Cargo transportation sees robust recovery: official

THE country’s cargo transportation has recorded steady recovery as the country introduced multiple measures to ensure smooth logistics and supply, a transport official said Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the number of trucks running on expressways nationwide topped 7.21 million, up 25.65% from April 10, said Li Guoping with the Ministry of Transport. With the joint efforts of various regions and departments, the unsmooth logistics flow, triggered by the COVID-19 resurgence, has been initially eased and major logistics indicators have continued to improve, Li said.

Shanghai Port container throughput rebounds

SHANGHAI Port completed container throughput of 3.085 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU)s in April, 82.4% of the same period last year, data from China’s Ministry of Transport (MOT) showed Wednesday.

“Currently, logistics in Shanghai and other key areas are gradually improving, with initial results in rectifying excessive prevention and control problems,” said MOT official Shu Chi, citing improvements in the country’s transport capacity indicators and logistics.

Cross-border use of RMB up 8%

THE cross-border use of RMB reached 9.7 trillion yuan (US$1.45 trillion) in the first quarter of 2022, up 8% year on year, China’s central bank said.

This included 4.8 trillion yuan in receipts and 4.9 trillion yuan in payments, said a report released by the People’s Bank of China. Cross-border RMB receipts and payments under current accounts totaled 2.1 trillion yuan, up 23% year on year. Of this figure, the RMB receipts and payments of goods trade stood at 1.6 trillion yuan, and those of service trade and other current accounts totaled 478.3 billion yuan.

China Resources in talks to take Sihuan private

CHINA Resources is in early-stage talks with Sihuan Pharmaceutical’s chairman about jointly taking the Hong Kong-listed company private in a deal valuing it at nearly US$3 billion, Reuters quoted sources as saying Thursday.

Sihuan is attractive to China Resources (Holdings) Co. due to sharp growth for its medical aesthetics business after the company became the exclusive distributor in China for Letybo, a botox product made by South Korea’s Hugel Inc. China Resources and Che Fengsheng, Sihuan’s chairman and largest shareholder, are considering offering HK$2.5 (US$0.32) per share, the report said.