Tool chests face US anti-subsidy duties THE U.S. Commerce Department on Wednesday said it had made a final determination that anti-subsidy duties should be imposed on tool chests imported from China. The department said in a statement that it would slap final anti-subsidy duties on Chinese exporters of the tool chests ranging from 14.03 percent to 95.96 percent. The duties will take effect for five years if the U.S. International Trade Commission finds the imports harm or are likely to harm U.S. producers. The commission is scheduled to make its decision around Jan. 8 next year. Shanghai exchange mulls new futures contracts THE Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) is considering launching natural gas and refined oil products futures contracts as it continues to prepare for its long-awaited crude oil contract, Jiang Yan, chairman of the exchange, said Thursday. He declined to give a timeline for the crude launch. The Shanghai International Energy Exchange, a subsidiary of ShFE, which will operate the crude contract, said in July it aimed to launch the contract this year but has not set a date as yet. Yuan leaps to three-week high THE yuan jumped to its highest in three weeks against the U.S. dollar Thursday, breaching a key threshold, after a much stronger official fixing and a tumble for the greenback globally. The yuan breached 6.6 to the dollar for the first time since Nov. 2. The dollar was pressured by weak U.S. data and minutes from the Federal Reserve’s Oct. 31-Nov. 1 policy meeting, which showed concerns over low inflation. Shares tumble on bond rout CHINA’S shares tumbled Thursday with the blue-chip index suffering its worst fall in nearly 1-1/2 years as worries about a selloff in the bond market bled into equities. Consumer and health care firms led the fall and dragged the CSI300 index down sharply by 2.93 percent to 4103.73, its biggest fall in percentage terms since June 13, 2016. The broader Shanghai Composite Index lost 2.26 percent to 3,352.99 points, its worst day since December. Treasury bond yields remained at multi-year highs despite above average cash injections by the central bank as concerns that authorities would tighten lending rules took their toll. |