Chinalco Mining tumbles 6.3pc on trading debut

[Source] : South China Morning Post

Shares in Chinalco Mining Corp International, which is developing a copper mine in Peru, closed 6.3 per cent lower than their offered price on their trading debut yesterday.

The sharp price fall might have been caused by retail investors, who tended to have a short investment horizon and were not familiar with the company’s operations and outlook, analysts said.

Chinalco Mining is the overseas non-aluminium and non-ferrous metals arm of state-owned Aluminum Corp of China (Chinalco).

“Chinalco Mining’s operation in Peru is a long way from Hong Kong and production will only begin late this year, so it’s not easy for local investors to picture its prospects,” said Christfund Securities research director Simon Lam Ka-hang.

Click here to read the complete article

China-Peru: Signs of a more “equal” trading relationship

It is all too common for Peruvians to ask for help in the sourcing of cheap textiles from China (shoes, toys, belts, accessories, etc).  Likewise, it’s all too common for Chinese companies looking for opportunities in Latin America to diversify their export markets away from the faltering US and European economies.  Third, every reader of China South America or news in general must be aware of the fact China’s demand for raw material resources from Latin America (particularily the commodity producing countries of South America).

However, it seems there is indeed light at the end of the tunnel and there’s more to China’s trade with countries in Latin America than meets the eye. Multiple news sources have published in the past few days of a surge of PERUVIAN MANUFACTURED EXPORTS going to China. The headline is eye grabbing… Peruvian manufactured exports to China surged 378% over the past 7 years. Obviously this is from a very LOW BASE, but nonetheless indication, or at utter least a positive sign that China is not just trading with Peru to eat up its natural resources and sell cheap textiles to.

Here’s an except from a article published by the Global Times of China yesterday, September 4th, 2012.

Peru’s manufactured exports to China have skyrocketed by 387 percent in the past seven years, the country’s Export Trade Society (ComexPeru) said Monday in a report.

The report said one of the engines driving the rapid growth is the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two nations that went into effect in March 2010. The FTA lifted 7,758 trade tariffs from the Peruvian-made goods entering China.

Thanks to the FTA, China became Peru’s biggest importer last year, receiving 15 percent of the South American nation’s total exports of manufactured goods which amounted to $375 million.

In 2009, shortly before the FTA went into effect, Peru’s total exports to China grew by 71 percent, and exports of non-traditional products grew by 104 percent.

Click here to read the complete article

Latin America’s China Addiction (Part 2): Are Commodity Prices Showing Signs Of Recovery?

[Source] : Seeking Alpha

Click here to read part 1 of this story 

China’s economic soft-landing has had a significant impact on economic growth across the globe and particularly in Latin America where mining and commodities production are key drivers of economic activity. In the first article of this series the linkage between Latin American economic growth, commodities exports and Chinese economic growth was illustrated. This showed that China’s slowing economy and decreased demand for commodities has been a key catalyst for the fall in economic growth across the region. It has also been a key catalyst for the plunging share prices being experienced by many resource companies, which include some of Latin America’s largest publicly tradable companies like Vale (VALE) and Petrobras (PBR).

Market outlook on commodities growing more optimistic

However, markets have been taking a more optimistic view of China and commodities over the last month. This growing optimism is based on signs that the contraction in Chinese economic activity is easing along with increasing speculation that the Chinese government will take action to boost growth. This has led to considerable speculation that there will be a recovery in commodities prices, which should see a renewal of economic growth in Latin America.

One of the key drivers of this growing optimism has been the slowing contraction of the Chinese manufacturing sector, with the Chinese purchasing managers’ index (PMI), rising in July to a five month high. There has also been renewed confidence in the iron ore mining sector with Australia’s third largest iron ore producer Fortescue Metal’s Group (FSUMF.PK) recently reporting an 8% increase in profit, along with positive statements from both Rio Tinto (RIO) and Vale concerning the future direction of iron ore prices. However, with the exception of crude oil it appears that this optimism is misplaced with commodity and basic materials prices continuing to fall.

Click here to read the complete article

Jim Rogers (commodity guru) talks, people (should) listen

China Easing Moves ‘A Mistake’: Jim Rogers 

[Source] : CNBC

Image courtesy of Wikicommons

“I think they’re a mistake and there’s still inflation in China,” said Rogers on CNBC Asia’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday, referring to cuts in China’s reserve requirement ratios (RRR) and interest rates earlier this year.

