China Says Yuan Is Not To Blame For Trade Surplus
March 16, 2010
China Says Yuan Is Not To Blame For Trade Surplus:BEIJING: China on Tuesday again turned a deaf ear to U.S. demands for a stronger yuan, saying the currency is not the cause of its trade surplus and pledging to keep the exchange rate stable to help its exporters.
Beijing and Washington appear to be locked in a dialogue of the deaf in the run-up to a determination by the U.S. Treasury Department due on April 15 as to whether China is manipulating its exchange rate.
“If the exchange rate issue is politicised, then in coping with the global financial crisis this will be of no help in coordination between the parties involved,” Commerce Ministry spokesman Yao Jian told a regular news conference.
He described two-way trade ties as very important and said Beijing was willing to enhance cooperation with Washington. But he rejected the argument that China’s hefty trade surplus with the United States was due to the yuan, also called the renminbi, which some U.S. economists judge to be 25 percent or more undervalued.
“The trade surplus is not caused by the renminbi exchange rate. The trade surplus is an outcome and phenomenon of globalisation. It will exist for a time,” he said.
Yao was speaking a day after 130 U.S. lawmakers demanded that President Barack Obama get tough with China over its currency practices.
“The impact of China’s currency manipulation on the U.S. economy cannot be overstated. Maintaining its currency at a devalued exchange rate provides a subsidy to Chinese companies and unfairly disadvantages foreign competitors,” the legislators said in a letter.
NO REASON AT ALL :
Yao asked rhetorically whether China, which has a trade deficit with Japan, South Korea and some developing countries, should emulate the United States and pass a law to deal with those countries.
“So we hope that in surmounting the crisis and reviving its economy, the United States should be a promoter of free trade, not an obstacle to it,” he said.
If the Treasury does rule that China is manipulating its exchange rate, the U.S. government would be required in principle to start “expedited negotiations” on the issue.
Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday dismissed U.S. complaints about China’s exchange rate, calling them counterproductive and saying he did not believe the yuan was undervalued.
But Wen also recommitted China to pushing ahead with reform of the yuan’s exchange rate mechanism — leaving the door open to reintroducing exchange rate flexibility if it suits Beijing.
China has kept the yuan pegged around 6.83 per dollar since July 2008 to help its exporters, and Yao, the Commerce Ministry spokesman, said stability would remain the watchword in 2010.
“We have no reason at all to view the future market with unfettered optimism,” he said of the outlook for exports.
“So we will keep our economic and trade policies, including exchange rate policies and export tax rebates, stable this year,” he added.
Sarkozy Faces Heavy Loss In French Regional Poll
March 15, 2010
Sarkozy Faces Heavy Loss In French Regional Poll:PARIS: French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday faced a regional vote that opinion polls suggested would mean heavy losses for his centre-right UMP party in the last ballot box test before he comes up for re-election in 2012.
Unemployment in France is running at more than 10 percent, public finances are under growing strain and a series of controversies over issues ranging from lavish executive pay to immigration and security have undermined Sarkozy’s popularity.
“Rarely has a regional election been so national,” the leftwing daily Liberation declared in an editorial on Saturday.
“The last vote before the presidential election in 2012. It can change the political landscape.”
Voting got underway at 8.00 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Sunday and the last polls close in major cities at 8.00 p.m. (1900 GMT), with an initial first round result due later in the evening.
Sarkozy has said the election will be about local issues and he has ruled out a major reshuffle if the results are as bad as expected, but he said last week that he would be “attentive” to what voters say and some cabinet changes are possible.
According to a survey published on Friday by the TNS Sofres polling institute, the opposition Socialists had 31.5 percent support going into the first round of the election, compared with 29 percent for the UMP.
Sunday’s vote will be followed by a second round on March 21, when the top two parties in each of the 26 regions will face each other in a decisive runoff.
The Socialists should pick up second round votes from the Greens and various far-left parties which outweigh the far-right National Front and a small centrist party where support may go to the UMP. Only in the eastern region of Alsace does the UMP look like winning.
FINANCIAL MARKETS WATCHING :
The 26 regional councils, responsible for issues ranging from maintaining school buildings to local transport, have little economic power. They normally attract scant interest and surveys suggest abstention may be as high as 50 percent.
