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Due to the financial crisis, the contracted value of foreign investment stood at $160 million during the expo, a drop of 39.4 percent compared with that of last year. The previous 10 expos have seen a contracted value totaling 25.9 billion yuan and introduced foreign investment of $1.37 billion.

“To reduce the crisis’ impact on the expo, we did lots of job in exploring the potential of new markets, such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. Meanwhile, we’ve been trying to spur the domestic demand,” said Zhao Yonghuan, spokesman of Yuyao municipal government, one of the organizers of the expo.

Thanks to these efforts, over 500 enterprises have ordered all the 2,000 booths in the expo by the end of September, with 30.6 percent of them being international exhibitors and the remaining being domestic firms. However, large companies’ average booths, including those of Bayer and Shanghai Bluestar, saw a decrease, falling from 14.7 last year to 12.4 this year. And the participants of small and medium enterprises and High-tech enterprises was up three to four percentage points than the previous year.

Meanwhile, the organizer also resorted to an online transaction market to attract investors. So far, Zhejiang Online Plastics Transaction Center, which is also headquartered in Yuyao, has achieved 80 percent of China’s online plastics transactions.

Besides the expo, the China Plastics Industry Development Forum will be held at the same time, basing its theme on the role of technology and innovation to counter the global economic downturn and the better use of energy-friendly techniques in the plastics industry.

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China’s robust government finances and adequate institutional strength had contributed to its strong recovery from the global downturn, according to a senior official of Moody’s Investors Service, a world leading ratings agency.

Tom Byrne, senior vice president of Moody’s, made the statement Thursday in a forum on China’s banking and sovereign outlook in Beijing.

Moody’s said Monday it had raised the outlook for China’s A1 credit rating from stable to positive as the country was emerging from the global financial crisis.

The Chinese government has successfully steered the economy through the turbulence of the global financial crisis and recession, Moody’s said in its report.

China kicked off its four-trillion-yuan ($586 billion) stimulus plan last November, which was due to run its course by the end of 2010, and had adhered to proactive fiscal and moderately easy monetary policies ever since.

“The stimulus program is a success. It is pushing the economy, helping the growth, and it had brought a lot of infrastructure investment, prevented a lot of job losses and many bankruptcies that might happen without the stimulus,” Byrne said.

The stimulus package that the government is implementing to maintain growth is having only a modest effect on China’s public finances, according to the report.

China’s banking system was also emerging from the crisis in a relatively strong position, Moody’s said. The ratings agency attributed the system’s strength to withstand “stress scenarios” to the country’s largest banks’ solid earnings, loan-loss reserves and capital-adequacy ratios.

Byrne said Moody’s confidence in China’s economic and ratings outlook came from the country’s institutional and regulatory strength.

“China has adequate institutional strength. Chinese policymakers are not just sitting by. They keep vigilant, anticipate future problems and take preemptive steps to prevent things going worse,” he said.

When asked about the risks that government spending might bring about, he said, “recognizing some risks, our basic view is that the infrastructure spending and investment spending in China will be economically valuable.”

“Inflation is not a threat to macroeconomic stability for now,” said Byrne, noting that the time for tightening shouldn’t come until “the economy grows on a firm footing and inflationary pressure builds up.”

Byrne said Moody’s forecast China’s goal of 8 percent growth rate for 2009 was achievable, and the figure for 2010 could reach 8.5 percent.

China’s gross domestic product growth accelerated to 8.9 percent in the third quarter and the figure for the first nine months reached 7.7 percent year-on-year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Moody’s said that, before giving China a higher rating, it needed to be reassured that China would maintain its progress over the next 12-18 months and the stimulus program did not lead to asset bubbles.

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China will overtake the United States as the world’s largest construction market by 2018, according to a forecast by Global Construction Perspectives and Oxford Economics on Thursday.

The report said, in just 10 years, China’s already massive construction market will be worth almost $2.4 trillion and represent 19.1 percent of global construction output.

Speaking at the launch of the report “Global Construction 2020″ in London, Mike Betts of Global Construction Perspectives said that China’s construction industry looks unstoppable, “The construction market in China is already enormous at almost double the size of its nearest rival Japan. The United States has for some time held the top spot but despite its strong predicted growth over the next decade, China will become the world’s largest construction market by 2018.”

From 2009 to 2020, only Nigeria and India will enjoy higher growth rates than China in their construction output. Despite India’s continued construction boom, China’s market will still be between three and four times larger than India’s at the end of the next decade.

n the vast majority of the emerging markets, residential construction helps to drive high growth rates. In China housing will be the slowest growing sector but still the country will see its construction market more than double in size in just one decade.

The 10-year forecast indicates that emerging markets will rapidly overtake the construction output of their developed neighbors. The top ten highest growth markets in 2020 will be entirely composed of emerging markets with Poland the only European country to feature on the list. China is third.

