US LNG exports to China decline

AS the trade war between China and the United States escalates, fewer vessels carrying U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) have gone to China over the past two months.

China, which purchased 14 percent of all U.S. LNG shipped between February 2016-April 2018, has taken delivery from just one vessel that left the United States in May and none in June compared with 14 during the first four months of the year. However, there are a number of reasons for the slowdown, including seasonal factors and rising Australian LNG production.

EU sets duties to limit Chinese e-bikes

THE European Union will impose duties from Thursday on Chinese electric bicycles in a move to curb cheap imports that European producers say are flooding the market.

The anti-dumping duties are the latest in a series of EU measures against Chinese exports ranging from solar panels to steel, which have sparked strong words from China. The European Commission, which is carrying out an investigation on behalf of the 28 EU members, decided that tariffs of between 21.8 and 83.6 percent should apply for all e-bikes coming from China.

Google launches game on Tencent’s Wechat

ALPHABET Inc.’s Google said Wednesday it has launched an artificial intelligence (AI) game on Tencent Holdings Ltd. social media app WeChat.

Last year, Google launched its Google Translate app in China and in May it added a file management app to several app stores run by local Chinese firms, a first for the company. The latest product, Caihua Xiaoge, is a drawing game based on Google’s AI image recognition technology, and is a WeChat mini app, which works only within Tencent’s WeChat.

Sinopec launches US$1.5b investment company

SINOPEC Group has launched a 10 billion yuan (US$1.48 billion) investment firm in China’s new economic zone of Xiongan to fund new energy, green products and artificial intelligence.

The new investment arm, Sinopec Capital Co., is one of the first State-run entities to be based in Xiongan, Sinopec said. The Xiongan New Area in Hebei was launched in April 2017 and is part of a State-driven campaign to integrate the economy of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and ease congestion and pollution pressures in Beijing.