“Yes, the property bubble has popped and prices have started coming down but not enough in my view. The most recent statistics show that Chinese property market is starting to recover,” he said.

Click here to read the complete article

Jim Rogers Says Silver Is A Better Investment Than Gold

[Source] : Seeking Alpha

By Jared Cummans

Jim Rogers is easily one of the most famous investors of all time. His astounding track record has led him to become one of the most successful traders ever, earning deep respect throughout the financial world. Better yet, Rogers is not the least bit shy about speaking his mind, whether he is right or wrong. Some of his previous statements included the fact that anyone who doesn’t invest in commodities is a fool, that gold will surely drop 20% from its current levels, and now, Rogers has stated that silver is a better investment than gold.

Gold investing has long dominated the precious metals space, as investors have used this ultra-popular metal as both a trading/speculative instrument as well as an integral part of a longer term strategy. While silver still has a large presence in the financial world, it is not often that a big name steps into the limelight and touts this white metal over its gold counterpart.

Click here to read the complete article

China-Brazil News: Weekend headlines

Brazil’s Vale Assures China No Retaliation For Huge Ship Ban - Manila Bulletin

Presidents Dilma Rousseff and Hu Jintao in China in 2011 as they celebrate rising two-way trade. (Photo: Roberto Stuckert Filho/PR)

HONG KONG (Reuters) – The world’s top iron ore exporter, Brazil’s Vale, is not excluding Chinese shipowners from transporting its iron ore and remains open to selling its huge dry bulk carriers to them, industry officials said.

A senior Vale official met the China Shipowners’ Association on Friday to smooth relations after Chinese industry officials said the miner stopped hiring vessels from some firms in retaliation for Beijing’s ban on its ships.

Chinese shipowners convinced Beijing in January to block the world’s biggest dry bulk ships from entering Vale’s top market due to concerns over safety and the vessels’ potential impact on loss-making domestic shipping companies.

Click here to access the full article direct from the Manila Bulletin

China Construction Bank Acquires WestLB’s Brazil Assets-Report - WSJ

SAO PAULO (Dow Jones)–China Construction Bank Corp. (CICHY, 0939.HK, 601939.SH), one of China’s biggest banks, acquired the Brazilian assets of German bank WestLB AG for an undisclosed amount, local newspaper Valor Economico reported Friday.

The Brazilian investment bank BTG Pactual advised China Construction Bank on the deal, according to the newspaper, which didn’t disclose its sources.

Click here to access the full article direct from the WSJ

Brazil’s Vale Loses to Australia as Mine Laws Curb Market Share - Bloomberg Business Week

Vale SA (VALE5), the world’s largest iron-ore producer, is poised to lose market share to Australian rivals Rio Tinto Group (RIO) and BHP Billiton Ltd (BHP) as Brazil imposes stricter environmental rules on new mining projects and labor costs soar.

Brazil’s share of the seaborne iron-ore market may sink to 27 percent by 2016, down from 31 percent now, as the country boosts capacity by 188 million tons, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Australia will probably add about 502 million tons, taking its market share to 50 percent from 41 percent.

Click here to access the full article direct from Bloomberg Businessweek

China buyers of Brazilian Iron Ore defer raw material cargos - FT

Vale SA (VALE5), the world’s largest iron-ore producer, is poised to lose market share to Australian rivals Rio Tinto Group (RIO) and BHP Billiton Ltd (BHP) as Brazil imposes stricter environmental rules on new mining projects and labor costs soar.

Brazil’s share of the seaborne iron-ore market may sink to 27 percent by 2016, down from 31 percent now, as the country boosts capacity by 188 million tons, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Australia will probably add about 502 million tons, taking its market share to 50 percent from 41 percent.

Click here to access the full article direct from the FT

Rare question and answer Xinhua Exclusive on China- Latam relations

Thank you Xinhua News. Please click here to access the article from Xinhua News.

Yang Wanming, director-general of the the Department of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, exchanged views with chinanews.com readers online on Tuesday afternoon.

 

Yang Wanming, director-generalof the Department of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, answers questions from chinanews.com readers online on Jan 17, 2012. [Photo/Chinanews.com]

 

Topic: China-Latin America cooperation in culture

Q: How do China and Latin America cooperate in the field of culture?

A: China has opened 32 Confucius institutes in Latin America, covering almost all Latin American countries. Both sides also send art troupes to visit one another and conduct people-to-people exchanges. Many Chinese people like their football, music and dances and engage in studying Spanish and Portuguese. Many Chinese books have also been translated into Spanish and sold in Latin America.

