China business news digest

Your daily digest of the biggest business news in China, translated and summarized every day.

Shanxi government loses 21 per cent of court cases

Shanxi provincial government lost 21.84 per cent of administrative cases against it, according to a report from its high court.

Administrative lawsuits against Chinese governments have been on the increase recently. The number of cases lodged in Beijing was up 20.5 per cent in 2013 and 23.7 per cent in Shanghai.

Though citizens can win up 40 per cent of cases against government in some provinces like Henan, Anhui and Shandong, the national average is only about 8.62 per cent, highlighting the difficulty citizens have suing the government under the country's administrative law.

(Caixin)

Vale sets up a new iron ore distribution centre in China

Brazilian iron ore giant Vale has set up a new iron ore distribution centre at the Port of Qingdao.

The Chinese port authority says the new centre is likely to reduce Vale's logistics costs.

Vale is building a fleet of super ore carriers that are capable of shipping 400,000 tonne of commodities.  The move is designed to drive down the transport costs.

(Caixin)

Low iron ore price boosts Chinese steel mills' bottom line

Chinese steel mills are set to earn 28 billion yuan in profit this year, making 2014 the best performing year in the last three years.

66 out of 88 major steel mills were profitable during the month of October, a significant improvement from April this year when nearly half of all steel mills were in the red.

Analysts say Chinese steel mills are profitable again due to rapidly declining iron ore and coking coal prices.

(Economic Information)

Land sales recover in major cities

Over 190 billion yuan worth of land have been sold so far this year in Beijing, breaking last year's record. 

Land sales in other three major tier one cities -- Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen also rebounded significantly. 

Developers spent 470 billion this year buying land in major cities.

(The Economic Observer)

Government spending still 2 trillion yuan short of 2015 target

From January to November all levels of the Chinese government spent 12.63 trillion yuan, 10.1 per cent more than the over the same period last year, according to figures released by the Ministry of Finance yesterday.

These government outlays account for only 82.5 per cent of budgeted outlays for the year, which means that if the government still plans to meet its spending target of over 15 trillion yuan, it will need to spend over 2 trillion yuan in December.

Over the past decade, fiscal spending in China has often peaked at the end of the year. In the past the central government has pledged to rein in these end-of-year 'spending sprees'. 

Over the same 11-month period, government revenue had increased by 8.3 per cent to 12.96 trillion yuan.

Central government revenue grew by 7 per cent when compared to the first 11 months of 2013 to reach 6.1 trillion yuan.

Local government revenue over the January to November period was up 9.5 per cent to 6.85 trillion yuan.

Total tax revenue over the period reached 11.06 trillion yuan, a 7.5 per cent increase over the same period in 2013.

Revenue from state-owned financial institutions had increased in recent months, while the rate of growth in tax revenue related to the real estate sector has slowed, according to the Ministry of Finance.

(Xinhua)