China: Danone tries again

Leslie Hook

Leslie Hook joined the Financial Times in June 2010 as Beijing Correspondent covering Chinese energy and commodities. She was previously an editorial writer for The Wall Street Journal and began her journalism career at the Far Eastern Economic Review in Hong Kong.

China: Danone tries again

May 20, 2013 9:35am by Leslie Hook

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Shares in Mengniu, China’s largest milk seller by volume, soared more than nine per cent on Monday on news that Danone of France was set to invest €325m in two joint ventures with the Chinese company.

Danone will take a four per cent indirect stake in Mengniu through a joint venture with Cofco, a state-owned agricultural company that is Mengniu’s largest shareholder. Danone is also purchasing a 20 per cent stake in Mengniu’s yoghurt businesses, subject to regulatory approvals. Continue reading »

Tags: China food scares, Danone, Food&drink, Mengniu Posted in China | Permalink

Mongolia: Could things be looking up for Tavan Tolgoi?

Apr 24, 2013 2:30am by Leslie Hook

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Sometimes an abundance of riches can be a headache.

That has been the problem facing Mongolia as it sorts out what to do with a huge coal deposit in the middle of the Gobi Desert. Continue reading »

Tags: Chalco, Mongolia mining, Tavan Tolgoi Posted in Asia, Mongolia | Permalink

Suntech jumps as it awaits surgery

Apr 9, 2013 1:09pm by Leslie Hook

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The share price of Suntech, the Chinese solar giant now in bankruptcy court, jumped 15.6 per cent in New York on Monday after a Chinese media report said Warren Buffett might invest in the struggling company.

It’s the latest twist in the saga of Suntech’s spectacular demise. The company has gone from being the world’s largest solar company in 2011, to defaulting on international bonds worth $541m in March 2013, to landing in Chinese bankruptcy court late last month. Continue reading »

Tags: bankruptcy, Chinese companies listed overseas, renewable energy, Suntech Posted in Asia, China | Permalink

Apple’s China apology: the reaction

Apr 2, 2013 9:57am by Leslie Hook

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In China, saying sorry is a big deal. So it made national news on Tuesday when Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple, issued a public apology to Chinese consumers for any “concerns or misunderstandings” they might have had due to poor communication over Apple’s warranty policies.

After a coordinated attack on Apple from state media and regulators during the past two weeks, it seems the US tech company had little choice but a public show of contrition. After all, China is the world’s largest smartphone market, and accounted for 16 per cent of Apple’s sales in 2012. Continue reading »

Tags: Apple, China consumer, FBfeed Posted in Asia, China | Permalink

China: gold before swine

Mar 28, 2013 8:24am by Leslie Hook

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Should gold traders be paying attention to Chinese pork prices? It may sound outlandish, but new research has uncovered an interesting link between global gold prices and Chinese inflation (which in turn is often driven by pork prices). Continue reading »

Tags: commodities, gold, inflation Posted in Asia, China | Permalink

China’s new captain of industry

Mar 27, 2013 10:29am by Leslie Hook

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China’s state-owned enterprises this week got a new boss. Former oil chief Jiang Jiemin (pictured), who was president and later chairman of CNPC for the past seven years, will be the new head of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (or Sasac for short).

Jiang’s change of sides, from oil chief to top regulator, follows a long line of top oil bosses who have gone on to prominent political roles. With reform of state-owned enterprises being one a top task facing the new government, the chairmanship of Sasac should be an important – and very political – position. Continue reading »

Tags: China economy, China energy, CNPC, PetroChina Posted in China | Permalink

Shanghai pig pollution: more ‘pork chop soup’ to come?

Mar 14, 2013 7:29am by Leslie Hook

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Nothing spells trouble like dead pigs in a river. This week, more than 6,600 pig carcasses have been pulled from the river that runs through the heart of Shanghai, China’s financial hub, eliciting public disgust and anger.

However the dead pigs of Shanghai are hardly the worst thing to hit China’s rivers. After all, more than 39 per cent of the water in China’s main rivers is already so toxic that any human contact should be avoided, according to a 2011 government study. Shanghai’s main river, the Huangpu, is pristine by comparison – with or without a few decaying pig bodies. So perhaps it shouldn’t have been surprising that city authorities swiftly declared that the little porkers had not affected the safety of Shanghai’s tap water. Continue reading »

Tags: China pollution, environment, Shanghai, water Posted in Asia, China | Permalink

China’s carbon tax: not so quick

Mar 4, 2013 7:35am by Leslie Hook

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Recently there has been a lot of attention paid to an essay on tax reform by the head of the tax department at the Ministry of Finance in Beijing, which mentions two hot-button words: carbon, and tax.

