China’s manufacturing activity edged down last month, but largely maintained its momentum despite increased curbs on heavy industry aimed at taming the country’s chronic air pollution, official data showed yesterday.
The manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI), a gauge of factory conditions, stood at 51.6 last month, compared with 51.8 in November, the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.
Anything above 50 is considered growth, while a figure below that number indicates a contraction. The number was in line with the expectations of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.
Photo: Reuters
China has curbed activity in heavy industries in the country’s northeast in an effort to reduce surplus capacity and the heavy smog that typically blankets the region during the late autumn and winter months.
In the face of public discontent over chronic pollution, the world’s second-largest economy has signaled that it is willing to tolerate a slowdown in economic growth in exchange for an improved environment.
However, the move to cut back on heavily polluting industries, such as steel, has so far not had a major effect on the country’s manufacturing sector.
“2017 has been a year of stabilization for the Chinese economy, after a recovery in 2016,” Bloomberg News quoted Gavekal Dragonomics (龍洲經訊) economist Chen Long (陳龍) as saying.
The annual average PMI reading for last year was 51.6, the NBS said.
Meanwhile, China has tightened rules on how much cash cardholders can withdraw overseas in a bid to clamp down on money laundering, “terrorist financing” and tax evasion, authorities said on Saturday.
The annual limit is to be set at 100,000 yuan (US$15,369) per person from today — no matter how many cards a person has.
Currently, there is an annual ATM cap of 100,000 yuan for each separate card, but there is nothing to stop users from withdrawing many times this amount using multiple cards.
The new rules would “prevent law breakers from withdrawing a large amount of cash with different cards from different banks,” China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange said. Anyone exceeding the limit would be barred from withdrawing cash overseas for the remainder of the year and the following year.
The move comes as China has struggled with capital flight and tightened capital controls last year to stem the outflow of money.
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Dutch brewing company Heineken NV on Friday announced an investment of NT$13.5 billion (US$414.62 million) over the next five years in Taiwan. The first multinational brewing company to operate in Taiwan, Heineken made the statement at a ceremony held at its brewery in Pingtung County. It also outlined its efforts to make the brewery “net zero” by 2030. Heineken has been in the Taiwanese market for 20 years, Heineken Taiwan managing director Jeff Wu (吳建甫) said. With strong support from local consumers, the Dutch brewery decided to transition from sales to manufacturing in the country, Wu said. Heineken assumed majority ownership and management rights
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI