Your daily digest of the biggest business news in China, translated and summarized every day.
Milk is cheaper than spring water in China
Chinese dairy farmers in western provinces have dumped tonnes of fresh milk due to quality issues, according to China News Service.
Dairy farmers complain that they are only getting 0.8 yuan per litre of fresh milk, 50 per cent less than the year before. Some dairy farmers can’t bear the increasing cost of production and have been forced to sell their cows.
One farmer says the wholesale price for fresh milk is lower than spring water.
China’s entertainment industry doubles in size
Chinese entertainment industry has doubled its size in the last three years, growing from a 80 billion yuan a year industry to 165 billion a year in three years, according to Huayi Brothers, one of China’s leading movie studios.
China’s movie industry revenue increased from 16 billion yuan a year to 28 billion during the last three years, an increase of 70 per cent. Income from movie theatres also shot up from 22 billion yuan to 30 billion yuan. China is the world’s second largest movie market after the US.
90 per cent of entertainment revenue comes from residents of the country’s first and second tier cities. The managing director of Huayi Brothers says there is still potential for growth in the country’s vast hinterland.
(Caixin)
Property developers clean up
Chinese property developers have bought 319 billion yuan worth of land in the four first tier cities during the first 11 months of the year, breaking the country’s record.
Property analysts estimate developers are likely to spend up to 350 billion yuan on buying up high quality land in major cities. There is a recent easing in the property market as Beijing unleashes more measures to prop up the sector.
(Caijing)
China's stockmarkets plunges 5% in late trade
After rising by more than 2 per cent in morning trade, the Shanghai Composite Index closed down almost 6 per cent yesterday, in the biggest daily fall this year.
The rapid decline wiped off close to 9 per cent off bank sector stocks and led to a trading halt of almost 200 firms.
Trading in shares on China's main boards are halted when they rise or fall by more than 10 per cent.
The combined trading volume on both the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets exceeded 1.26 trillion yuan, once again breaking all previous daily turnover records.
Since July, the Shanghai index has soared, rising by almost 20 per cent over the past month alone.
(Caixin)
Alibaba's Taobao platform officially launches second-hand car trading
An online second-hand car market hosted on Taobao, the consumer-to-consumer platform of China's Alibaba Group, officially came online on Monday.
Taobao has already become an established platform for those looking to trade accessories and after sales services related to vehicles.
Now the online platform has officially launched a second-hand car trading section, after trialling sales during the recent 'Singles Day' sales in mid-November.
For the most part, the market will be limited to cars in the local area and Taobao has teamed up with half a dozen reputable online second-hand car dealers.
The lack of clear standards in China's second-hand car market will be a challenge for the online platform.
In a bid to deal with this issue, most of the cars sold through the platform will come with a detailed condition report and a six-month to one-year guarantee.
Slower economic growth needed: senior official
One of China’s leading economic policy makers has stepped up his calls for a focus on the quality of economic growth over speed.
In a commentary published in the official Communist Party mouthpiece the People’s Daily yesterday, Mr Liu Shijin, deputy head of Development and Research Centre of the State Council, called for more structural reforms and slower growth.
The article said some stimulus measures may be needed but shouldn’t be used in place of reforms.
“The important objectives are to adjust the economic structure and boost its quality,” said Mr Liu, in the commentary.
The article reflects comments made by Mr Liu made late last month to Caixin magazine in which he said it was more important to maintain employment, improve people’s livelihood, enable companies to stay profitable than it is to maintain a certain pace of economic development.