But does this mean that China, the world’s biggest emitter of carbon, will adopt a serious carbon tax? According to Su Wei, director general of climate change at the powerful economic planning ministry, the answer is: probably not anytime soon. Continue reading »

Tags: China economy, China environment, China pollution, Pollution Posted in Asia, China | Permalink

China accelerates industry’s emission controls after winter smog

Feb 22, 2013 3:36am by Leslie Hook

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The toxic smog that has descended on much of northern China this winter has had many astonishing side effects: pollution domes being built over sports facilities, fresh air sold in cans on the streets of Beijing, and fewer fireworks to celebrate Chinese New Year.

But what does the smog mean for China’s heavy industry? Even before “airpocalypse”, Beijing had announced proposals to cap emissions from high-polluting industries under the current five-year plan. This programme got a further boost this week, when the Ministry of Environmental Protection unveiled a new accelerated timetable for the changes. Continue reading »

Tags: China environment Posted in China, Global | Permalink

New in Beijing: pollution domes

Jan 25, 2013 2:09am by Leslie Hook

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What is it like to live in a place where you can’t breathe the air? In Beijing, people are already finding out—and finding new ways to cope.

The latest trend at Beijing’s posh international schools is pollution domes—giant pressurised canopies that can cover sports fields, playgrounds or tennis courts—so that children can have recess and play sports outside without breathing the toxic air. Continue reading »

Tags: China enviroment Posted in China | Permalink

Thinking of investing in Mongolian mining? Read this first

Jan 10, 2013 3:00am by Leslie Hook

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The vast deposits of copper, coal, gold and silver under Mongolian soil could soon be governed by a radically different regulatory framework — if a new draft of the country’s Minerals Law is passed in its current form.

Tags: mining, Mongolia economy, resource nationalism Posted in Asia, Mongolia | Permalink

China: getting keener on the white stuff

Dec 11, 2012 12:20pm by Leslie Hook

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A mysterious white substance is being smuggled over the border from Vietnam to China in growing quantities.

But it is not quite as illicit as you might think. Sugar, the sweetener added to everything from mooncakes to ketchup, is increasingly in demand in China due to urbanization, changing diets and rising incomes. Continue reading »

Tags: China society, commodities, sugar Posted in Asia, China | Permalink

Chinese growth: Paulson’s 5 reforms

Dec 3, 2012 5:12pm by Leslie Hook

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Hank Paulson knows a thing or two about managing a complex economy. So what does the former Treasury Secretary, who is visiting Beijing this week, make of the current state of China’s economic growth?

Paulson, who now heads the Paulson Institute, a think thank, gave a frank assessment of the world’s second-largest economy in a recent interview in Beijing. If China’s new leadership goes too slow on reform, it could create a “risk to stability”, he said. Continue reading »

Tags: China economy Posted in Asia, China | Permalink

China’s Rongsheng: shares plunge on founder’s shock resignation

Nov 27, 2012 5:30pm by Leslie Hook

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Shares in Rongsheng Heavy Industries plunged 6.7 per cent on Tuesday as investors took stock of the shock resignation on Monday night of the Chinese shipbuilding giant’s chairman and founder Zhang Zhirong.

His departure comes at a difficult time for the group, with a separate Zhang-owned company named in an insider dealing probe in the US, ship sales plummeting, profits shrinking and the share price down 80 per cent since its 2010 listing. Continue reading »

Tags: Rongsheng, shipbuilding Posted in China | Permalink

China’s Communist party: how do you get admitted?

Nov 21, 2012 1:07pm by Leslie Hook

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If China’s 83m Communist party members formed a country, it would be the sixteenth largest in the world. So when the party’s most elite congress gathered this month, propaganda apparatchiks worked overtime to try to highlight the diversity of the assembly: the ethnic minorities (wearing traditional costumes), female party members (who composed 23 per cent of the congress delegates), and entrepreneurs, who were only welcomed into the party in recent decades.

But what exactly does it take to get admitted to the secretive Leninist organisation that runs the world’s second-biggest economy? Continue reading »

Tags: Communist party of China, politics Posted in Asia, China | Permalink

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