Topic: Cooperation in energy

Q: What’s the current situation with Sino-Latin American energy cooperation? Some people think China is plundering energy resources there and uses it as a way to curb the US.

A: China is trying to carry out comprehensive cooperation with Latin American countries and its efforts have been well welcomed by them. The cooperation not only benefits the two parties, but also contributes to global peace, stability and prosperity. It started late and is on a relatively small scale, but has been developing fast. China imported 20.73 million tons of crude oil from Latin American countries in 2010, which accounts for 8.7 percent of China’s total import in that year. Venezuela has become China’s 4th largest oil provider. The two parties will explore cooperation on new energy. It’s totally based on equality and mutual benefit and will do no harm to the third party.

Topic: US view on China-Latin America relationship

Q: The relationship between China and Latin American countries has developed so fast. What do you think of the feeling in the US to this?

A: In recent years, the independence of Latin American countries is growing and its economic growth momentum becomes more diverse than before.

The rapid development of China-Latin America relations is on the basis of mutual benefit and win-win for both sides and is within the needs of Latin American countries’ diversified diplomacy and development strategy.

It will not only benefit development of both, but also contribute to the world’s stability and development.

China and the US have already established a consultation mechanism on Latin-America, and through four different consultations, the two parties have enhanced their mutual trust on this issue.

And the US has repeatedly stressed in their consultations that strengthening relations between China and Latin American countries will be good for Latin-America’s stability and development.

Topic: Chinese workers kidnapped in Colombia

Q: It was reported that several Chinese employees were kidnapped in Colombia by unidentified armed militants. How are they now? Could you release some information about the rescue efforts?

A: Four Chinese workers were kidnapped by some unknown armed militants in Caquetá province in Colombia on June 8, 2011. We have urged the Colombia authority to spare no effort to carry on the rescue work under the premise of guaranteeing the safety of hostages. Since then, the Chinese embassy in Colombia has kept in close cooperation and contact with Colombia’s relevant departments. The rescue work has not finished yet, but the safety of the four hostages can be guaranteed. Chinese companies are facing more risks as they go global on a larger scale. We need to increase our political backup and diplomatic guarantee to them, strengthen the consular protection and safeguard their legitimate interests. Meanwhile we advise Chinese people in Latin America to improve their sense of safety and precaution.

Q: How about China-Mexico relations?

A: China and Mexico are both developing countries and are working at enhancing people’s living standards. They hold the same positions on many international issues and regularly cooperate on these..

China and Mexico have some trade friction over trade imbalance problems, but we hope both sides can deal with the problems reasonably and from a development point of view.

We hope both can take active measures to promote the diverse, comprehensive and healthy development of the two countries’ economic and trade relations.

February 14 marks the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Mexico. We believe the relations can become more comprehensive, steadier and healthier with the two countries’ joint efforts in the future.

Q: Can you talk about the relationship between China and Brazil?

A: Brazil is one of the biggest countries in Latin America and one of the emerging powers in the region. The China-Brazil relationship is one of the most important between China and Latin America.

In recent years, the strategic partnership between China and Brazil has made considerable progress. They maintain a good momentum of high-level exchanges and the political mutual trust is deepened.

Their economical cooperation is also deepening constantly, which has brought tangible benefits to people of both countries. Bilateral trade volume exceeded $80 billion in 2011. Investment cooperation in finance, energy, steel, and machine manufacturing has also made great progress, and is expanding constantly.

China and Brazil have active exchanges in science, technology and culture as well.

The cooperation in the fields of Earth resource satellites, agricultural technology and aviation is progressing continuously. And the cooperation in culture and education is also very close.

China’s Confucius Institute Headquarters opened two Confucius Institutes and a Confucius school in Brazil and Brazil’s important media institutions have sent many journalists to work in China.

China and Brazil are both developing countries and have broad and consistent interests on major international issues. The Chinese government attaches great importance to relations with Brazil and believes the two countries’ cooperation in various fields will make great progress with their joint efforts.

 

Global gloom places Latin America on alert – Financial Times

Interesting article written by John Paul Rathbone, Latin America editor of the Financial Times.

Every day Luis Castilla, Peru’s finance minister, says he lights a candle and “prays that China won’t crash”.

His prayers are echoed by many in a region that remains one of the world economy’s few bright spots. South America’s commodity-rich economies grew 5 per cent in the first half of this year. Last year, these new motors of the world economy added half a percentage point to global output.

