China reports consumer deflation for first time since 2009
- China’s official consumer price index (CPI) fell to minus 0.5 per cent in November from a year earlier – down from 0.5 per cent growth in October
- The decline was driven by improvements in pork supply, but the mild deflation has not painted a ‘picture of consumer spending exuberance’, one analyst says
You go on Taobao, everything is cheap, cheaper than a few years ago. So I buy, buy and buy.
CREG Delivers Tunnel Boring Machine to Georgia
12-15-20 China company CREG delivers TBM for Georgia. Diameter 15.08 meters. Length 182 meter. Weight 3,900 tonnes. CREG TBM is for expressway tunnel construction in Georgia.
Canada added to high-risk list
12-18-20 The Government of Hong Kong today announced it will gazette new specifications to impose conditions on travellers who visited Canada within 14 days before arriving in Hong Kong to combat COVID-19 more effectively.
Travellers who have stayed in Canada 14 days before arriving in Hong Kong must provide documents showing they tested negative for COVID-19 and their reservation for a hotel in Hong Kong for not less than 14 nights.
China’s Central Economic Work Conference
Eight missions for 2021 from China’s Central Economic Work Conference
1, Strengthen national strategic scientific and technological strength
2, Enhance independent controllability of the industrial supply chain
3, Adhere to strategic basis of expanding domestic demand
4, Comprehensively promote reform and opening-up
5, Solve the problems of seeds and arable land
6, Strengthen anti-monopoly and prevent disorderly expansion of capital
7, Solve outstanding problems of housing in big cities
8, Work toward carbon neutrality
China’s steel scrap standards implemented
11-29-20 At a closed-door conference held in Beijing on November 29, Chinese government bodies including the Ministry of Ecology and Environment finally approved new classification standards for the country’s steel scrap sector. Though the details are yet to be released, the new standards classify categories of steel scrap and are comparable to those in use internationally, paving the way for China to re-open its ports to approved types of foreign steel scrap. Despite the size of the China’s steel scrap industry, until now the country has lacked a unified system of steel scrap classifications and those that Chinese steelmakers and scrap collectors are presently using have been described as “crude” and at odds with those of other countries.
The release of the new China steel scrap standards may mark the first step in China’s push to diversify raw materials for steel production, a move that analysts say will reduce reliance on Iron Ore imports from Australia amid fraught bilateral ties, souring prices and in align with China’s pursuit for carbon neutrality by 2060.
12-31-20 Ministry of Ecology and Environment, National Development and Reform Commission and other five departments jointly issued a “Notice on matters relating to the standardization of the import management of recycled iron and steel raw materials,” the announcement said that products that meet the national standard of “recycled iron and steel raw materials” are not solid waste and can be imported freely. The announcement aims to regulate the management of China’s imports of recycled iron and steel materials to clarify requirements and form a synergy. According to China’s import and export regulations for recycled iron and steel materials to clarify the customs commodity code, while proposing that does not meet the “recycled iron and steel materials” national standards will be prohibited from import. The announcement will be implemented from January 1, 2021. Steel scrap standards have been officially released on December 17, the standard for the integrated use of domestic and international recycled steel raw materials resources to provide standard technical support, is conducive to promoting the high-quality development of China’s steel industry.
Irradiation technology
Irradiation technology is expected to be used to kill coronavirus found in cold chain food, said China National Nuclear Corporation on Thurs. There have been multiple reports in China of imported cold-chain food packaging testing positive for COVID19.
China prepares to launch Long March-8 Y1 rocket
China’s Long March-8 Y1 rocket was vertically transported to the launching area of the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in south China’s Hainan Province on Wednesday. Next, the rocket will be filled with propellant and readied for launch in late December.