JP Morgan bullish on China commodities demand, warns on social tension

Tue Apr 5, 2011 4:34am GMT

SINGAPORE, April 5 (Reuters) - Social tension in China remains an investment risk as strong demand for coal, grains and copper pushes up commodity raw material prices, Jin Ulrich, J.P. Morgan China managing director, told a conference on Tuesday.

"Investors are always looking for the potential risks that have not been discounted," Ulrich said.

"One area that we need to pay attention to is social tension. That's why the government is targetting low-income housing and inflation control to try to ease the social tension that exists."

China plans to spend $200 billion over the next five years to build 36 million units of low-income housing units, Ulrich said, citing the country's latest five-year plan. (Editing by Ed Lane)

China Plans Overseas Iron Ore Asset Spree

Wed,Feb23, 2011
BY CHUIN-WEI YAP

BEIJING—China plans an aggressive expansion of its iron-ore holdings overseas to increase the share of its imports from China-invested mines, an influential industry official said Wednesday.

China Iron & Steel Association Vice Chairman Luo Bingsheng told an industry conference Wednesday that China would seek to derive 40% of ore imports from Chinese-invested sources by 2015.

It is unclear what percentage of China's iron-ore imports currently come from mines part-owned by Chinese companies. Mr. Luo didn't give a figure. But the comments from Mr. Luo, who is to retire from the association this week, underscore the desire of China.

For more info asia.WSJ.COM

China to spend $1.3 trillion on new rail and road infrastructure

Monday, 21 February 2011

China plans to spend at least $1.3 trillion over the next five years to ease transport and freight bottlenecks. China has spent $569 billion on fixed-asset investments in its railways and roads over the past two years. This may help to more than double the country's share of world exports to 23 percent in the next decade, according to China International Capital Corp economist Zhang Zhiwei.

Over the next five years China will spend as much as RMB 3.5 trillion ($531 billion) on railway construction, RMB 750 billion ($113.8 billion) on rail rolling stock, RMB 3.5-4 trillion ($531-607 billion) on highways, RMB 300-350 billion ($45.5-53.1 billion) on airports, and RMB 900 billion ($136.6 billion) on ports.

Meanwhile, China is spending RMB 2 trillion ($303.5 billion) on a 16,000-km high-speed rail network. More than 7,000 kilometers of track have already been laid and another 6,000 kilometers are scheduled to open by 2012.

Tags: China , Far East , investments , construction , East Asia and Pacific
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