Solarfun Power Holdings Co., Ltd., a vertically integrated manufacturer of silicon ingots and photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules in China, announced that Jiangsu Linyang Solarfun Co., Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary, has signed a letter of intent (LOI) with the government of Hohhot City to develop two solar projects with a combined capacity of 600MW.

Vice Mayor of Hohhot City, Wu Wenyuan, stated, “Hohhot City has a number of advantages in developing PV projects, including abundant sunshine and national support. After discussing with and inspecting a number of major PV manufactures in China, we selected Solarfun as a major supplier for these projects. We are excited to partner with Solarfun.”

Peter Xie, President of Solarfun, commented, “We are pleased to have signed this strategic agreement with the government of Hohhot City. This agreement demonstrates our solid market position in China and our commitment to the development of China’s PV market.

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PetroChina OKed to Buy Osaka Refinery Stake Earlier today, PetroChina Company Ltd. (PTR), the largest integrated oil company in China, gained approval from the country’s top economic policy planner -- the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) -- to invest in Nippon Oil Corporation’s Osaka refinery. NDRC said on its website that the agency had given the green light to the Chinese state-controlled energy giant's oil trading subsidiary PetroChina International to acquire a stake in the 115,000-barrels-per-day (Bbl/d) refinery in western Japan. Nippon Oil and PetroChina’s parent China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) finalized the deal earlier in the year to convert the Japanese refiner's wholly owned Osaka refinery into a 51:49 export-oriented joint venture, mainly targeting oil demand in China. The Osaka deal – which will be PetroChina's second overseas refinery transaction – would allow the company to take charge of all crude supply ...

The base metals were mixed on Monday. Copper held in positive territory during the pre-dawn hours, then tacked on some more gains to mid-morning in New York, before easing through the rest of the day to finish at $2.3086/lb., up 3 2/3 cents from Friday.

Nickel was well up at mid-morning but sold off sharply from there, just pulling up out of the red late to close at $7.1002/lb., up a half-cent. Zinc declined in the pre-dawn hours, rose in early New York trading, but fell off after mid-morning to end at $0.6935/lb., down a penny. Aluminum was modestly lower, dropping less than a half-cent, to $0.7267/lb., while lead eked out a gain of less than a third of a cent, to $0.7697/lb.

Copper was a bit higher as there was little movement in the industrial metals’ prices on Monday, as “the drawdown in stockpiles is one of the fundamentals supporting

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Yesterday, China Eastern Airlines Corporation Limited (CEA) announced a 2008 full-year net loss of RMB15.3 billion (down from earnings of RMB269 million a year ago), including RMB6.3 billion on oil fuel hedging losses and RMB3.0 billion in impairment losses, from write-downs of acquisition goodwill and older, less fuel-efficient aircraft.

Revenues slumped 3% to RMB41.7 billion on weaker demand as CEA reported a 5.9% decline in passenger traffic and a 280 basis-point decrease in the passenger load factor, while fuel costs jumped 22%.

To prop up its balance sheet, CEA sold 2.9 billion A and H shares, raising close to RMB7 billion, received a RMB5.5 billion working capital loan from its parent, and obtained RMB36 billion in additional bank credit lines.

Because CEA reported negative equity at the end of 2008, it is subject to special treatment, meaning that daily share price movements are limited to 5% on the

...

Alex’s Notes: I predicted this on June 4th. last summer.

Hold on to your seats, because if they follow through on the rhetoric, gold is a moonshot.

China can buy more gold, oil with forex -official

2009-03-09 05:52 (UTC)

BEIJING, March 9 (Reuters) - China should use part of its nearly $2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves to buy more gold, oil, uranium and other strategic commodities, the head of China’s energy bureau said in comments published on Monday.

The comments made by Zhang Guobao, head of the National Energy Administration, marked the latest call out of Beijing that the government should diversify the world’s largest stockpile of forex reserves.

Zhang’s proposals were published by the Beijing-based China Reform Daily, a newspaper run by China’s powerful economic planning agency, the National Development and

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The deputy chief of the National Development and Reform Commission in China acknowledged that China is now the world's largest greenhouse gas polluter.The air pollution problem is China is from two primary sources: automobiles and coal-fired utility plants. Cleaning up pollution from those two sources will be generate huge profits for the right companies.

Beijing swells dollar reserves through stealth

Last Updated: 3:24pm BST 26/08/2008 The Telegraph.co.UK

Rule changes for commercial banks are acting as cover for exchange rate intervention, writes Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

China has resorted to stealth intervention in the currency markets to amass US dollars, using indirect means to hold down the yuan and ease the pain for its struggling exporters as the global slowdown engulfs the economy.

A study by HSBC’s currency team in Asia has concluded that China’s central bank is in effect forcing commercial banks to build up large dollar reserves, using them as arms-length proxies in a renewed campaign of exchange rate intervention.

Beijing has raised the reserve requirement for banks five times since March, quickening the pace with two half-point rises in late June.

This is having major spill-over effects into the currency markets because banks in China have been required over the last year to

...

Beijing swells dollar reserves through stealth

Last Updated: 3:24pm BST 26/08/2008 The Telegraph.co.UK

Rule changes for commercial banks are acting as cover for exchange rate intervention, writes Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

China has resorted to stealth intervention in the currency markets to amass US dollars, using indirect means to hold down the yuan and ease the pain for its struggling exporters as the global slowdown engulfs the economy.

A study by HSBC’s currency team in Asia has concluded that China’s central bank is in effect forcing commercial banks to build up large dollar reserves, using them as arms-length proxies in a renewed campaign of exchange rate intervention.

Beijing has raised the reserve requirement for banks five times since March, quickening the pace with two half-point rises in late June.

This is having major spill-over effects into the currency markets because banks in China have been required over the last year to

...

China's inflation rate fell to 7.1 per cent in June from 7.7 per cent in May. The rate has now been falling steadily from a 12-year high of 8.7 per cent hit in February, according to the latest data from the national statistics bureau. This reduction comes after months of government efforts to cool inflation by paying subsidies to increase food supplies and imposing price controls on food, fuel and other basic goods, and moves at the central bank to increase the percentage of their deposits that the banks need to keep as reserves.The government gave no June figure for food prices, but said they rose 20.4 percent in the first half over the year-earlier period. JPMorgan estimated June's food price rise at 17.5 percent, compared with 19.9 percent in May.China's main planning ...