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Thursday January 4, 2018

Nation set to be world’s biggest natural gas importerCHINA’S crackdown on pol-lution has put the country on track to overtake Japan this year as the world’s biggest importer of natural gas, used to replace dirtier coal.

China — already the biggest importer of oil and coal — is the world’s third-biggest user of natu-ral gas behind the United States and Russia, but has to import around 40 percent of its total needs as domestic production can’t keep up with demand.

Data compiled from the Thomson Reuters Eikon ter-minal indicates China’s 2017

imports of pipeline gas and liquefi ed natural gas (LNG) will top 67 million tons, up by more than a quarter from a year ear-lier. LNG imports alone surged more than 50 percent.

The data, which includes LNG tanker arrivals to China and pipeline monthly import fl ow estimates, is preliminary as December fi gures are not yet available.

China still lags behind Japan, with annual gas imports of around 83.5 million tons, all LNG. But its overall gas imports topped Japan’s in September and again

in November, government data and shipping fl ows show.

Analysts say the trend is set and China should top Japan for the full year in 2018.

“Both LNG and pipeline imports will continue to increase in the next few years. We expect China to overtake Japan as the world’s largest gas importer in 2018,” said Huang Miaoru, Asia gas and LNG senior manager at energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

“But Japan will remain the No. 1 LNG importer till around 2028,” she added.

China last year started to move millions of households and many industrial facilities from coal to gas as part of efforts to clean its skies, sparking an unprecedented rally in overseas import orders.

China’s three biggest LNG suppliers are Australia, Qatar and Malaysia, while pipeline imports come from Central Asia and Myanmar. A pipeline con-necting China to Russia is under construction.

Unlike established LNG importers, which import the bulk of their cargoes under long-term contracts with fi xed monthly vol-

umes and a link to the oil market, many Chinese utilities buy LNG in the spot market when they need it at short notice, such as the current peak demand winter season.

As a result, Asian spot LNG prices have more than doubled since June to US$11.20 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), their highest since November 2014, making LNG one of last year’s strongest performing commodities.

China’s surging demand already pushed it past South Korea in 2017 as the world’s No. 2 LNG importer. (SD-Agencies)

China has created a France-sized pile of new jobsA crowded job fair takes place at Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center in this fi le photo. New jobs created in China’s urban areas over the last fi ve years nearly equal the population of France, latest offi cial fi gures show. Cities have added more than 65 million jobs since late 2012, keeping unemployment low, according to Yin Weimin, minister of human resources and social security. SD-Agencies

A CONSORTIUM led by State-run China Harbor Engineering Co. will invest US$1 billion to build three 60-story offi ce towers on reclaimed land of the Port City development in Sri Lanka’s capital, a Sri Lankan minister said Tuesday.

The US$1.4 billion develop-ment of Port City, a project of China Communication Construc-tion Co., the parent company of China Harbor Engineering, began in late 2016 as part of China’s plans to create a modern-day “Silk Road” across Asia.

The deal follows an earlier Chi-nese investment of US$1.4 billion to carry out reclamation work for the wider Colombo International Financial City development, strategically located next to Sri Lanka’s harbor, the only deep sea container port in the region.

The countries hope the project, initiated by former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Raj-apakse, will create a fi nancial center comparable with those in Singapore and Europe, drawing billions in foreign investment.

“It will be part of the new fi nancial city,” Regional Devel-opment Minister Champika Ranawaka told reporters while accompanying Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on a inspection tour of the Port City development in Colombo. “The investment will be US$1 billion and we expect to sign the agree-ments this month in Beijing.”

About 60 percent of its total area is reclaimed land from the sea in the commercial heart of Colombo, adjacent to the main port and the historic Galle Face Green park. The rest is expected to be reclaimed by June 2019.

For the overall project, Sri Lanka anticipates an eventual US$13 billion of investment in housing, marinas, health facilities, schools and other developments over the next 30 years. The project is expected to create over 83,000 jobs.

CHEC Port City Colombo (Pvt) Ltd., the Sri Lankan company handling the project for China Communication Construction, aims to deliver the fi rst site for construction by the end of 2018. (SD-Agencies)

Firm to invest US$1b in Sri Lanka project ANT Financial Services Group

abandoned its plan to merge with MoneyGram International after the companies failed to win approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a national secu-rity panel that has become more active in blocking Chinese invest-ments in U.S. companies.

