September 23, 2010 (Chinavestor) China's Bosai Minerals will make a $1.2 billion investment in Ghana to help the African nation revive its bauxite, aluminium and allied industries. The Ghana News Agency is reporting that letters of intent have been signed following Ghana's President John Evans Atta Mills' recent visit to China.
September 14, 2010 (Chinavestor) China will allow the introduction of credit default swaps, the complex derivative instruments that gained notoriety during the global financial crisis, by the end of this year. China plans to take a more conservative approach to credit default swaps than has been applied in the U.S. and Europe, limiting the use of leverage on the swaps and banning the use of swaps on high-risk assets.
September 13, 2010 (Chinavestor) Xia Bin, an academic advisor to the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, said China should consider reducing its investments in publicly traded state-controlled companies. Bin voiced his stance in an op-ed piece published today by the China Daily Newspaper.
September 7, 2010 (Chinavestor) China, the world's largest consumer of coal, will get more of the energy source from Russia in exchange for a $6 billion loan, according to the China Coal Transportation and Distribution Association. The association said Russia will boost coal shipments to China to at least 15 million metric tons annually in the next five years and more than 20 million tons in the following 20 years.
China has been looking to gain access to more coal as its domestic energy needs continue to swell. Yanzhou Coal (NYSE:YZC), China's fourth-largest coal producer, said it will pay $682.1 million to buy a majority stake in Mongolia's Inner Mongolia Haosheng Coal Mining.
China depends on coal to fuel 80% of its power plants. Imports from Russia surged 15-fold to 11.78 million tons in 2009, accounting for about 10% of total overseas purchases, according to Bloomberg News. Coal purchases from neighboring Russia cost an average of $87 a ton in 2009 compared with $111 a ton paid for cargoes from Australia, Bloomberg reported. China became a net importer of coal for the first time last year.
But first a little graph, just updated with current forex data, tracing the new decline vis-à-vis the dollar and the yen. Is it really surprising to see a resurgence in the so-called appetite for risk today in the wake of better-than-expected PMI figures in China this morning?
