China

• U.S. Energy Information Administration claims that China uses almost as much coal in a year as the rest of the world combined, accounting for 47 percent of coal consumption. The organisation claims that 3.8 billion tonnes in 2011, up 9 percent.

The Chinese energy companies continue their quest for securing oil and gas supply for the fast growing economy of the country with Sinopec on the move to achieve $1 billion worth of stake in the Queensland gas project of Santos Limited (STO). Sinopec is one of the three major China based energy companies that is currently focusing on the global sources for resources like oil and gas.

Marius Kloppers, the chief executive of Australia based mining giant BHP Billiton (BHP) stated that he is looking forward for the iron price to remain closer to a record high due to the rising Chinese demand for steel. Although the concerns regarding the economic melt down in Greece did slashed the prices of exchange-traded metals during the earlier month by as much as 10 to 20 percent, the implied price for the iron ore from Australia is still at a record high.

China Minmetals, one of the largest metal traders of China is looking forward to expand its network in Australia and currently continuing open dialogue with the Government after it came up with a $US1.3 billion worth of rescue package for OZ Minerals (OZL), a metal mining and exploration Company that primarily focuses on the production of zinc, copper, lead, gold and silver.

The biggest consumer of iron ore China may initiate an investigation and challenge the $US116 billion worth of Pilbara merger of Rio Tinto (RIO) and BHP Billiton (BHP) based on the advice from Allan Fels (an ex-Australian competition tsar) that it does have the right to challenge the merger as the country believes that the proposed merger may hurt the competition and can increase th

China hiked up their benchmark interest rates to 5.85 per cent last week, to rein in growth and inflation. Foreign Banks applauded Chinese interest rate hike as emblematic of China’s broader effort to allow market forces to play a larger role in the economy. However there is still that Chinese RMB to US dollar peg that severely constrains their ability do conduct monetary policy. The Chinese may need to release the US dollar peg, allowing the Yuan to appreciate at a faster pace to prevent an influx of speculative capital.

Capitalist Pirates in Shanghai China - think carefully before launching a production factory campaign in China: Terry Petty and his Chinese representatives thought the terms were ridiculous. So starts the capitalist pirate story...

An American investor, Petty had forged a venture with the son of a local Communist Party official to open a machine shop here in the industrial outskirts of China's most cosmopolitan city.

But after two years of internal disputes, the venture had disintegrated. The local man was urging Petty's people to sign a contract selling him their stake and surrendering full control. They would not go along.

But even as the negotiations proceeded on this September afternoon, the local partner was mobilising to seize the factory: a team of 15 men - many with shaved heads and dressed in black - arrived at the plant, according to managers. They told the workers that they were now in charge and ordered production to cease.

This year, China will outstrip the UK to become the world's fourth largest economy. A new economic census, which has probed the murky depths of China's grey economy, with its cash-only back-alley businesses, decided that the Chinese economy is actually 20 per cent bigger than the official figures suggest.