ECONOMY

ECONOMY

SOE Profits

The combined profits of China’s stateowned enterprises (SOEs) and state-holdings companies rose 13.7 percent year on year to 2.04 trillion yuan ($322.01 billion) in the first 11 months of the year, said the Ministry of Finance.

Industries such as the chemical, construction materials, non-ferrous metals and coal sectors saw big increases in their profits in the first 11 months. However, others, including the transportation, power generation and steel sectors and the medical industry, all posted heavy losses.

Toy Orders Plunge

Most of the toy businesses in Shenzhen of Guangdong Province have seen 20-30 percent drops in overseas orders this year due to the economic downturns in Europe and the United States.

“Some businesses’ orders have even plunged by half,” said Liu Yanfang, Secretary General of the Shenzhen Toy Industry Association.

Many toy businesses in Shenzhen have given holidays to their employees ahead of schedule because of the sharp decline in orders, Liu said.

China exported $21 billion worth of toys in 2010, and sales in Shenzhen alone accounted for almost one fifth of this total.

“The economic downturn and the upgrading of toy safety standards in Europe and the United States, as well as the sharp rise in costs of labor and raw materials, have all led to the shrinking toy market in Shenzhen,” Liu said.

Xiaomi Gets VC

China’s smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp. has secured $90 million in venture capital fund-raising less than two months after its popular budget smartphone hit the market.

The latest round of fund-raising attracted foreign investors such as IDG Capital, Temasek Holdings and Qualcomm Inc., and brought the total investor financing to $130 million for the 18-month-old firm.

Founded by Chinese Internet guru Lei Jun, Xiaomi aims to make high-end performing smartphones with affordable prices. The company’s first phone, which cost only 1,999 yuan ($315) or less than half the price of an Apple iPhone 4, has sold more than 300,000 units since it hit the market on October 20.

Logistics Meeting

On December 19 the Ninth China Logistics Entrepreneurs Annual Meeting was held in Beijing. A total of more than 1,000 representatives from logistics enterprises, government departments, academia and media attended the meeting.

The value of China’s logistics industry rose 12.5 percent year on year to 146.3 trillion yuan ($23.04 trillion) in the first 11 months, but the pace of growth has slowed for five consecutive months, said He Liming, Chairman of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, at the meeting.

He attributed the deceleration in growth to the country’s macro-control policies on inflation and economic structural adjustments. Chinese logistics enterprises have suffered from high costs. In the first 10 months of this year, business costs grew 31.7 percent, while revenues climbed 29.4 percent year on year.

NEW DUTY-FREE STORE Travelers walk in the Meilan Airport Duty Free Store on its opening day on December 21. It’s the second store of its kind to open on Hainan island following the first one in Sanya