New market regulator

XIAO YAQING, director of China’s State-owned asset regulator, has been appointed head of the country’s market regulation administration, media reports said Saturday.

Formerly the president of the Aluminium Corp. of China, Xiao was appointed head of the State-owned Asset Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) in 2016, presiding over a period of reform for China’s State-owned sector.

Samsung plant

SOUTH KOREAN tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. will spend more than US$14 billion in the second phase of investment in its memory chip plant in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, Xinhua reported Friday quoting a Samsung executive.

Xinhua, quoting Samsung cice president Ji Hyun-ki, said the second phase of investment in the Xi’an plant will be completed in July this year and start production in the first quarter of 2020.

Jet fuel prices

THE government is planning to lower wholesale aviation fuel prices as early as July, part of the government’s pledge to reduce business costs in a slowing economy, said an oil industry executive and a spokeswoman with the Chinese aviation authority.

The cuts could amount to a total annual savings to airlines of more than 1 billion yuan (US$145 million).