The beauty of Jiangsu

A changing industrial landscape is unfolding in China’s most prosperous coastal region.

After 30 years of rapid development, the Yangtze River Delta, which is China’s most vibrant economic zone, is facing increasing pressure from the shortage of energy supplies and natural resources, as well as the environmental deterioration.

As one of the richest areas in China, the Yangtze River Delta accounts for 20 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product and is responsible for one-third of its imports and exports.

According to Shanghai Industrial Property Market, a report issued by Colliers International in May 2007, the average land-leasing price in Shanghai’s major industrial zones has risen to $112 per sq m, up 10.43 percent from the end of 2006.

Given that the overall business costs in the delta are already 30% higher than the neighboring provinces such as Anhui, the relocation of businesses to inland areas, or cities in less developed northern Jiangsu Province, is expected to provide new chances for growth while contributing to the sustainable development of the region.

Source: China Daily

GKN and some of its products

The Shanghai-based new wholly-owned facility of GKN Driveline Torque Technology has started operation.

Mass production at the plant of 4,400 square meters in the Shanghai Pudong Kangqiao Industrial Zone began with the manufacture of transmission differentials for major domestic and overseas carmakers.

In addition to the supply of transmission differentials, GKN Driveline is developing three all wheel drive (AWD) power transfer unit (PTU) applications which will enter production in 2009 for Chinese and Asian vehicle makers.
Source: Huliq News

First XBLA stands for Xbox Live Arcade game. Now its connection with Zones.

Crazy Mouse was born out of the Chengdu Incubation Center, established in 2006 in a strategic collaboration between Microsoft and the Sichuan Culture Bureau, the Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone and Sichuan Huachuang Tianfu to create Xbox game projects.

Crazy Mouse

Outsourcing company Ultizen says its Xbox Live Arcade title, Crazy Mouse, will be the first game on the service to be developed by a Chinese studio.

Crazy Mouse is now in action and is a  32-level puzzle-action title that tasks the player with guiding a gastronomist mouse through a colorful maze, collecting food and avoiding obstacles.

The fine food-loving mouse must ultimately confront his opponents to discover the true identity of a legendary gourmet.

No, that is the plot. Honest. As is the name of the source.
Source: Gamasutra

Zhoujang Group

China’s Shougang Group has postponed the start-up of a new steel mill on the coast of northern China as steel prices plunge below the cost of production.

It started when Shougang Group announced it would auction off most of its blast furnaces in western Beijing. A source of the group said that the No 5 furnace, the first large facility ever constructed for iron making by Shougang will be the first to be sold. With a capacity of 1,036 cubic meters, this furnace stopped production in July 2005.

That’s when Shougang was ordered to relocate to Caofeidian, an islet in the Bohai Sea in order to reduce pollution before the Olympic Games. Altogether 30 million tonnes of iron had been produced through this furnace.

Shougang had permanently shut some old, polluting plants in Beijing and reduced operations at others as it built a state of the art 10-million tonnes-per-year mill in Caofeidian.

The new plant will be more efficient and cut costs because it is near an iron ore port and has been suppoerted by the Tangshan Caofeidian Industry and Development, which has developed the Caofeidian industrial zone.

Shougang officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

A Shougang official was quoted by financial magazine Caijing as saying, ‘We would report 1,000 yuan losses for every tonne of steel output, so it’s better not to produce any at all.’

Domestic Chinese steel prices have fallen 37% from their summer peak, driving down the spot price for raw material iron ore by 44%.

JP Morgan analyst Feng Zhang siad. ‘At current steel prices . . . almost all the steel makers are losing money. We expect significant production cuts going forward.’
Source: Reuters

Dongdu Port Area

Xiamen Xiangyu Tax Free Zone, Xiangyu Logistics Park and Dongdu Port Area have completed integration with each other, NewsTrak Daily reported.

Last year, Xiangyu Tax Free Zone realized logistics revenue of US$461 million, trade revenue of $1.6 billion.

Dongdu Port Area has 22 productive deep-water berths and three 50,000-ton deep-water berths under construction.

In 2007, the throughput of goods amounted to 28.68 million tonnes while container throughput amounted to 2.41 million TEUs, which accounts for 52.2% of the total throughput of containers in ports of Xiamen city.
Source: CargoNews Asia

Wuxi water avoiders before new installation

Siemens plans to supply a Membrane Bio-Reactor (MBR) system to the sewage treatment plants at Wuxi New Zone, an industrial development area, to expand its waste treatment capacity.

The MBR system is scheduled for a trial run by the end of 2008. By then, 30,000 cubic meters of sewage will be disposed of every day, thus helping Wuxi heighten urban centralized sewage treatment ratio to 90% by 2010.

As an important water source for a population of 30 million, Taihu Lake was once fouled by industrial wastewater. To clean Taihu Lake, Jiangsu Province is now upgrading the sewage treatment plants in pan- aihu cities.

