From WSJ: EU votes to reduce use of Biofuels

   According to an article published today at the Wall Street Journal:

"The most commonly used biofuels in the European Union are poised to play a reduced role in the bloc's fight against climate change, after lawmakers Thursday voted to limit their use in the transportation sector.

The European Parliament's environment committee voted in favor of limiting the share of food-based biofuel used in cars and trucks to 5.5% of total consumption. It said the change would address concerns that biofuels of this kind are raising food prices and may not be as environmentally beneficial as originally hoped.

However, it means that to meet its 2020 mandate that 10% of Europe's transport energy comes from renewable sources, the bloc will be relying on a much-faster expansion of electric cars and commercially unproven biofuels made from nonfood crops.

The biofuels legislation now goes to the European Parliament for a vote in September. If approved, it will then be negotiated with the European Council—composed of leaders from EU countries—before it is formally adopted.

The proposed change to biofuels legislation comes as the value of turning food crops like rapeseed, palm oil and sugar cane into transport fuel has become increasingly controversial.

Biofuels were lauded a decade ago as a way of emitting far-less carbon from cars and trucks than fossil fuels. But European Commission studies taking into account how land is used to grow the crops have concluded that there may be little or no benefit.

For instance, large amounts of carbon can be released if native forests have to be cleared to make way for biofuel crops.

Production of biofuels, notably corn ethanol in the U.S., has also been linked to higher food prices, as they reduce the amount of land available for other food crops".

FROM WSJ: China's lower Growth ripples Globally

 According to an article published in the Wall Street Journal today,China's GDP slower growth ripples globally.With winners and loosers."The ones that benefited the most from China's rise are now being hurt. Others, aiming at China's 1.3 billion consumers, are faring better.
 Growth in China, the world's second-biggest economy after the U.S., has been slowing since 2007's peak, but that slowdown has accelerated recently.

China's second-quarter gross domestic product released early Monday showed the economy expanded 7.5% from the year earlier, slower than the 7.7% growth in the first quarter.

China is trying to pull off a tricky rebalancing. It hopes to reshape its economy to be less reliant on construction and heavy industry, and more reliant on consumer spending. This is sparking optimism among industries such as car makers and food producers.

To boost domestic consumption, the government has raised minimum wages to put more money in people's pockets and loosened controls on interest rates to give household savers better returns. It has tilted tax and land incentives toward industries that cater to consumption, such as food and autos, and away from heavy industries suffering from overcapacity, such as steel making and ship building.

China's economic growth is still strong, compared with much of the world. But recent single-digit expansion rates are a notable comedown from a 14.2% peak in 2007.The deceleration is particularly hard on commodities producers—the biggest beneficiaries of China's boom.

China is set to contribute 13% of global economic activity this year, compared with 5% in 2006. So even at a slower growth, China's effect world-wide is significant.

A more serious decline in China's growth rate would reverberate around the world". 

China's National Bureau of Statistics Press Release

China's Economy in the First Half of 2013: Stable and Moderate Growth

Excerpts

"In the first half of 2013, faced with the complicated and volatile economic environment at home and abroad, the Central Party Committee and the State Council have committed to the general tone of making progress while ensuring the stability, centered on improving the quality and efficiency of economic growth, continued to carry out the proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy, created conditions for economic restructuring through reforms and restructuring in turn unleashed potential for economic growth. As a result, the overall national economy realized steady development and grew at a moderate pace.

According to the preliminary estimation, the gross domestic product (GDP) of China in the first half of this year was 24,800.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.6 percent calculated at comparable prices. Specifically, the growth of the first quarter was 7.7 percent, and 7.5 percent for the second quarter. The value added of the primary industry was 1,862.2 billion yuan, up by 3.0 percent; that of the secondary industry was 11,703.7 billion yuan, up by 7.6 percent; and that of the tertiary industry was 11,235.0 billion yuan, up by 8.3 percent. The gross domestic product of the second quarter of 2013 went up by 1.7 percent on a quarterly basis".

