A woman buys a "golden mooncake" at the Handicraft and Art Building in Beijing on Thursday. Although the Mid-Autumn Festival isn't until the end of September, business is already brisk at the festival's gift market. Xinhua

Big role for mobile tech in healthcare sector

Widespread adoption of mobile technology in healthcare is now viewed as inevitable by 80 percent of doctors and healthcare payers, including government, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies, in China, said a report conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers and released on Monday.

PwC's report said that Chinese consumers have high expectations for mobile healthcare services as mobile cellular subscriptions in the country have reached 900 million, the largest mobile user base in the world. In addition, China is in the process of upgrading its healthcare system through policy reforms and massive government investment in access, quality, and efficiency.

"These two colliding forces will create fertile ground for growing mobile healthcare businesses that hope to target the diverse needs of the Chinese people," said James Xiao, senior manager of PwC China's pharmaceutical and life sciences department.

The report also said that the most desired mobile healthcare solutions are in the areas of integrating real-time medical information from patients into their existing medical records, allowing transparency between doctors and patients.

Trade-related forex service suspended for 1500 firms

China's currency regulator suspended more than 1,500 companies from using trade-related foreign-exchange services following record capital outflows.

The companies were found to be "shell corporates", which didn't conduct any business as of the end of August, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange said in a statement posted on its website on Monday. The authority also restricted its services, which include settlement and conversion, for about 700 companies owing to unlawful activities, it said.

"It could be part of the measures to block loopholes as capital outflows have been quite strong recently," said Zhang Zhiwei, a Hong Kong-based chief China economist at Nomura Holdings Inc on Tuesday.

The nation reported a $71.4 billion capital-account deficit for the three months through June, the biggest quarterly shortfall in data going back to 1998.

China started streamlining foreign-exchange controls for cross-border trade in goods at the start of last month to support exports, which rose in July at the slowest pace since January.

As the yuan has weakened 0.7 percent this year, China has been experiencing capital outflows of between $20 billion and $40 billion each month since late 2011, Nick Chamie, head of global currency strategy at Royal Bank of Canada in Toronto, estimated in an Aug 24 report.

China Eastern to expand on overseas travel

China Eastern Airlines Corp, the nation's second-largest carrier by passengers, will accelerate capacity growth in the second half to 10 percent as it adds new planes and boosts international services.

Expansion will focus on overseas routes after a 19 percent increase in nationwide outbound passenger numbers in the first half, Zeng Yongchao, an executive vice-president, said in an interview on Monday in Hong Kong. The Shanghai-based airline expanded passenger capacity 4.6 percent through June.

"We did pretty well in the traditional peak July and August," Zeng said. He didn't elaborate. The carrier rose as much as 2.2 percent in Hong Kong, the most in three weeks.

The airline has boosted international load factors 5 percentage points this year, compared with flat figures at Air China Ltd and China Southern Airlines Co, because of a recovery in demand on Japan flights following last year's earthquake, rising international leisure travel and an upgraded long-haul fleet, according to Jefferies Group Inc.

Moutai gains on plan to raise liquor prices

Kweichow Moutai Co, China's largest maker of baijiu liquor, posted the biggest gain in almost two years in Shanghai trading after saying it plans to raise prices.

Shares of the liquor maker surged as much as 8.3 percent and closed 6.2 percent higher, the largest percentage gain since Nov 2010. The mainland's benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.75 percent.

Moutai, based in Guizhou province, plans to raise factory prices for some of its liquors by 20 percent to 30 percent, the company said after the close of markets on Monday. The liquor maker reported last month a 35 percent increase in first-half sales, trailing a target it set in May of boosting 2012 revenue by 51 percent.

"The price increase shows that the company has the drive to realize the 51 percent growth in annual sales," Ping An Securities Co analysts led by Wen Xian wrote in a note on Tuesday. They rate the shares "strong buy".

Big four banks' loan levels remain stable in August

China's "big four" State-owned banks extended almost the same amount in loans in August as they did in the previous month after local governments announced new investment plans valued at 7 trillion ($1.10 trillion), the 21st Century Business Herald reported on Tuesday.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of China, and Agricultural Bank of China lent 220 billion yuan in August.

Concerns over lending growth emerged after banks lent only 540.1 billion yuan in July against a market estimate of 700 billion yuan, the lowest level since October.

"Banks have become more prudent when extending loans, faced with pressure from deteriorating asset quality," said Guo Tianyong, banking research director at the Central University of Finance and Economics.

Global cotton glut expected to triple Chinese inventories

Cotton inventories in China, the world's biggest user, will triple over the next two years to a record as domestic demand slumps to the lowest since 2005, according to the latest estimates from the US Department of Agriculture, a year after record prices spurred farmers to expand their output.

