China’s shipbuilding sector now leads the world by an overwhelming margin, with the country’s shipyards accounting for 81.8 per cent of global new ship orders in the first nine months of the year, according to official data. Demand was also expected to stay resilient, with elevated crude oil prices helping to support orders for new vessels, analysts said. Total outstanding orders at Chinese shipyards reached 399.13 million deadweight tonnes (dwt) at the end of September, up 64.8 per cent year on...

China has unveiled a revised rule for regulating outbound investment, requiring investors to report major adverse developments more diligently, including foreign demands to hand over technology or dispose of stakes. The new rule, announced by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) on Thursday, aimed to better prevent and mitigate rising overseas risks and protect Chinese interests, according to the economic planner. “In recent years, a small number of countries and regions have...

Chinese households are increasingly shifting assets from real estate and bank deposits into more lucrative investments at home and abroad, despite growing oversight, Moody’s Ratings said. A multi-year downturn in the Chinese property market and low interest rates are fuelling the demand for alternative investments, the ratings agency said in a report published this week. Chinese investors are looking for investments that “offer higher returns than deposits while maintaining relatively low risk,”...

Plenary sessions of the Central Committee, the upper echelon of China’s ruling Communist Party, are major events on the country’s political calendar. This month’s edition, the fifth plenum, is attracting even more attention as the world’s second-largest economy takes on a more prominent role in global affairs. In the second part of this series, Emma Ma speaks to businesspeople as they adapt to stepped up regulatory enforcement and deal with other economic issues the government has pledged to...

The European Union’s perception that China is yielding to its pressure tactics on trade is a “serious misjudgment”, as Beijing proved during last year’s tariff war with the United States that it will not back down from a confrontation, a former Chinese diplomat has warned. Beijing’s willingness to compromise during trade talks with the EU earlier this month – where the two sides agreed a quota on Chinese hybrid car exports to Europe – has been taken by some in Brussels as a sign that their...

China’s lithium-ion battery exports to the EU surged in the first three quarters of this year, as Chinese carmakers rush to build factories in Europe amid a tightening of import restrictions on electric vehicles (EVs). Power inverter exports to the bloc’s members also grew strongly despite EU efforts to exclude Chinese products from publicly funded energy projects. Shipments of Chinese lithium-ion batteries to the EU were worth US$31.2 billion in the first nine months of the year, up 46 per cent...