FedEx explanation

THE foreign ministry said yesterday that FedEx Corp. should offer a proper explanation after the firm apologized for refusing to ship a Huawei Technologies phone sent from Britain to the United States.

Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang made the comment at a daily news briefing in Beijing. FedEx had apologized saying it was an “operational error” after PC Magazine, an American computer magazine, said Friday FedEx refused to ship the phone.

Textile, garment exports

THE country’s export of textiles and garments rose 2.8 percent year on year to US$23.8 billion in May, according to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

In breakdown, the country’s export of textiles stood at US$11.6 billion, up 3.9 percent from the same period last year, while garments rose 1.7 percent to US$12.2 billion, the ministry said, citing data from the General Administration of Customs.

Online retail sales

THE country’s online retail sales reached 3.86 trillion yuan (US$562 billion) in the first five months, accounting for over one-fifth of the country’s total retail sales of consumer goods, industrial data showed.

The number of e-commerce users continued to grow as the country’s online shoppers totaled 610 million by December 2018 and 97 people out of 100 are using mobile phones to shop online, the CASS report showed.

Auto exports

CHINA exported 392,000 vehicles in the first five months of 2019, down 4.9 percent year on year, industrial data showed.

In breakdown, the export of passenger cars dropped 14.5 percent year on year to 259,000 during the period, while that of business cars jumped 21.7 percent to 133,000 year on year, said China Association of Automobile Manufacturers .

Lithium project

CHENGTUN Mining Group Co. started construction of a lithium processing project with an annual production capacity of 60,000 tons in the southwestern province of Sichuan, the Sichuan Daily reported.

The project is expected to produce 30,000 tons of lithium, 20,000 tons of battery-level lithium hydroxide and 10,000 tons of lithium carbonate when full production starts in 2023. The project will see a total investment of 2.4 billion yuan.