The report highlights that today’s global construction market is worth an estimated $7.5 trillion, representing 13.4 percent of global GDP. But by 2020, construction will be a $12.7 trillion global market, an overall growth of 70 percent in the next decade. Construction in 2020 will account for 14.6 percent of global GDP.

The infrastructure construction market in emerging markets will grow by a staggering 128 percent over the next decade to 2020, compared with just 18 percent over the same period in developed countries.

The largest construction market globally is residential accounting for 40 percent of the total global construction market by 2020 when it will be worth $5.1 trillion.

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The United States requested the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Wednesday to establish a dispute settlement panel to rule on China’s export restraints on raw materials. But Chinese officials insist that they are consistent with WTO rules.

The materials at issue are: bauxite, coke, fluorspar, magnesium, manganese, silicon metal, silicon carbide, yellow phosphorus, and zinc, key inputs for numerous downstream products in the steel, aluminum, and chemical sectors across the globe.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) said in a statement that the raw materials are “critical to US manufacturers and workers.”

The USTR also said that the European Union and Mexico are joining the United States in requesting the establishment of a WTO dispute settlement panel regarding this matter.

The US and the EU requested formal consultations with China at the WTO on June 23, 2009, and Mexico filed its consultations request on August 21, 2009.

“We believe the restraints at issue in this dispute significantly distort the international market and provide preferential conditions for Chinese industries that use these raw materials,” said Debbie Mesloh, a USTR spokeswoman.

“Working together with the European Union and Mexico, we tried to resolve this issue through consultations, but did not succeed. At this point, therefore, we need to move forward with the next step in the WTO dispute settlement process,” Mesloh stated. “We remain open to working with China to find a mutually agreeable solution to our concerns.”

But the Chinese Ministry of Commerce defended China’s export policies, saying they are consistent with WTO rules.

The chief aim of China’s export policies is to protect the environment and conserve natural resources, said an official with the Ministry of Commerce in June.

China has been keeping communication and contact with the US and the EU over China’s policy on raw material exports, the official said, adding that China will properly deal with the consultation request in accordance with WTO dispute settlement procedures.

According to the procedures, China, the US, the EU and Mexico have 60 days to try to resolve their dispute through consultations. If consultations fail, the US, the EU and Mexico could ask for a WTO panel to investigate and rule on this dispute.

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Chinese President Hu Jintao (R) shakes hands with a relative of Qian Xuesen during the  memorial service for Qian in Beijing, China, Nov. 6, 2009. A memorial service for late Chinese space scientist Qian Xuesen was held Friday morning at the Beijing Babaoshan Cemetery. Qian, widely acclaimed as the country’s “father of space technology”, died of illness on Oct. 31 at the age of 98.

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Shell (China) Limited and China’s Shenhua Group, the nation’s biggest coal producer, Wednesday agreed to conduct joint research and development on clean coal technology.

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) on cooperation was signed between Shell (China) Limited and Shenhua Coal to Liquid and Chemical Co Ltd, a subsidiary of the Shenhua Group.

But a joint coal-to-liquid project of the two companies is being halted because of fluctuations in global crude oil prices.

Shi Xiaoli, Shell China director in charge of clean coal business, said a feasibility study on the coal-to-liquid project had been conducted but it had been decided to halt it as global crude prices were currently at a relatively low level, which would make profitability uncertain.

Wu Xiuzhang, Vice Chairman of Shenhua Coal to Liquid and Chemical Co Ltd, said the profitability of such a project was highly dependent on market conditions, while quality of coal supplies and prices also impacted on the project.

But Wu said Shenhua’s own coal-to-liquid pilot project, initiated in Inner Mongolia automonous region at the beginning of the year, would still be able to make a profit at current crude prices of between $65 and $70 a barrel.

Wednesday’s MOU did not specify any particular project the two sides would work on. It only said the two sides would seek more advanced technology to turn coal into gas and then to liquid, and discuss possible applications of carbon capture and storage technology.

Three Chinese manufacturers have signed agreements with Shell to produce key equipment for the latter’s coal-to-gas-to-liquid technology.

Shi said China is the largest market for Shell’s liquification technology, and such agreements would lower its manufacturing costs and make Shell’s equipment more competitive on the Chinese market.

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China’s domestically-made and imported cars saw prices slightly down in August from July, according to a report from the price monitoring center under the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic planner, Thursday.

Prices of domestically-made cars were 0.16 percent down in August from July, but 0.21 percent up from the same period last year.

Passenger vehicle prices increased 0.09 percent month on month, but dived 2.32 percent year on year. Commercial vehicle prices dropped 0.51 percent month on month, but soared 3.65 percent year on year.

Prices of imported cars dropped 0.17 percent in August from July, but added 6.11 percent year on year.

Analysts attributed the prices drop to expanded production capacity and seasonal price fluctuations.

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