N China hikes fertilizer tariff to stem exports
CHINA will impose a 110 percent tariff on some fertilizer exports in December in order to ensure domestic fertilizer supplies for the spring, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said Tuesday.
The new export tariff includes a 35 percent increase in the temporary tariff and 75 percent in a special tariff. The fertilizers affected by the new tariff include urea, diammonium hydrogen phosphate, ammonium dihydrogen phosphate, and mixtures of diammonium hydrogen phosphate and ammonium dihydrogen phosphate. Prior to December, China had kept in place the slack season tariff for fertilizer. Under those rules, the exporter would pay a 7 percent tariff on products priced lower than 2,300 yuan per ton, and a 100 percent tariff on products priced above 2,300 yuan per ton.
Credit supply may top govt. targets
CHINA S new loans in November may top 500 billion yuan (US$74.88 billion), sparking speculation among analysts that the whole-year credit supply may exceed the Central Government s target of 7.5 trillion yuan.
The total credit supply for 2010 is likely to reach 8 trillion, exceeding the government target by 6.7 percent, said Liu Yuanchun, deputy director of Renmin University s School of Economics. New loans stood at 588 billion yuan in October, far higher than market expectation, bringing the total credit in the first 10 months of this year to 6.88 trillion yuan 600 billion yuan lower than the government s loan target for this year.
2011 net coal imports to surge 63%
CHINA S net coal imports are expected to jump a staggering 63 percent to more than 200 million tons in 2011, according to Citigroup on Tuesday, as domestic output struggles to keep pace with blazing demand.
Booming demand from power, steel and cement producers will boost China s domestic coal demand by 7.3 percent next year from a year ago, while supplies will increase by only 4.8 percent to 3.38 billion tons, Citigroup said. Citigroup also said booming demand was expected to bring an 8 percent increase in China s coal contract prices in 2011.
China s domestic demand to be world engine
CHINA S demand from itself is likely to become the engine of world economy in 5-10 years, Raghuram Rajan, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund and now an economist with the University of Chicago, said Tuesday.
China has pledged more efforts to spur domestic demand in the wake of the global financial crisis. Statistics showed that consumption had contributed to 52.5 percent of China s gross domestic product growth in 2009.
Anti-dumping tax on chloroform continues
THE Chinese Government announced Tuesday it would continue charging anti-dumping duties on imported chloroform, a solvent used in refrigerants, purchased from the European Union, the United States and South Korea, following a one-year review.
The tax will last four years and begin Tuesday, according to a circular issued by the Ministry of Commerce. China began to levy tariffs of 32 to 96 percent on chloroform imported in the three regions Nov. 30, 2004 after finding the imports caused essential damages to domestic industry.