MBR system will better service sewage treatment for 100 hi-tech enterprises in Wuxi New Zone, of which the sewage to be disposed increases 20-25% year on year.

The MBR system combines membrane technology and traditional sewage treatment technology to greatly cut nitrogen and phosphorus in the water. The treated water can be discharged to river or recycled.

Siemens’ MBR system provided reclaimed water for the Olympic Green, the Beijing Olympic Park.  There is no information as to the way the dignitaries present opened the facility.
Source: Trading Markets

Prologis

ProLogis the world’s largest owner, manager and developer of distribution facilities, has leased a total of approximately 460,000 square feet (43,000 square meters) to two customers in Shanghai, China.

In the Pudong submarket of Shanghai, at ProLogis Park Jinqiao, ProLogis has leased approximately 192,000 square feet (17,800 square meters) to Parker Hannifin, a global leader in motion and control technologies, providing precision-engineered solutions for a wide variety of commercial, mobile, industrial and aerospace markets. The company will use the space for assembly and light manufacturing.

In the Hangzhou submarket of Shanghai, at ProLogis Park HEDA, ProLogis has leased approximately 266,000 square feet (25,000 square meters) to Joyoung, a leading domestic home appliance manufacturer, to support its distribution needs across the Shanghai region.

ProLogis has approximately 1.6 million square feet (149,000 square meters) of space in nine buildings at the park.

ProLogis Park HEDA is a world-class logistics and industrial base in the Hangzhou Economic and Technological Development Area (HEDA).
Source: EarthTimes

Professor Bottelier

This may not appear to be about zone immediately but this article gets there and is worth reading in full.

The transfer in China of responsibility for the approval of medium- and long-term corporate bond issues by listed companies from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) to the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC ) may turn out to be a watershed decision in China’s transition to a more market-oriented economy.

There are indicators that suggest the government has selected the Tianjin Binhai New Area, southeast of Beijing, as the next hub for concentrated development and for trying out new ideas for financial reform that could, if successful, be replicated elsewhere in the country.

The Tianjin Binhai New Area, which consists of three administrative districts (Tanggu, Hangu and Dagang) and eight industrial zones currently under construction, offers an excellent opportunity to accelerate capital market development in China.

Vice Premier Li Keqiang, while inspecting the port city recently, stated that local officials should accelerate efforts to develop the Binhai New Area into ‘a northern portal of the country’s reform and opening up drive, a base of modern manufacturing and scientific research and application, and an international shipping and logistics center’.

Cui Jindu, vice mayor of Tianjin for financial affairs, stated that the city would concentrate on the development of venture capital and private equity investments and position the city as a center for non-securities funding. He also wants to promote corporate bonds as an alternative funding source for enterprises established in the Tianjin Binhai New Area.

This article — there is much, much more of it for this is the briefest summary — is by Pieter Bottelier who is a senior adjunct professor at The Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Prior to this, he served at the World Bank from 1970-1998 and was the chief of the World Bank’s resident mission in Beijing from 1993-1997. For the whole, facinating and persuasive article click HERE.
Source: Asia Times

Xi'an Software Park

To talk about Xi’an Park being comparable to American’s Silicon Valley is to understate the case for the Chinese version.

Xi’an Software Park is a national software industrial and software export base, and is one of the first the Service Outsourcing Base Cities designated by the Central Government.

It is within Xi’an High-tech Industries Development Zone, a special economic development area. To date, Xi’an Software Park has attracted more than 630 software and outsourcing enterprises both from within China and abroad, with more than 50,000 employees.

The city is located in the weight center of China and is about two hours air from the Capital Beijing or the coast city Shanghai.

It has one of the four biggest international airports in China, with 29 international routes connecting major Southeast Asian cities in Japan and Singapore, as well as European and North American cities such as Frankfurt, Paris, New York, San Francisco, and Vancouver.

Xi'an Software Park

The base has equipped with 1000 MB optical fiber and communication devices from national providers China Telecom, CNC, and Unicom have been built in the Software Park.

Over 450 software enterprises gained national certificate; More than 1,300 software products and 1,200-plus software copyright have been registered; 180-plus enterprises gained the CMMI, ISO27001 certificates and other industrial related certificates.

This is not the time to argue whether Xi’an Software Park has made more efficient use of its concentration of software houses than others. But it does show a government that organizes a national software industrial & software export base can expect significant results.
Source: OffshoreOutsourcing2China

Roewe 550 looking very desirable

SAIC Motor Corp has opened a 150,000-unit production facility in Shanghai as part of an effort to lead China’s self-branded vehicle market.

Chen Zhixin, executive vice president of SAIC Motor said the 1.2 million-square-meter factory is located in Lingang Industrial Zone, 75 kilometers south of downtown Shanghai, and cost RMB2.9 billion ($424.2 million). The first phase will cover around 670,000 square meters.

It will be the nation’s largest auto maker’s third passenger car plant, enabling SAIC to have a total capacity of 300,000 self-branded cars a year in full operation.
Source: China Trade Information