But the message the vote sends will be closely watched outside France for the possible impact on the pace of reform and for the future of key government ministers including Economy Minister Christine Lagarde and Prime Minister Francois Fillon.
“What matters most for financial markets is the distribution of votes in the first round and whether or not this can be depicted as a ‘no confidence vote’ in the government,” BNP Paribas analyst Dominique Barbet said in a note to clients.
With the public deficit seen at 8.2 percent of gross domestic product after the billions of euros in stimulus measures pumped into the economy last year, the government faces a major task to get state finances back under control.
Sarkozy has pledged to continue with a major overhaul of the pension system due to be completed later this year but in an interview with Le Figaro last week, he signalled a pause in the pace of reform next year.
He has largely stayed out of the campaign, in line with the French convention that the head of state should not be too involved in electioneering but his sliding personal approval ratings, currently around 36 percent, have not helped his party.
The Socialists, who control 20 of the 22 mainland regions after a triumphant campaign at the last regional election in 2004, are aiming for a grand slam this time and the government may be able to claim a success if they prevent it.
Google Shut Down In China Its ‘99.9 Percent’ Sure
March 13, 2010
Google Shut Down In China Its ‘99.9 Percent’ Sure:March 13 (Bloomberg) — Google Inc. has drawn up detailed plans to shut its search engine in China and is “99.9 percent” certain of going ahead with the closure, the Financial Times reported today, citing a person it didn’t name.
The company may make the decision very soon, while it will take time to carry out a closure to make sure staff don’t suffer reprisals from authorities, the paper said, citing the person as familiar with Google’s thinking. Marsha Wang, a Beijing-based spokeswoman for Google, said she had no comment on the report when reached by phone.
Google said on Jan. 12 that it will stop filtering results in China after what it called an infiltration of its technology and the e-mail accounts of Chinese human-rights activists. China yesterday called Google’s plan to defy government censorship rules “unfriendly and irresponsible.”
“The usual headline is companies are coming into China, not companies pulling out,” said Duncan Clark, Beijing-based chairman of business advisory company BDA China Ltd. “China wants to be the leading place for research and development. They’d like to have tech companies here but they don’t want the content involvement. But you can’t separate the two.”
Revenue Cost
Google may have to pull out of China pending talks with authorities, it said in January. An exit from the world’s biggest Internet market would cost Google, whose sales growth slowed during the U.S. recession, $600 million in revenue, according to estimates by JPMorgan Chase & Co.
China is “a market that no company can ignore, Google included,” JP Gan, managing director at Shanghai-based Qiming Venture Partners, which oversees more than $500 million, said before the FT report. “You have to play by the local rules if you want to operate here.’
The resolution of the dispute with Google rests on the company, not the government, Li Yizhong, minister of industry and information technology, said on March 12. “If one company violates the Chinese law and is unfriendly and irresponsible, that’s unwanted and means the company doesn’t merit its world class status.”
Talks with the Chinese government may yield results “soon,” Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt said on March 10.
‘Sophisticated’ Attacks
Google’s systems were targeted by “highly sophisticated” attacks aimed at obtaining proprietary information, as well as personal data belonging to human rights activists who use the company’s Gmail e-mail service, it said in January. At least 20 other international companies in technology, finance and chemicals were similarly targeted, Google said at the time.
Symantec Corp. and McAfee Inc., the world’s two biggest makers of security software, said this month they are working with the U.S. government on an investigation of the source of the cyber attacks.
China may have 840 million Internet users, or 61 percent of the population, by 2013, according to EMarketer Inc. in New York. The country had 384 million at the end of last year, according to government data.
Car Sales Surge By 42 Percent In July
March 11, 2010
Car Sales Surge By 42 Percent In July:Overall sale in February 2010 showed a 73 per cent rise to 9,449 units as compared to 5,462 units in same month last year.
However, as compared to January when 10,514 units were sold, sale of cars in February plunged by 10 per cent to 9,449 units.
Figures released by the Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association revealed an increase in Toyota Corolla sale to 25,817 in July-February 2009-2010 as compared to 14,654 units in the same period last fiscal year due to introduction of new model in August 2009 and vehicles purchased by government departments.
