Li Keqiang News

China is ready to resume oil and gas talks and manage maritime issues "cordially" with the Philippines, China President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday, according to Chinese state television.Xi was speaking to his Philippines counterpart Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who was on a three-day visit to Beijing.Beijing's territorial claims in the South China Sea, which is rich in oil, gas, and fish and where about $3 trillion in ship-borne trade passes annually, had been a source of tension between it and some Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines.

A delegation from a leading Chinese shipbuilding company has arrived in Croatia for talks about a possible investment in the country's largest shipbuilder Uljanik, which is struggling to avoid bankruptcy.Officials from the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC) met Croatia's Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and his economic team on Monday and will visit Uljanik's docks in the northern Adriatic later this week."After the visit to the docks we will give full and serious consideration to this matter," CSIC's Chief Executive Hu Wenming told reporters. He said the delegation included lawyers and investment bankers to advise on any investment.Uljanik…

A court in Croatia on Wednesday postponed a bankruptcy ruling for the country's biggest shipbuilding group Uljanik until May 13, as the government tried to delay activation of state guarantees to a customer for late delivery of a vessel.The commercial court in the northwestern town of Pazin had already delayed its ruling from March and the decision in May should be final. Bankruptcy would threaten the jobs of around 3,000 workers.Uljanik, which owns two shipyards in the northern Adriatic cities of Pula and Rijeka and is 25 percent owned by the state, has been working to stave off bankruptcy due to liquidity problems that began in 2017.The…

China accused the United States of bullying and warned it would hit back after the Trump administration raised the stakes in their trade dispute, threatening 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods.China's commerce ministry said on Wednesday it was "shocked" and would complain to the World Trade Organisation, but did not immediately say how it would retaliate. In a statement, it called the U.S. actions "completely unacceptable".The foreign ministry described Washington's…

Dueling tariffs raise fears of long A U.S.-China trade fight resulting in duties on $34 billion worth of each other's imports was seen dragging on for a potentially prolonged period, as Washington and Beijing flexed their muscles with no sign of negotiations to ease tensions.Friday marked the start of the U.S. duties that were promptly met with retribution by China, as Beijing accused the United States of triggering the "largest-scale trade war."The escalating fight between the…

Rodolphe Saadé, Chief Executive Officer of CMA CGM Group, has received this Tuesday, July 4, 2017, Yong YING, Mayor of Shanghai, who is on an official visit to Marseille for the signature of the 30 years of twinning between the two cities. On this occasion, the Mayor of Shanghai and Rodolphe Saadé looked back on the history of the remarkable relationship between China and CMA CGM since 1992. CMA CGM is the only company he will visit during his trip in France. Yong YING stated: There is a fruitful cooperation between Shanghai and CMA CGM. Given its close relations with China and the city of Shanghai, CMA CGM was keen to invite several business leaders to strengthen their ties with this country, which offers enormous potential development.

The recent months’ uptick in global indicators, which implies a strengthening in the global economy, is not sufficient for the patient to be discharged yet. The state of the global economy is still uncertain, despite stronger growth dynamics in advanced economies, and not least in China. When the IMF updated its outlook for advanced economies for 2017 and 2018 in January, it was the first time since 2007 that an IMF January update lifted expectations for the present and coming years.

China appears to have largely completed major construction of military infrastructure on artificial islands it has built in the South China Sea and can now deploy combat planes and other military hardware there at any time, a U.S. think tank said on Monday. The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), part of Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the work on Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief Reefs in the Spratly Islands included naval, air, radar and defensive facilities. The think tank cited satellite images taken this month, which its director, Greg Poling, said showed new radar antennae on Fiery Cross and Subi. "So look for deployments in the near future," he said. China has denied U.S. China's Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

China on Thursday pledged a firm response if Japan stirs up trouble in the South China Sea, after Reuters reported on a Japanese plan to send its largest warship to the disputed waters. The Izumo helicopter carrier, commissioned only two years ago, will make stops in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka before joining the Malabar joint naval exercise with Indian and U.S. naval vessels in the Indian Ocean in July, sources told Reuters. The trip would be Japan's biggest show of naval force in the region since World War Two. "If Japan persists in taking wrong actions, and even considers military interventions that threaten China's sovereignty and security...

