Aviation projects picked for private investment

CHINA said Thursday it would encourage private investment in 28 airport, drone and maintenance projects worth a total of 110 billion yuan (US$16 billion), as part of its efforts to make the sector more globally competitive.

Eleven of those projects already have private investors, such as the Ezhou cargo airport in Hubei Province that Chinese courier S.F. Holding is investing in, the Civil Aviation Administration on China said in a joint statement with the National Development and Reform Commission on Thursday. The remaining 17, which include a flight training school, drone delivery projects and some support services for Beijing’s new airport, are seeking private funding.

Grain imports fall sharply after US tariffs

CHINA’S grain imports fell sharply in July after the government imposed hefty tariffs on shipments from the United States amid a deepening trade conflict, customs data showed Thursday.

China brought in 220,000 tons of sorghum in July, down 62.5 percent from 588,364 tons a year ago, data from the General Administration of Customs showed. The figures were also below last month’s 450,000 tons, when buyers scooped up U.S. cargos amid a temporary easing of Sino-U.S. trade tensions.

COFCO Meat imports pork from Chile, Europe

COFCO Meat Holdings Ltd. has imported pork from Chile, the European Union and alternative countries, the Chinese pig farming company said Wednesday, as China’s hefty tariffs on U.S. pork upends traditional trade routes.

The subsidiary of China’s State-owned grains-to-property conglomerate COFCO said its trading division had diversified origins for its pork imports and developed customers from other countries to cope with the impact of the deepening trade conflict between the world’s top two economies.

Thailand sees drop in Chinese visitors

A BOAT disaster near Thailand’s Phuket Island that killed 47 Chinese last month is significantly cutting arrival numbers from China.

China is Thailand’s biggest source of visitors, and last year accounted for nearly one-third of the record 35.38 million arrivals. During July, Chinese arrivals fell 0.9 percent from a year earlier, the first drop since the start of 2017, when the Thai Government was cracking down on cheap tour packages from China. The Thai tourism ministry expects a bigger decline of 14.3 percent for August.