Natural gas consumption surges in China -- China's natural gas consumption has surged in the first 11 months of 2017 due to strong demand from industry and winter heating, official data showed on December 18. The country saw a 18.9-percent year-on-year rise in natural gas consumption, which totaled 209.7 billion cubic meters in the January-November period, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
Chinese insurers' premium income up 20 pct in Jan.-Oct. -- Premiums received by Chinese insurers continued to maintain double-digit growth, rising 19.9 percent year on year in the first 10 months of 2017, official data showed on December 18. Premiums reached 3.2 trillion yuan (about 484 billion U.S. dollars) in January-October, exceeding the total for last year, according to the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC). Property insurance business premium income rose 13.4 percent year on year to 796.1 billion yuan, the CIRC said.
China's electricity use growth continues to slow -- China's electricity consumption growth continued to slow in November, official data showed on December 18. Power use rose 4.6 percent year on year, compared with 5 percent in October and 6.9 percent in November last year, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). For the January-November period, electricity use increased 6.5 percent year on year, a rise of 1.5 percentage points from the same period of last year.
China's steel export price hits near four-year high -- Improved product quality and structure brought China's steel export price to 798.8 U.S. dollars per tonne in October, marking the highest level since February 2014, according to the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA). In the first 10 months of this year, the average export price of steel products was 700.8 U.S. dollars per tonne, 211 U.S. dollars or 43.1 percent higher than the same period last year. Despite a 30.4-percent year-on-year drop in steel exports to 64.49 million tonnes in the ten-month period, revenues from the exports only shrank 0.3 percent to nearly 45.2 billion U.S. dollars.
Chinese banks back to net forex sales in November -- Chinese commercial banks recorded net foreign exchange sales in November, after two months of net forex settlement surplus, the country's forex regulator said on December 18. Commercial banks bought 147.4 billion U.S. dollars worth of foreign currencies and sold 154.9 billion dollars last month, resulting in net sales of 7.5 billion dollars, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE). In the first eleven months, banks bought 1.47 trillion dollars of foreign currencies and sold 1.59 trillion dollars, SAFE said in a statement.
China's centrally administered state firms report strong profit growth -- China's centrally administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) reported double-digit growth in business revenue and profit in the first 11 months, as the government moves steadily to reform the sector, according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) on December 15. During January-November period, the centrally administered SOEs made a total of 1.33 trillion yuan (about 201.2 billion U.S. dollars) in profit, up 17.2 percent year on year, marking the fastest growth in nearly five years, SASAC said at a press conference.
China's Jan.-Nov. outbound investment falls 33.5 pct -- China's non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) from January to November fell 33.5 percent year on year as authorities curbed irrational investment overseas, data showed on December 14. Chinese investors spent a total of 107.55 billion U.S. dollars on 5,796 enterprises from 174 countries and regions during the period, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said in a statement. The decline narrowed from the 40.9-percent drop for the first 10 months this year.
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