China's determination to tackle its choking pollution by cutting steel and coal capacity should be a long-term negative for exporters of iron ore and coal to the world's biggest commodity importer, but the reality is likely to be far more nuanced. "We will make our skies blue again," Premier Li Keqiang told the opening of parliament on Sunday. That's an unequivocal statement that gives political impetus to Beijing's plans to shutter more excess steel and coal capacity. The policy…

The Belgian dredging, environmental and marine engineering group DEME and COSCO Shipping - the largest shipping company in the world - will work closely on the development of offshore wind energy in China. The umbrella agreement was signed today in the presence of Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel and the Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. The attendance of both Heads of Government signifies the importance of the cooperation agreement and the Chinese vision concerning the transition to renewable energy. DEME and COSCO Shipping are both market leaders in their sectors and have found one another in a joint venture active in offshore wind energy in China.

The Belgian dredging, environmental and marine engineering group DEME Group and Chinese COSCO Shipping have officially embarked on a joint journey to develop offshore wind energy in China, under an umbrella agreement signed on 31 October, following the two companies’ joint venture announcement in May. DEME and China COSCO Shipping are both market leaders in their sectors and have found one another in the COSCOCS - DEME joint venture active in offshore wind energy in China. As the largest shipping company in the world, China COSCO Shipping wishes to enter this new market segment and has found a partner in DEME's subsidiary GeoSea, with its extensive experience in developing, building and maintaining offshore wind farms.

China and Malaysia signed 14 agreements on Tuesday, including one on navy vessels, after a meeting between Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. The agreement on the joint development of the vessels, known as littoral mission ships, was announced at a signing ceremony at Beijing's Great Hall of the People. Last week, Malaysia's defence ministry said in a posting on social media that the country would sign a contract to purchase patrol vessels from China during Najib's visit, but the post was later removed. The deal could mark Malaysia's first significant defence deal with China at a time of rising tension in the South China Sea and as the United States and China compete for influence in the region. Reporting by Sue-Lin Wong

China said on Thursday it had issued a formal protest after Australia announced it would continue to exercise its right to freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea following a court ruling against China's claims. The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague concluded this week that China had no historic claim to the waters and it had violated the Philippines' economic and sovereign rights. China rejected the ruling, having declined to participate in the case saying the court had no jurisdiction. Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop urged all South China Sea claimants to resolve their disputes peacefully, saying Australia would keep exercising its international rights to freedom of navigation and overflight, and support the right of others to do the same.

Greece’s deal with Chinese shipping giant COSCO is “helping the country stand on its feet,” Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said. “We are sending a strong message to the international markets that Greece is decisively entering a new phase,” Tsipras said. According to a report in Xinhua, China and Greece have great hopes for Piraeus port, as attested to by the meeting of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and his Greek counterpart Alexis Tsipras on Monday. Li met with Tsipras in Beijing on Monday afternoon, with much of their meeting focused on Piraeus. COSCO and the Greek state privatization authority TAIPED officially signed an agreement for the sale of a majority stake in the Port of Piraeus (OLP).

China's State Council has approved a merger of the country's two biggest shipping conglomerates, China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company (COSCO) and China Shipping Group Co, the state asset supervisor said on its website on Friday. The combined entity would become the world's fourth-largest container shipper with a roughly 8.1 percent market share. That would be far behind AP Moeller - Maersk A/S, Mediterranean Shipping Co SA and CMA CGM SA. Premier Li Keqiang last week said the government would spend the next two years eliminating overcapacity, with long-term money-losing companies going "under the knife." Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Saturday that countries should stop building artificial islands and militarising their claims in the disputed South China Sea. "For the sake of regional stability the claimants should halt reclamation, construction and militarisation of disputed areas," Obama told a meeting between the United States and leaders of the 10 Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). China insists it has undisputed sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, a claim that overlaps with four ASEAN countries. China has been transforming reefs in the Spratly archipelago into artificial islands and has built airfields and other facililties on them.