The figures show that global harvests are expected to exceed demand for a third year, swelling stockpiles around the world by 10 percent to 74.67 million, 480-pound bales by August.

Cotton may drop 12 percent in price to 67.87 cents a pound by the end of the year, according to the average of 20 analyst and merchant estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Slowing economic growth means the surplus will widen even as China, Australia, Brazil and India produce less this season, leading to the first global output decline in three years, the US Department of Agriculture predicted.

Prices have already plunged 65 percent from last year's peak of $2.197 a pound.

Oil prices rise amid stimulus speculation

Oil prices rose on speculation that central banks will take more steps to boost growth, after manufacturing unexpectedly contracted in China.

China's Purchasing Managers Index shrank for the first time in nine months in August, a government survey showed over the weekend. China is the world's second-largest oil-consuming country after the United States.

"The disappointing data from China emphasizes that waiting for central bank action is the name of the game," said Carsten Fritsch, an analyst at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt who predicts prices will stay above $90 a barrel this month.

"Speculation of central bank intervention will keep prices supported despite bearish fundamentals of weak demand and abundant supplies."

Drugs giant plans bond sale to repay debt

Sinopharm Group Co, China's biggest drugs distributor, is planning its largest-ever bond sale to repay more-expensive loans and fund expansion in a healthcare market forecast to triple in size this decade.

The issue of as much as 8 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) of debt maturing in up to 10 years follows an 80 basis point drop in the Shanghai-based company's 2014 notes this year to 4.13 percent, according to Chinabond.

While that's less than the central bank's 6 percent benchmark rate for one-year loans, it's more than the 2.22 percent average for US pharmaceutical bonds, a Bank of America Merill Lynch index shows.

Healthcare spending in China will almost triple to $1 trillion annually by 2020, driven by an aging population and government efforts to broaden insurance coverage, according to a McKinsey & Co report released last month.

The government has pushed Sinopharm, Shanghai Pharmaceuticals Holding Co and Jointown Pharmaceutical Group to expand by buying smaller competitors, part of steps designed to reduce the price of drugs for China's 1.37 billion population.

Conference promotes Sino-Israeli ventures

The China Israel Healthcare Technologies Conference was held on Tuesday in Beijing to help Israeli healthcare companies and Chinese pharmaceutical and medical device companies learn about the market conditions of the two nations and find opportunities for joint ventures

"Israel is well-known for its innovative technologies, and China's healthcare market, with huge potential, and the strength of its companies in manufacturing and distribution is attractive to Israeli investors," said Amir Yaar, founder and chief executive of China Israel Synergy.

China Israel Synergy offers whole-process consulting services - from investment, licensing, manufacturing to distribution - to healthcare companies from both countries, and promotes bilateral cooperation in medical care, energy, new media and entertainment

China now world's top elevator provider

China has become the world's largest manufacturer and seller of elevators, with an average annual growth of 20 percent over the past 10 years, the organizers of the upcoming 2012 World Elevator Summit said on Tuesday.

By the end of 2011, China had installed more than 2 million elevators nationwide, while its elevator sales and production volume both topped 450,000 units, accounting for more than 60 percent of the global total, the summit's organizers said. China's elevator export volume exceeded 47,000 units in the same period, it said.

The huge demand has help boost the development of domestic elevator producers, which now occupy almost 40 percent of the domestic market, up from 20 percent 10 years ago, it said.

There is still a great deal of room for development, as the country's per capita ownership of in-service elevators is only one-third of the global average, it added.

The summit, which will open on Oct 25 in Beijing, will focus on trends in the elevator market and improving elevator security, according to the organizers.

Beijing to see fastest office rental growth this year

Office rents in Beijing will experience the fastest growth rate this year and for the next five years, with rent levels expected to surpass Shanghai in 2013, according to a report from international real estate consultancy company DTZ.

Due to strong demand and limited supply, Beijing's prime office rental growth was the largest in the country, with a 46.8 percent year-on-year increase at the end of the first half of this year, with rental levels edging closer to Shanghai, according to the report.

Office rents in some second-tier cities, including Shenyang and Chongqing, also saw strong growth of more than 20 percent year-on-year, thanks to new projects launched in the past six months, which drove up the overall level of rents.

"Looking ahead, we will continue to see relatively high supply in the second-tier cities while shortages will persist in Beijing for the rest of the year. Beijing will see only 988,348 sq m of new supply between now and 2014, which is equivalent to19 percent of the current total stock," the report said.

China Daily-Agencies

(China Daily 09/05/2012 page14)