Central bank raises banks’ forex requirements CHINA’S central bank has directed financial institutions to hold more foreign exchange in reserve, a move that analysts say could help temper a rally in the yuan after the currency hit a three-year high against the U.S. dollar Monday. The People’s Bank of China will raise the forex reserve requirement ratio for financial institutions to 7 percent from 5 percent, from June 15. The increase will make it more expensive for banks to hold dollars. Banks in China have about US$1 trillion in foreign currency deposits, some of which are unconverted export receipts and investment flows. Analysts said the rise would force banks to freeze more of those dollars, slowing the yuan’s pace of appreciation by deterring dollar inflows in the longer term. First REITs snapped up by retail investors CHINA’S first batch of real estate investment trusts (REITs) were snapped up by retail investors on their first day of sales Monday, according to fund managers and domestic media. The retail tranches of the nine REITs, worth about 2 billion yuan (US$314.05 million), attracted over 30 billion yuan of retail subscriptions, or over 10 times the amount available, the Securities Times reported. Meanwhile, fund managers have suspended taking new subscriptions. Heavy-equipment maker Sany reports robust sales CHINA’S leading heavy-equipment manufacturer Sany Heavy Industry Co. sold 98,705 units of excavators in 2020, the company said Monday. According to excavator market consultancy Off-Highway Research, Sany’s excavator sales accounted for 15 percent of the global market share in 2020, ranking first in the world. Excavator sales have been widely cited as an important indicator of the vitality of an economy, as demand is usually backed by growth in mining and infrastructure development. Approval tightened for polluting projects CHINA plans to strengthen controls in industries such as steel and aluminum which involve high energy use and produce high emissions, in an effort to promote low-carbon developments, the environment ministry said Monday. After several decades of breakneck industrial expansion, China has now vowed to start cutting carbon emissions before 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2060. In pursuit of that goal, it has already urged some regions to tighten energy efficiency controls. |