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World Business Quick Take

■ Automobiles
China's auto sales soar
China's auto sales soared 36.9 percent last year to a record high 3.83 million units, an industry group said yesterday, amid a race by automakers for a share of the booming market. The increase contributed to a 25.1 percent rise in total vehicle sales to 7.22 million units, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said in a statement. The group is authorized by the government to release automotive industry data. The top automaker by sales was Shanghai General Motors Corp, a joint venture of General Motors Corp and Shanghai Automotive Industries Corp, with 365,400 vehicles sold, according to the association's data.

■ Stocks
Baosteel plans NY listing
China's leading steelmaker Baosteel Group (寶鋼集團) has started preparations for an overseas listing that could take place in New York, state media reported yesterday. Baosteel could list on the New York stock exchange as early as November if it can meet US listing standards, the official Shanghai Securities News said citing an unnamed official. Baoshan Iron Steel Co Ltd, the listed arm of Baosteel group on the Shanghai Securities Exchange, currently controls almost all of Baosteel Group's steel assets. Baosteel's net profit in the first nine months of last year was 9.54 billion yuan (US$1.22 billion), according to the group's third financial statement.

■ Entertainment
Macau punts on movies
Casino haven Macau is taking a gamble with the movies by combining a gaming resort with a film and television production studio in an ambitious US$2 billion project. Macao Studio City will boast a casino and hotels built around a film and TV lot, as pioneered by Universal Studios in Florida, its backers said. The complex will feature a concert venue, an upmarket retail center and at least three hotels offering 2,000 rooms, including a Marriott and Ritz Carlton as well as a boutique venture by Shanghai Tang retail tycoon David Tang (鄧永鏗). The first phase of Macao Studio City will be completed in 2009.

■ Energy
Turner forms solar company
Ted Turner, the cable television billionaire and owner of vast tracts of land in the US West, is forming a venture with a solar energy company targeting California markets. "Our future depends on changing the way we use energy," Turner said in a statement. "We've got to move away from fossil fuels and develop long-term energy solutions that work. Using clean energy technologies, such as solar power, is the right thing to do, and it represents a tremendous business opportunity." Turner will partner with Dome-Tech Solar, a solar company in Branchburg, New Jersey, to create DT Solar, a Turner renewable energy company.

■ Energy
Gazprom, Chevron agree JV
Russia's gas and oil giant Gazprom and US oil major Chevron have set up a joint venture based in resource-rich northwestern Siberia, the Interfax news agency reported yesterday quoting Gazprom officials. The joint venture would search and produce hydrocarbons, Gazprom officials said, but refused to elaborate further. Gazprom owns 30 percent of the new company's shares and plans to increase its stock to over 50 percent. Chevron's Moscow office refused to comment on the report, Interfax said.

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