen is especially keen on the fiscal policy that will be in place from 2011 to 2015.

China to order disclosure of officials' assets
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-03-02

EIJING - China will make public government officials' assets in a gradual manner, Zhao Qizheng, spokesman for the annual session of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said here Wednesday.

The disclosure of officials' assets takes time as China has nearly 10 million civil servants and a large number of people working in government-affiliated institutions, Zhao told reporters at a press conference.

Currently, government officials are required to report not only about their income, property and investment, but also about whether their spouses or children live abroad, to the departments or institutions they work in, he said

Green standards issued for rare earths
By Li Jing and Zhang Qi (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-03-01

The standards, which come into force on Oct 1, set strict emission limits possibly affecting at least 60 percent of companies in the industry and could lead to consolidation in the sector, industry sources said.

Rare earths, composed of 17 elements, are used in a number of high-tech industries ranging from wind turbines and hybrid cars to missiles. China produces 97 percent of the global supply of the minerals, with reserves accounting for only 36 percent of the world's total.

An executive from Ganzhou Rare Earth Mineral Industry Co Ltd, who declined to be named, said at least 60 percent of producers would have difficulty meeting the standards, which means they will face increasing production costs trying to implement them.