However, Toyota sales in February 2010 dropped to 3,481 from highest 4,207 in January 2010. In February 2009, 2,444 units were sold.
Director Sales and Marketing Indus Motor Company (IMC) Raza Ansari said drop in sales of Corolla cars in February 2010 has nothing to do with massive recall of over eight million cars worldwide. The drop was basically because of less working days.
Daihatsu Cuore remained under pressure as its sale plunged to 3,231 in July-February 2000-2010 from 4,413 units in the same period of last fiscal.
In February 2010, sale remained at 553 units as compared to 524 units in February 2009.
Sale of Honda Civic and City rose to 3,545 and 5,114 units in the last eight months of current as compared to 3,202 and 3,784 units in the same period of last financial year.
Sales of Suzuki Cultus, Alto and Mehran surged to 7,588, 6,751 and 14,360 units in July-February 2009-2010 as compared to 6,895, 4,715 and 9,509 units in the same period of last fiscal year, respectively.
February 2010 also proved healthy in terms of sale of Cultus, Alto and Mehran whose sale rose to 900, 857 and 1,707 units as compared to 412, 170 and 598 units in February 2009.
Hyundai Santro sale went up to 241 units in July-February 2009-2010 as compared to 187 units in the same period of last fiscal year.
Director Topline Securities Mohammad Sohail said that the sale of cars and light commercial vehicles may touch 130,000 units in the end of current financial year as compared to 99,000 in the previous fiscal.
However, this improvement is still slow if compared with 200,000 units of cars and LCV sales in 2006-2007. This is because of negligible volume of car financing by banks as compared three years back, he said.
Some assemblers had raised prices in January 2010 followed by Rs20,000-30,000 made by IMC on Feb 23, but it seems that the price-hike had not made any impact on buying sentiments of the consumers as their confidence on locally made cars has improved.Dawn News
Spain’s Solar Power Tower
March 10, 2010
Spain’s Solar Power Tower:Cresting the brow of autovia A-49 in Andalusia, 10 miles outside of Seville, the world’s first commercial solar “power tower” appears on the skyline like a giant obelisk.
Even on an overcast morning the sun’s rays are so intense they illuminate the water vapor and dust hanging in the air to create a giant lattice of white lines that appear to emanate from the eye of the tower.
The tower itself is 115 meters high the height of a 14-storey building and, bathed in intense white light, the overall effect resembles nothing so much as a religious object.
Valerio Fernandez is director of operations for the PS10 platform and its neighbor, PS20. That means he is responsible for the 624 giant mirrors — or heliostats — that reflect the sun’s rays into a receiver located at the top of the tower.
Each heliostat measures 120 square meters, which gives the entire heliostat field an area of 75,000 square meters. On a sunny day this can produce up to 11 megawatts of energy, enough to power a town of 6,000 homes, such as the neighboring community of Sanlucar la Mayor. More
China Steel Sector Facing Lot Of Problems
March 6, 2010
China Steel Sector Facing Lot Of Problems:BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s huge and fragmented steel sector is facing a painful period of restructuring and only the best companies will survive, the head of one of the country’s biggest mills said on Saturday.
Zhu Jimin, the head of the Beijing-based Shougang Group , told reporters that while he was “neither optimistic nor pessimistic” about the prospects for the sector in 2010, demand would remain strong but the industry would still have to resolve some of its long-standing problems.
“The industry is facing many, many uncertainties at home and overseas,” he said at a briefing on the sidelines of the latest session of China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress.
“For many kinds of historical reasons, Chinese steel firms are very dispersed, and this affects transportation costs and affects the pace of industry restructuring,” he added.
Surging demand helped keep smaller mills in operation last year as the government’s 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus package drove a nationwide construction boom, but Zhu said the perennial problem of overcapacity still had to be addressed.
A wide-ranging plan to “rectify” the sector had already been submitted to the State Council, China’s cabinet, for approval, he said, and in the next few years programs aimed at improving energy efficiency and eliminating outdated and polluting capacity would eventually winnow out the worst performers and force the big players to switch to more high-end steel products.
The steel sector is facing significantly higher costs this year, with prices of key raw materials like iron ore and coking coal surging as a result of higher demand, but the mills have been unable to pass the increased burden onto their customers.
