‘Economy recovering, but hard battle ahead’

CHINA’S economy is showing steady recovery, but a hard battle still lies ahead as the situation remains severe both at home and abroad, domestic media quoted Premier Li Keqiang as saying Monday.

The government would continue to adopt a proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy, Li said, pledging to cut taxes and ramp up credit support for firms. The world’s second-largest economy is gradually emerging from a 6.8 percent economic decline in the first quarter, its first contraction on record. Li said the economy was recovering gradually and had returned to growth.

VW-SAIC venture to make Audi sedans

VOLKSWAGEN AG (VW) and its Chinese joint venture partner SAIC Motor plan to invest 4.13 billion yuan (US$590 million) to revamp their car plants in Shanghai to make new Audi sedans, according to a government document.

SAIC Volkswagen, the joint venture of Wolfsburg-based automaker and China’s biggest automaker, currently only sells cars under the Volkswagen and Skoda marques. Audi is Volkswagen’s luxury car unit. With the revamp at its Shanghai plants, the joint venture is aiming for an annual manufacturing capacity of 60,000 Audi A7L sedans and 60,000 new Volkswagen sport-utility vehicles. The revamp is expected to be done by the end 2020.

European salmon sales to China slowly recovering

EUROPEAN exports of farmed salmon to China are gradually restarting after a temporary halt due to a coronavirus scare, two exporters and Norway’s seafood marketing organization said Monday.

Many Chinese buyers halted imports of salmon and the fish was removed from supermarket shelves after the novel coronavirus was found on a chopping board used to cut salmon at a large food market in Beijing last month. Officials in China and Norway, one of the world’s top farmed salmon exporters, later concluded that imported salmon wasn’t the source of the contamination.

Imports of agricultural products in first half jump

CHINA significantly increased its purchases of agricultural products from its trading partners in the first half of the year, according to data from the customs bureau yesterday.

In the first six months, China imported 2.12 million tons of pork, which was 1.4 times the volume in the same period a year earlier. One million tons of beef were imported, up 42.9 percent compared with the same period a year earlier. Imports of soybeans rose 17.9 percent to 45 million tons.