By Xinhuanet| 2021-09-08 21:28:56

Sales of passenger cars in China declined last month from a year ago, data from an industry association showed Wednesday.Retail sales of passenger vehicles, including sedans, sport-utility vehicles, and multipurpose vehicles, dropped 14.7 percent year on year to 1.45 million units in August, according to the China Passenger Car Association.On a monthly basis, the sales decreased by 3.3 percent, the association said.The association attributed August's decline to overseas auto chip shortage, which rattled domestic retailers.In the January-August period, passenger vehicle sales stood at about 12.9 million units, up 17.1 percent year on year.In particular, new energy vehicle sales increased by 1 million units in the first eight months, contributing 54 percent to the total growth in passenger car sales during the period.Luxury car sales fell 19 percent year on year in August to 200,000 units. The sales, however, climbed 3 percent from July and 9 percent from the same month in 2019, showing that Chinese consumers' demand for high-end autos remained robust, the association said. Enditem

By Xinhuanet| 2021-09-07 21:22:11

Chinese and European auto firms should take advantage of their complementary roles in the industry to share product platforms and technologies, so as to achieve win-win outcomes, head of the Chinese carmaker Great Wall Motor (GWM) European branch said here on Monday.Entering overseas markets, especially such a crucial one as Europe, allows Chinese auto brands to expand and grow stronger, Xianghua Qiao, chief executive of GWM Europe, told Xinhua at the ongoing International Motor Show (IAA) in Germany."Therefore, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary for us to come to the show," he said.During the auto show, Qiao's company announced the global debut of a plug-in hybrid version of its WEY Mocha, a mid-size utility vehicle.Boasting intelligent driving and a pure electric range of over 150 km, the car is expected to be available for pre-order by the end of 2021, with the first deliveries in the first half of next year.This year's IAA, themed "What will move us next," focuses on transforming the auto industry toward climate-neutral mobility. Enditem

By Xinhuanet| 2021-09-06 21:25:07

A walkie-talkie has to pass repetitive drop tests and button-pressing trials to meet factory inspection standards.In Hytera, a leading walkie-talkie manufacturing company based in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, most tests used to be conducted manually by quality inspectors."Workers pressing the on/off buttons tens of thousands of times a day were more prone to develop negative emotions. The testing accuracy was also hard to guarantee," Sun Meng, senior vice president of the company, recalled.In 2011, the company started upgrading its production line and introduced robots for intelligent manufacturing. Now, sorting, labeling and coding of raw materials, assembling of parts, handling of products and quality tests are being done by robots.With more than 20 intelligent production lines, the company's production automation rate has crossed 70 percent, said Sun."The yield rate and the production efficiency have greatly improved," he said, adding that the number of factory workers has decreased from more than 3,000 to about 1,000.The transformation of Hytera represents smart transition in the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong, with a cluster of manufacturing companies. For the province, home to some 3 million industrial companies, the automation and digitalization of the manufacturing sector has become a must-take course for high-quality development.Bi Yalei, secretary-general of Shenzhen Robotics Association (SRA), said with improved domestic industrial robot technology and reduced prices, more enterprises have started to adopt cost-effective China-made robots for automation transformation, especially the small and medium-sized manufacturing companies that are more cost sensitive.Figures show that the output of industrial robots in Shenzhen witnessed a 75.5 percent year-on-year growth in the first seven months of this year, while the growth rate in the city of Dongguan was 123.3 percent year on year from January to June. A report released by the SRA said the output value of industrial robots in Shenzhen reached 90.4 billion yuan (about 14 billion U.S. dollars) in 2020, up 9.98 percent from 2019. The growth was 7.65 percentage points higher than that of the previous year.According to the provincial department of industry and information technology, more than 15,000 industrial enterprises are engaged in digital transformation using industrial internet technology, and over 500,000 companies have adopted cloud technology.Introducing artificial intelligence technology, TCL China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd., a producer of semiconductor displays, has also replaced quality inspectors with robots, cutting the labor force of the sector by half and increasing efficiency nearly 10 times.The company is trying to collect and analyze data of the entire production process, including the temperature and humidity, hoping to further improve the yield rate."We have to maximize production efficiency through high-level intelligence to further enhance the competitiveness of Made-in-China products," said Ding Liu'an, an employee with the digitalization office of the company. Enditem

By Xinhuanet| 2021-09-03 21:25:25

The State Council has issued a guideline on promoting reform and innovation measures to facilitate trade and investment in the country's free trade zones (FTZs).China will open up wider to the investments made by Hong Kong and Macao investors, innovate the development of import trade, unleash the potential of new trade models, facilitate the import of medicine products, and boost the construction of opening-up channels, according to the guideline posted on the website of the State Council on Friday.The country will also speed up the development of multimodal transportation, further enrich the varieties of commodity futures, introduce overseas investors to trade in futures, improve regulatory policies on bonded futures settlements and innovate the management of bank accounts, the document said. Enditem

By Xinhuanet| 2021-09-02 22:21:08

China is looking to spur high-quality development of the new land-sea corridor in its western region over the next five years in a bid to further boost socioeconomic development in western China, according to the country's top economic regulator.The National Development and Reform Commission on Thursday unveiled a new plan to promote the high-quality development of the new western land-sea corridor during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25).The plan aims to build an economical, efficient, convenient, green and safe land-sea corridor for the western region by 2025. By then, the operation of the three major routes connecting Chengdu, Sichuan province, Chongqing and Beibu Gulf port in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region will become more efficient with better transportation capacity and logistics services, playing a key role in driving the economic and industrial development along the routes.The new land-sea corridor will extend primarily from Chengdu and Chongqing to Beibu Gulf Port and Yangpu Port in Hainan province. It will also better connect China's inland northwestern region to major ports in the south.Under the plan, the combined sea-rail transportation along the new land-sea corridor in western China is set to complete 500,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) by 2025. And container throughput at Beibu Gulf Port and Yangpu Port is set to respectively reach 10 million and 5 million TEUs by 2025.By then, a large and unified regional market will be built in the new land-sea corridor in western China, with improved customs clearance and logistics services.