Many, including the China Iron and Steel Association, have blamed the smaller, privately-owned mills for “blindly” expanding capacity and causing a glut on the market, thereby eroding the margins of the bigger steel enterprises.
Chinese steel firms are also facing higher contract iron ore prices, with some analysts saying Australia’s Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton and Vale of Brazil could demand an increase of as much as 80 percent during this year’s benchmark iron ore talks.
Zhu refused to comment on the price negotiations, saying they were being led by Shanghai’s Baosteel and that his own company was not involved.
Large Rubber Arm Paperweight,1981 Z28
March 5, 2010
Related Searches:z28, z28 camaro, 81 z28, large rubber arm paperweight, world of wheels chicago 2010
Large Rubber Arm Paperweight,1981 Z28:The page is back with full content with the exception of the Photo Gallery which will be handed off and put back online as soon as I get my shot together.
For Camaro-related questions, the 2GCOG Message Board and the great enthusiast base that frequents it can provide answers better than I can. If you need to contact me please be advised that I don’t have the time or the desire to keep up with the load of E-Mails that this page generates, so chances are you won’t hear back. If you still want to try, I can be reached here.
It is surprising how widespread enthusiasts are, including places such as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Curacao, Denmark, England, Finland, Holland, Hungary, New Caledonia, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, Turkey, and the USA.
Northgatearinso
March 4, 2010
Northgatearinso:Convergys Corp. (CVG: News ) announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to sell its Human Resources Management or HRM line of business to NorthgateArinso, a global human resources software & services provider, for about $85 million in cash at closing and $15 million in cash over three years.
Convergys expects the transaction to close in the second quarter, once all customary consents and regulatory approvals are received.
Convergys said that it is removing from its fiscal 2010 guidance for continuing operations approximately $250 million in revenues, $20 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization or EBITDA, and the $0.10 earnings per share impact related to the HR Management line of business.The company now expects customer Management revenues of approximately $2 billion and Information Management revenues of approximately $350 million for fiscal 2010.
Instanex Skindia GDR Index Moved Up
March 4, 2010
Instanex Skindia GDR Index Moved Up:Mumbai, Mar 4 (PTI) The Instanex Skindia GDR Index advanced further by another 30.66 points or 1.14 per cent to 2,722.65 as on March 03 from 2,691.99 previously. The P/E ratio also moved up to 23.45 from 23.28 previously, an Instanex Capital release said here today.
Following are the GDR and ADR rates for Mar 03 in the US dollars with differences in percentage from the previous level given in brackets. Dr Reddy’’s (ADR) 25.53 (+0.31) GAIL (GDR) 52.00 (-0.23) Grasim Ind (GDR) 60.06 (+1.57) ICICI Bank (ADR) 40.05 (+1.93) Infosys Tech (ADR) 59.04 (-0.07) ITC (GDR) 5.33 (+1.33) L&T (GDR) 34.41 (-0.23) Mah & Mah (GDR) 23.45 (+0.13) Ranbaxy Labs (GDR) 10.17 (-2.68) Reliance (GDR) 43.40 (+0.93) Satyam Comp (ADR) 5.42 (+0.18) SBI (GDR) 91.00 (+3.34) Sterlite Ind (ADR) 17.93 (+2.22) Tata Commun (ADR) 12.51 (-0.32) Tata Motors (ADR) 17.64 (+0.80) PTI ARR.
Nissan Recall Due To Problem In Cars
March 3, 2010
Nissan Recall Due To Problem In Cars: Nissan recalled 540,000 cars over faulty brake pedal issues that may also affect the fuel gauge.
According to an AFP report the cars included in the recall are “the Titan, Armada and Infiniti QX56 built from 2005 to 2008, and the Frontier, Pathfinder and Xterra produced between January and March 2006 and between October 2007 and January 2008.”
The brake pedals could have faulty components that can cause the pedals to wobble, AFP reported.
“Vehicles at higher mileage levels may have fuel gauges which incorrectly indicate the amount of fuel in the tank. This may result in the vehicle running out of fuel while the gauge reads greater than empty.”
Nissan said the problem were caused by its suppliers.