China has shown "great restraint" in the South China Sea by not seizing islands occupied by other countries even though it could have, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Tuesday ahead of two regional summits where the disputed waterway is likely to be a hot topic. Beijing has overlapping claims with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei in the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. Reclamation work and the building of three airfields and other facilities on some of China's artificial islands in the Spratly archipelago have alarmed the region and raised concern in Washington that China is extending its military reach deep into maritime Southeast Asia.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told South Korea's president on Monday he wanted cooperation between the two countries and the United States in maintaining an open and peaceful South China Sea, a Japanese government spokesman said. Abe has in the past been critical of China's assertiveness in the South China Sea, through which much of Japan and South Korea's trade and energy supplies pass. "He said Japan would like to cooperate with South Korea and the United States at various occasions to preserve the open, free and peaceful sea," Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda told reporters after Abe held talks with President Park Geun-hye of South Korea in Seoul.

* Volumes carried during the second quarter increased by 6.2% year-on-year, to 3.3 million TEUs, compared to global market volume growth of between 1% and 2%. * Average revenue per container carried decreased by 7.8%. However, this decrease was significantly less than benchmark indices for the period due to the broad diversity of the Group's customers and lines. * Unit costs fell 10.9%, largely due to the sharp fall in oil prices. * Core EBIT surged 59.3% compared to the second quarter of 2014 to $325 million, as the Group’s lower unit costs outpaced the decline in average revenue per container carried. The core EBIT margin of 7.9% was once again significantly above peer averages. * Consolidated net profit group Share came to $156 million, up 66.7% on second-quarter 2014.

Rescue crews have found 114 bodies, with 95 people still missing, 85 of whom are firefighters, after two huge explosions  China’s Port of Tianjin where dangerous chemicals and goods are stored late Wednesday night, Xinhua news agency reports. Chinese authorities are still trying to ascertain what exactly caused a potent mix of chemicals to ignite. Authorities had earlier said that the warehouse contained calcium carbide, potassium nitrate and ammonium nitrate. The local media say that hundreds of tonnes of highly poisonous cyanide were being stored at the warehouse. The comments by Shi Luze, chief of the general staff of the Beijing military region, were the first official confirmation of the presence of the chemical at the hazardous goods storage facility at the centre of the blast.

JACCAR Holdings informed that  Mr. Li Keqiang – Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of China - during his recent state visit to France signed Memorandam of Understanding  with Mr. Manuel Valls, Prime Minister of France , for a 900 M$ financing of gas carriers with ICBC leasing. Jacques de Chateauvieux, as Chairman and CEO of Cana Tera and JACCAR Holdings declared “we are extremely honored to benefit from the trust of ICBC Leasing for the second time following the BOURBON sale and bare boat charter for 10 years of 46 offshore vessels completed last year. This will strengthen our ability to engineer and contract innovative vessels in China whilst benefitting from local financing as well”.

“One Belt, One Road” is a Chinese development strategy launched at the end of 2013 that focuses on connectivity and cooperation among countries primarily in Eurasia. The strategy has two main components, namely the land-based “Silk Road Economic Belt” and the ocean-going “Maritime Silk Road.” Antwerp has a potentially very important role to play in both these routes as a major trading hub, and so the Port Authority is setting up a special taskforce for this purpose. The importance of this project for Europe can hardly be underestimated, and so during the recent state visit to China by king Philippe of Belgium the country applied to join the new Asian Infrastructure Development Bank, the investment bank behind the strategy.