The companies plan to work together on new strategic initia-tives in the remittance and digital payments markets, they said in a joint statement Tuesday. Last year, Ant Financial offered US$18 a share in cash for Dallas-based MoneyGram, valuing the deal at US$1.2 billion.

“The geopolitical environment has changed considerably since we fi rst announced the proposed transaction with Ant Financial nearly a year ago,” MoneyGram chief executive offi cer Alex Holmes said. “Despite our best efforts to work cooperatively with the U.S. Government, it has now become clear that CFIUS will not approve this merger.”

Hangzhou, Zhejiang Prov-ince-based Ant Financial, which is controlled by billionaire Jack Ma, has faced intense scrutiny for its proposed takeover of MoneyGram. It had resubmit-ted its merger deal to the panel several times, to no avail.

Last spring, two U.S. House of Representatives members said the acquisition would give China access to the fi nancial infrastruc-ture of the United States.

Chinese takeovers of U.S. fi rms have prompted warnings from lawmakers about risks to national security. In September, U.S. President Donald Trump blocked the sale of Lattice Semi-conductor Corp. to a buyer funded by a Chinese State-owned entity.

Ant Financial, a behemoth providing services from wealth management and insurance to credit checks and consumer loans, has disputed assertions that U.S. security would be compromised by the deal, citing its plans to keep MoneyGram’s headquarters, management team and employees in Dallas.

The company said Money-Gram’s servers — and the data stored on them — would also remain in the United States.

(SD-Agencies)

Ant drops deal for MoneyGram

THE government has eased restrictions on coal imports by quickening the customs clearing process, sources in the trade and at utilities said Tuesday, dampen-ing record high prices as cheaper foreign supply lands at ports.

The country tightened imports by banning small ports from receiving foreign coal cargoes and delaying the process of issu-ing quality reports for imports from July 1.

Traders said it took as many as 40 days to clear customs compared with one to two weeks previously.

Prices of the most active ther-mal coal futures have fallen more than 5 percent from a record

high of 641 yuan (US$98.77) per ton hit Dec. 18.

Sources said authorities at major coal import hubs have shortened the time it has taken to issue a quality inspection report for foreign coal cargoes and have cut random checks since late December.

“More supplies are arriving at ports as utilities ready to stock up on cheaper foreign coal,” a Beijing trader said.

A campaign to switch mil-lions of households from using coal to natural gas has created a shortage of natural gas, forcing factories and many gas power plants to shut down.

The campaign also unexpect-

edly boosted demand from coal-fi red power plants, which are operating at higher rates to provide electricity for winter heating.

“Power plants signed a large amount of import contracts for January and reduced consump-tion of high-price domestic ther-mal coal,” another trader said.

In December, China tempo-rarily halted imports by delay-ing customs clearance after the total import volume exceeded an unoffi cial government target, two trade sources said.

Market players, however, expect the curbs to make a come-back as early as next month on weakening demand. (SD-Agencies)

Thermal coal prices fall on easing import curbs

THE Chinese provider of jumbo-screen cinemas said it is aiming to be the top brand in a market dominated by Canada-based IMAX Corp. as it focuses on expanding with a business model that lets theater operators retain a bigger share of ticket sales.

“We have a government mandate to become the largest premium large-format brand in China’s fi lm market and we are confi dent we’ll achieve that target in 2019,” Lin Minjie, chairman of China Film Digital Giant Screen (Beijing) Co., said in an interview in Beijing. “Our top priority is

expansion, not profi tability.”Theater operators in China

and around the world are adding premium services like giant-screen formats to stem a loss of viewers to digital platforms. China Giant Screen, also known as CGS, will have a network of 288 screens in the country at the end of this year, compared with 430 as of June for IMAX, which counts the country as its largest market.

CGS entered the market fi ve years ago, compared with IMAX which has been in China for a more than a decade. Lin

said CGS has been able to grow its theater network because it has a fl exible business model that offers a more diversifi ed fi lm pipeline and that charges only a fl at-fee for each installation.

Most IMAX screen operators must share ticket revenue with the company. Also, IMAX usually has a narrower range of fi lms on offer at theaters than does CGS.

China Film Digital Giant Screen is a subsidiary of State-owned China Film Co., the importer and distributor of Hollywood fi lms in China.

(SD-Agencies)

Jumbo-screen cinema provider aiming for No. 1 spot