But slowing Asian demand and plunging commodity prices have raised the spectre that South America, having largely escaped the 2008-09 Great Recession, may not be so lucky this time around.

Main point = Potential new financial crisis in the “Developed World” + slow down in China = Scared Latinos

Click here to read the full article direct from the Financial Times

China-Brazil; a clash of cultures

Celio Lin, 29, sat by the cash register of his family’s busy Chinese restaurant complaining about the Brazilian staff, while his mother checked on the line cooks by tugging on their coats and attentively peeking into pots of soup and noodles.

Img: Courtesy of Wikicommons

“Brazilians want vacations for I-don’t-know-what, they want a day off for I-don’t-know-what, they want to go to the beach, to relax,” Lin said. “The beach is obviously pleasant, but if you send a Chinese man to the beach, he’ll go there to sell something!”

A tip of my hat to AP’s Sao Paulo office for writing a very interesting piece on the on-going process of Chinese and Brazilians learning how to do business with one another.

The article does a great job of highlighting the major differences in the expectations of workers, managers, and executives from both Chinese and Brazilian companies operating in one another economy.

More than 2 years after your author personally embarked on his journey to learn Chinese, build bridges between China and South America, I can personally attest that many of the observations in this article are true… but I stop short of painting such a negative picture as the article does — almost suggesting it is impossible for the two cultures to begin to learn how to work together more efficiently and understand one another.

Here’s an excerpt from AP’s article. You can click here, or the link at the end of the excerpt to read the article in its entirety direct from AP News.

Culture clash complicates China’s Brazil push
(AP) – 13 hours ago

SAO PAULO (AP) — Stocking shelves in a Chinese grocery store, Thiago warned that he didn’t want to be caught chatting during working hours. Within seconds, however, the Brazilian unleashed a pent-up flood of complaints about the owners, who lingered just beyond hearing distance.

“My bosses have never heard of a day off,” said the 20-year-old, who would only allow his first name to be used, for fear of losing his job. “Vacations? Forget it. They pay well and they pay for extra hours, but they don’t understand that some things are more important to Brazilians than money.

“I’ve seen many workers walk in, see the Chinese way of doing things, and quit the very same day.”

Such cross-cultural tensions have become a stumbling block in an otherwise meteoric rise in business ties between China and Brazil, two of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

Chinese companies’ direct investment in Brazil jumped to $17 billion last year, nearly 60 times the investment the previous year, according to SOBEET, a Brazilian economic think tank. At the same time, more Chinese companies are hiring local workers rather than following their old practices of bringing in Chinese laborers.

Click here to read the full article, direct from AP

Brazil-China-US; a soap opera made in heaven

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff toasts with China's President Hu Jintao after a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, April 12, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Jason Lee

Last month when US President Obama visited Brazil, a lot was expected from the visit in that he was meant to focus on ways to work with Brazil to counter China’s control of the RMB, which both seem is undervauled.  The visit fell way short of expectations, and was even lambasted by most US media as a unnecessary and untimely trip in light of the crisis in the middle-east the US actions in Libya.

Last week, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff visited China, and it now seems Brazil interests are leaning more towards cooperation with China than the US.  Rousseff’s trip is being hailed as a major success both in China and back in Brazil.  She left with promises and new contracts for China to purchase billions of dollars of Brazilian made industrial goods–not soy beans or iron ore.

Where will Brazil’s interests eventually lean — the US or China?  Is there a way for the three to work together in a productive, positive way for the better of all?  Or will Brazil eventually have to choose? Between the US, who has long ignored it rising clout and is considered by most Brazilians to not respect the country as much as it should?  Or will it choose choose China, which for better or worse is more interested in Brazil’s raw natural resources than it is in buying its industrial goods like jets?  Furthermore, if Brazil wants to speed up development of its high tech and industrial sectors–it’s number one competitor will come from China, not the US…?

This is a foreign policy soap opera in the making people.

I suggest all those interested in the topic, go over to Reuters and read a great analysis published today about this all.

Brazil’s highway to China

Highway to China

Indeed, the real purpose of our helicopter trip was to view Mr Batista’s latest project, a vast superport north of Rio, built with this customer in mind.

The centrepiece of the complex is a two-mile-long pier jutting straight out into the South Atlantic, which has been dubbed “the highway to China”.

[...] Click here to read the full article direct from BBC