China's shale gas output jumps in 2016 -- China produced more shale gas last year, as the world's biggest energy producer and consumer cleans up its coal-dominated energy mix. Its shale gas yield increased 76.3 percent to 7.9 billion cubic meters in 2016, a record high, the Ministry of Land and Resources (MLF) said on July 10 in a statement.
Chinese tourists in Cambodia surge 35.6 pct in 1st 5 months -- Cambodia attracted 441,070 Chinese holidaymakers in the first five months of 2017, up 35.6 percent over the same period last year, according to a Tourism Ministry report on July 10. China ranked the biggest source of foreign tourists to Cambodia, the report said, adding that Chinese visitors accounted for 19.3 percent of the 2.28 million foreigners visiting the Southeast Asian country during the January-May period this year.
China's online catering to continue fast growth in 2017 -- China's online catering sector is continuing to expand quickly as more than 300 million meals are expected to be ordered online this year, according a recent industry forecast. The country's take-out business will account for more than 10 percent of the catering industry's total retail revenue by 2020, said Jiang Junxian, head of the China Cuisine Association. The market size of China's take-out business exceeded 160 billion yuan (about 23.49 billion U.S. dollars) in 2016, up 33 percent year on year, Jiang said.
China's overseas acquisitions rebound strongly in recent months -- A new report by Rhodium Group found that the number of Chinese companies' overseas mergers and acquisitions (M&A) rebounded strongly in May, although the number for the first six months of 2017 fell by 20 percent compared to the same period in 2016. "In each of May and June, Chinese companies publically announced more than 20 new overseas M&A transactions with a value of 5 million U.S. dollars or more, around levels seen near the 2016 peak," said the report.
China's digital publications earn 572 billion yuan in 2016 -- The revenue of China's digital publication industry reached 572 billion yuan (84 billion U.S dollars) in 2016, according to a report by a research institute on July 11. The number was 29.9 percent up from 2015, mainly pushed by revenue from online advertisements, which raked in over 290 billion yuan last year, accounting for 50.7 percent of the total revenue. Other sources of the revenue include mobile publications and online games, as they earned more than 139 billion and 82 billion yuan respectively last year, the report said.
China's auto sales back to growth in June -- China's auto sales grew again in June after two months of decline, data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) showed on July 11. Some 2.2 million vehicles were sold last month, up 4.5 percent year on year, compared with a 0.1 percent decline in May and a 2.2 percent drop in April. Meanwhile, 2.2 million vehicles were produced in June, up 5.4 percent from the same period last year, according to the CAAM. Sales of passenger cars climbed 2.3 percent to 1.8 million vehicles last month, 2.2 percentage points slower than the overall growth.
China's central SOEs post strong profit growth -- China's centrally administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) reported combined profits of 722 billion yuan (106 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of the year, up 15.8 percent year on year, official data showed on July 11. In June alone, these SOEs' combined profits hit a record high of 160 billion yuan, according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC). The 102 SOEs held a total of 12.5 trillion yuan in revenues for the first half of the year, an increase of 16.8 percent from one year earlier.
China's ODI plunges in H1 -- China's non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) dropped 45.8 percent year on year to 48.19 billion U.S. dollars in the H1, official data showed on July 13. Chinese companies made the outbound investment in more than 3,900 overseas enterprises of 145 countries and regions from January to June, according to a Ministry of Commerce statement.
China's foreign trade gains steam in H1 -- China's foreign trade expanded at the fastest pace since the second half of 2011, buffering the economy from a slowdown amid headwinds at home and abroad. Exports in yuan-denominated terms rose 15 percent year on year in the first half of this year while imports increased 25.7 percent, customs data showed on July 13. That led to a trade surplus of 1.28 trillion yuan (188 billion U.S. dollars) in the same period, down 17.7 percent year on year, according to the General Administration of Customs.
FDI into Chinese mainland edges up in June -- Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Chinese mainland rose 2.3 percent year on year in June to 100.45 billion yuan (14.82 billion U.S. dollars), official data showed on July 13. Last month, 2,894 new foreign-funded companies were established, up 14.3 percent from a year ago, according to a statement from the Ministry of Commerce. In the first half, FDI inflow stood at 441.54 billion yuan, slightly down by 0.1 percent year on year, while the number of new foreign-funded companies rose 12.3 percent to 15,053 in the same period.
A single purchase