2. Industrial Production Grew Steadily with Enterprises Profits Continued to Increase.

"In the first half, the total value added (calculated at comparable price) of the industrial enterprises above designated size was up by 9.3 percent year-on-year, a decrease of 0.2 percentage point than that in the first quarter. An analysis on different types of enterprises showed that the value added growth of the state-owned and state holding enterprises went up by 5.2 percent; collective enterprises 5.0 percent; share-holding enterprises 10.9 percent; and 7.4 percent growth for enterprises funded by foreign investors or investors from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan provinces. The year-on-year growth of heavy industry was 9.6 percent, and 8.4 percent for the light industry".

3. Investment in Fixed Assets Enjoyed Relatively Fast Growth while That in the Tertiary Industry Grew Faster Compared with the Whole.

"In the first half, the investment in fixed assets (excluding rural households) was 18,131.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 20.1 percent (a real growth of 20.1 percent after deducting price factors), which was 0.8 percentage point lower than that in the first quarter, or 0.3 percentage point lower than that in the same period of 2012. Of this total, that in the state-owned and state holding enterprises reached 5,734.2 billion yuan, an increase of 17.5 percent; private investment reached 11,558.4 billion yuan, up by 23.4 percent.

The investment in the primary industry reached 388.4 billion yuan, up by 33.5 percent year-on-year; that in the secondary industry was 7,805.2 billion yuan, up by 15.6 percent; and that in the tertiary industry was 9,938.2 billion yuan, up by 23.5 percent. Of the investment in the secondary industry, that in industry reached 7,657.2 billion yuan, up by 16.2 percent.

4. Retail Sales Kept Steady Growth 

"In the first half, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 11,076.4 billion yuan, an increase of 12.7 percent (a real growth of 11.4 percent after deducting price factors), or 0.3 percentage point higher than that in the first quarter and 1.7 percentage points lower than that same period of last year. Specifically, the retail sales of the enterprises (units) above designated size stood at 5,525.1 billion yuan, up by 10.5 percent. Analyzed by different areas, the retail sales in urban areas reached 9,578.9 billion yuan, up by 12.5 percent, and that in rural areas stood at 1,497.5 billion yuan, up by 14.3 percent". 

China's fixed asset-investment H1 growth 20.1%

China's urban fixed-asset investment grew 20.1 percent year on year to 18.13 trillion yuan (2.94 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first half of 2013, down 0.8 percentage point over the first quarter of the year, the National Bureau of Statistics announced on Monday.

China's GDP Q2 growth 7.5%

China's gross domestic product growth slowed to 7.5 percent in the second quarter, down from 7.7 percent in the first quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics announced on Monday.

The country's economic growth eased to 7.8 percent last year, the slowest annual growth since 1999.

China's Industrial Power Challenge

Since it opened in 2006, Rongsheng shipyard on China's eastern coast has always been a symbol of the country's economy.

First, as a monument to China's rising industrial power fuelled by a huge investment boom - a glut of lending and spending on an ever-increasing scale poured into buildings, bridges, homes and industry.

Rongsheng was part of that boom. It is one of China's biggest shipyards, opened in 2006, and its huge gantries and cranes are capable of building some of the world's biggest ships.

A decade ago, from almost nothing, China declared that it wanted to be the biggest shipbuilding nation in the world by 2015.

But today Rongsheng is a symbol in another, much less welcome sense.

Much of the yard is idle and 20,000 workers have been laid off over the past two years.

There is simply not enough global demand for new ships and, as in other industries in which China has over-invested, there is huge overcapacity, a total of 1,647 shipyards.

Indeed, Rongsheng, which is not a state-owned company but is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, has appealed for government help to save it, on top of the many millions of US dollars of public funds it has already received.

An economy based on ever-increasing investment is simply unsustainable, as China's shipbuilding industry starkly illustrates, so the new government has set itself the priority of rebalancing the growth model.

China's Nuclear Power: Although 30 nuclear power-generating plants are under construction. A planned nuclear fuel processing has been cancelled.

Although  according to a government white paper on energy released in October 2012, China has 15 nuclear power-generating units in operation with a total installed capacity of 12.54 gigawatts (GW), as well as 30 units currently under construction that will add another 32.81 GW.

China is working on forming a complete industrial nuclear power system. It has the greatest nuclear power capacity under construction of any country in the world.

