Coal miners increase production

DOMESTIC coal miners increased output by 13 percent in the first two months of the year to ease an electricity shortage after the heaviest snowstorms in five decades hampered transportation of the fuel to power plants.

Coal production rose to 360 million metric tons during January and February, according to a statement from the China National Bureau of Statistics on Thursday. Coal miners continued production during the Lunar New Year holiday in February as requested by the government, after the country was hit by the heaviest snowstorms since 1954.

CIMC to buy Yantai ship stake

CHINA International Marine Containers Co. (CIMC), the world’s largest maker of freight containers, agreed to pay about US$565 million for a 29.9 percent stake in shipbuilder Yantai Raffles Shipyard Ltd.

CIMC agreed to buy the stake through its Sharp Vision Holdings Ltd. unit, according to a statement from the Shenzhen-based company Thursday. CIMC is making the investment to diversify its business as rising steel prices increases production costs. Yantai Raffles makes offshore rigs and vessels for oil production and storage, as well as luxury yachts, according to its Web site.

Barclays eyes stakes in Chinese banks

BRITISH bank Barclays Plc. is aiming to buy into China’s retail and commercial lenders, the China Daily quoted the bank’s president Robert Diamond as saying Thursday.

Until now, the British bank’s focus in China has been on wholesale and investment banking through its subsidiaries, Barclays Capital and Barclays Global Investors. “We would like to be an active investor rather than a minor stakeholder,” Diamond told the paper. “So, we are still looking for more appropriate opportunities in China’s retail and commercial banking sector.”

Profit of securities firms hits US$26.93b

THE country’s 106 securities firms had a combined profit of 191.1 billion yuan (US$26.93 billion) and total assets of 1.73 trillion yuan in 2007, Huang Xiangping, chairman of the Securities Association of China, said.

Huang didn’t say in a statement posted on the industry body’s Web site Wednesday whether the profit was before or after tax or provide comparison figures for 2006.