In a bid to expand its storage capacity, PetroChina (PTR) has started building an oil storage project in Kunming, the capital city of southwestern Yunnan province. The project is expected to handle 1 million tons of freight annually. It will have a storage capacity of 85,000 cubic meters in the first phase and 150,000 cubic meters after the second phase.  Apart from the storage expansion project, PetroChina has also been actively investing in the refining space. In the last month, the company started operations at the $4 billion Dushanzi refining and chemical complex in the Xinjiang province. The complex consists of a refinery and an ethylene plant with capacities of 10 million tons and 1 million tons a year, respectively. The company estimates that the project may generate approximately $8.8 billion in annual revenue.  Despite the tentative global outlook, China’s fuel demand is expected to remain ...

The second business delegation from Kunming to Taiwan has signed an agreement with Kangcheng Investment of Ruentex Group on the joint development of four new Rt-Mart supermarkets in Kunming. Under the agreement, the two parties will invest CNY800 million to set up four Rt-Mart stores, which will increase the number of Rt-Mart stores in the city [...]

Most of the major food and beverage companies are now investing in China as part of their expansion strategies. PepsiCo (PEP), one of the world's largest food and beverage company, opened its first overseas "green" plant in Chongqing, China. The investment is part of the company’s plans to invest $1 billion in the country. This is the largest, and the most ambitious development effort of PEP in China to date. The Chongqing plant is the first "green" beverage plant ever built in China, and the first of its kind in the industrial center of Chongqing to comply with the rigorous sustainable engineering standards known as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) set by the Green Building Council. The plant utilizes over 35 water- and energy-saving designs and operates under the world's most advanced technology, including an environmental management system that monitors water and energy use ...

Founded in 1995, L&L International Holdings, Inc. is in the coal business. The company leverages the strong coal demand in China for success. L&L’s operation currently consists of about 1,000 employees with marketing offices at Seattle, Hong Kong and Shenzhen, operating staff in Liuzhou, a wholesale coal company in Kunming and operating mines in Yunnan province.

The company continues to acquire controlling interest in profitable coal related entities in China using its US public trading prestige and China in-country network. L&L has focused on improving mining standards and adding green elements to make the company even more competitive. Working with its global partners and arbitraging on China’s coal pricing advantage, L&L believes it is positioned to grow.

China is the world’s largest consumer of coal resources, with annual consumption accounting for almost one third of the planet’s coal use. Reserves in the country are plentiful, but China needs improving management

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Hong Kong-listed New World Department Store has announced plans to acquire department store businesses in Kunming and Ningbo for HKD3 million and CNY2 million, respectively.
New World Department Store said in a report that the company had signed an agreement with the vendor to acquire the entire rights and interests of Yunnan New World Department Store [...]

Chinese traditional medicine ancient brand Beijing Tongrentang has formally set up its first retail store in Kunming, Yunnan. According to a spokesperson for Tongrentang, the Kunming outlet is the company's pilot store in this market. Facing competition from local medical chains, Tongrentang will rely on its three advantages - brand, culture, and variety. The store is [...]

China will build a railroad from Phnom Penh to Vietnam as part of the project to create a link from Singapore to Kunming in China, said Cambodia’s foreign minister Hor Namhong on his return from regional meetings in Hanoi, Vietnam. The $500 million project is “very important for Cambodia’s economy because we can then export goods to other southeast Asian countries at low cost,” he told reporters at Phnom Penh International airport. The Asian Development Bank has also stepped in with funds to help overhaul Cambodia’s railways, a project many hope will be finished within the next few years. Cross-border trade between Cambodia and Vietnam totaled 1.7 billion dollars in the first eight months of this year, Hor Namhong said. The impoverished nation still suffers from the civil war that ended in the 1990s, and dilapidated tracks wreak havoc for trains. ...

Like a boxer who has a habit of dropping his hands, America finally caught one on the chin. The U.S. economy is flat on its back, and the financial markets are leaning down into its face yelling out a 10-count. But the U.S. economy isn’t “out for the count” yet. It will struggle back to its feet. But if the economy hopes to stay on its feet, it will have to devise new tactics. The old, sloppy tactics of credit-financed consumption won’t work anymore.

The biggest change in the American economy over the last few decades has been the transition from making things to making loans. We Americans abandoned the manufacturing industries that once powered our economy and devoted ourselves to merely financial activities. We became experts in “financial origami.” Precisely when and why this happened will be something for historians to debate. But sometime in the 1990s, the percentage of

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