By Xinhuanet| 2021-09-01 21:54:25

Hongqi, an automobile brand under China's leading automaker FAW Group Co. Ltd., posted a rise of 66 percent in sales between January and August this year.A total of 180,600 Hongqi-branded vehicles were sold during the period, said FAW Group, adding it plans to double its 2020 sales of Hongqi vehicles to 400,000 units this year.Meanwhile, Hongqi has sped up the development of new energy vehicles (NEVs). A factory focusing on electric cars with an investment of 8 billion yuan (about 1.24 billion U.S. dollars) is scheduled to start production by the end of October this year.Hongqi, meaning "red flag," is China's iconic sedan brand. Established in 1958, the brand has been used in parades for national celebrations.Founded in 1953 in the northeastern city of Changchun, the capital of Jilin Province, FAW Group is regarded as the cradle of China's auto industry. Enditem

By Xinhuanet| 2021-08-31 21:17:15

 The purchasing managers' index (PMI) for China's manufacturing sector came in at 50.1 in August, but still in the expansion zone, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Tuesday.A reading above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below reflects contraction.The PMI reading edged down from 50.4 in July, due to factors such as domestic COVID-19 cases and the flood situation in recent days, Zhao Qinghe, a senior NBS statistician said Tuesday.The sub-index for production stood at 50.9 in August, down 0.1 percentage points from a month earlier, indicating the stable expansion of production in the manufacturing sector.During the period, market demand has weakened with the sub-index for new orders down 1.3 percentage points from the previous month to 49.6, according to the data.Tuesday's data also showed that the PMI for China's non-manufacturing sector came in at 47.5 in August, down from 53.3 in July. Enditem　　

By Xinhuanet| 2021-08-28 22:14:13

 China's major industrial companies saw a steady increase in profits in the first seven months of this year amid a stable recovery in market demand and improving business performance, official data showed Friday.Industrial firms with an annual business turnover of at least 20 million yuan (about 3.08 million U.S. dollars) raked in combined profits of 4.92 trillion yuan during the period, up 57.3 percent year on year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.Compared with the 2019 level, profits of major industrial firms rose by 44.6 percent in the Jan.-July period. The expansion put the average Jan.-July growth for 2020 and 2021 at 20.2 percent, NBS data showed.In July alone, major industrial firms made 703.67 billion yuan in total profits, up 16.4 percent year on year.While the business performance of industrial firms improved, uneven recovery remained, with profits of private companies growing relatively slower.State-controlled industrial firms saw their profits jump 102 percent year on year in the first seven months, while private firms saw profits rise 40.2 percent year on year, the data showed.Of all 41 industrial sectors, 25 saw year-on-year profit growth in July and 31 saw profits increase from the 2019 level, said senior NBS statistician Zhu Hong.Upstream mining and raw material manufacturing companies saw their profits rise by 203 percent and 50.9 percent year on year, respectively, in July.The high-tech manufacturing sector saw rapid profit growth, while producers of consumer goods saw steady profit recovery in July, Zhu noted.Boosted by an expansion in COVID-19 vaccine and epidemic prevention products, the profits of the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector surged 110 percent year on year in July, accelerating from the pace in June.The continued recovery in the industrial sector was in line with China's overall economic recovery. In the first seven months, China's industrial output gained 14.4 percent year on year.Noting that industrial firms still face challenges, such as high costs rising from commodity price hikes, Zhu said the country should make sustained efforts to keep market prices stable and tackle the difficulties of companies. Enditem

By Xinhuanet| 2021-08-26 22:42:06

The market penetration rate of new energy vehicles (NEVs) in China was 5.4 percent in 2020, indicating strong growth momentum in the sector, according to an annual report released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Thursday.NEV sales in China increased 10.9 percent year on year to 1.37 million units in 2020, amid government efforts to encourage their use and ease pressure on the environment.China's NEV sales have exceeded 1 million units for three consecutive years, ranking first globally for six consecutive years, the report said.There were 4.92 million NEVs in China at the end of 2020, accounting for 1.75 percent of the country's automobiles, it said.The report also pointed to weaknesses in the sector, as pure electric vehicles continue to have problems such as reduced driving ranges in low-temperature environments.Earlier data shows China's NEV sales hit a historic high of nearly 1.48 million units in the first seven months of this year, surpassing total NEV sales in 2020.The data accounted for 10 percent of new car sales during the period, up 6.1 percentage points from the share in the same period last year.China aims to raise the proportion of new NEVs in its sales of new vehicles to 20 percent by 2025, according to a development plan for China's NEV industry released last year. Enditem

By Xinhuanet| 2021-08-25 22:55:02

The cargo throughput of Tianjin Port in north China's Tianjin Municipality exceeded 300 million tonnes this year on Tuesday, the best record in history, according to Tianjin Port (Group) Co., Ltd.Meanwhile, the container throughput of Tianjin Port totaled 13.48 million TEUs on Tuesday, up by 15.8 percent year on year.Tianjin port on the coast of the Bohai Sea is a pivotal shipping outlet for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, linked with more than 800 ports in over 200 countries and regions around the world.Despite the impact of COVID-19, Tianjin Port handled 18.35 million TEUs in 2020, up by 6.1 percent from the previous year, ranking among the top 10 in the world. Enditem