A planned nuclear fuel processing project in south China's Guangdong Province has been canceled following local residents' opposition, local authorities said Saturday.

The planned Longwan Industrial Park project, located in Zhishan Township in the city of Heshan, has been canceled, according to the municipal government of Jiangmen, which administers Heshan, and sources from the China National Nuclear Corporation, builder of the project.

Many local residents expressed opposition to the project after it was made public by the Heshan government on July 4, said Wu Yuxiong, mayor of Heshan.

Most of China's nuclear fuel processing plants are currently based in west China, while China's nuclear power plants are mainly based in the eastern coastal region. The cost and inefficiency of long-distance transportation of the fuel prompted the Longwan Industrial Park project, industry insiders said.

There is a relatively greater number of nuclear power plants near Heshan, which therefore has more demand for nuclear fuel. The geological conditions in Heshan are also stable, said Chi Xuefeng, a nuclear expert.

The nuclear fuel will not produce much radiation and the manufacturing process will not create pollution, said Zhao Yamin, a researcher with the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

China is working on forming a complete industrial nuclear power system. It has the greatest nuclear power capacity under construction of any country in the world.

According to a government white paper on energy released in October 2012, China has 15 nuclear power-generating units in operation with a total installed capacity of 12.54 gigawatts (GW), as well as 30 units currently under construction that will add another 32.81 GW.

Chinese Tourism

About 45.64 million residents of the Chinese mainland traveled out of the region in the first half of this year, a year-on-year increase of 18.36 percent, said the Ministry of Public Security on Friday.

The most popular foreign destination was Thailand, and the Republic of Korea followed, according to a ministry statement.

They also traveled a lot to Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, the statement said.

Meanwhile, it added, the number of foreigners entering the Chinese mainland dropped by 5.15 percent to 12.77 million. The Republic of Korea, Japan and the United States were the top three sources of incoming visitors.

Foreign travelers mainly entered the mainland through Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou airports

China's State Council has allowed Shanghai to have a Free Trasde Zone

Creating China's first free trade zone in Pudong New Area will top the city government's work agenda for the rest of the year, Shanghai Party Secretary Han Zheng said yesterday.

The central government has allowed Shanghai to run this pilot program, making the city a pioneer in expanding the country's efforts on reform," Han said.

"Shanghai should continue to be a role model in accelerating reforms, and this program will be among the most important missions for the city in the second half of this year."

Green light

The State Council, China's cabinet, gave the green light on Shanghai's application to run a trial of China's first international free trade zone last month.

This is the latest step in a national strategy to open markets wider and build Shanghai into an international trade and finance hub.

In a free trade zone, goods can be imported, manufactured and re-exported without the intervention of customs.

Mayor Yang Xiong said at the meeting that the free trade zone should be built on intentional standards and become a testing ground for China's reform and opening-up efforts.

"We will focus on exploring mechanism innovations, not on giving preferential policies," said Yang.

"The top priority right now is to design a set of laws and rules to regulate the zone when it starts to operate."

Shanghai already has three areas designated as bonded trade or port zones. But the new area - formed from the existing three zones - is expected to be more far-reaching, with trials on free currency exchange, management innovation, trade-related financial services and other measures

Source: Xinhua

China's electricity consumption rose 6.3% year on year

 China's electricity consumption, a barometer of economic activity, rose 6.3 percent year on year to 438.4 billion kilowatt hours in June, an official statement said Sunday.

The National Energy Administration (NEA) said in a statement on its website that the growth rate was 2 percentage points higher than a year earlier and 1.3 percentage points higher than the pace of May.

In the first six months, power consumption increased 5.1 percent from the same period last year to 2.5 trillion kilowatt hours, the NEA said.

The rate was down from a 5.5-percent growth seen in 2012, showing the country's economy may be losing momentum.

Electricity used by the service sector saw a rapid growth of 9.3 percent during first half, while the industrial sector consumed 4.9 percent more than a year ago.

The agricultural sector witnessed a slight drop of 0.8 percent in its power use. Residential power use increased 3.9 percent year on year, the authority said.

China added 32.43 million kilowatts of power production capacity in the first six months, including 8.89 million kilowatts of hydropower and 15.85 million kilowatts of thermal power, the NEA added.