Lenovo announced on January 23 that it plans to buy IBM's X86 server business, a low-end unit, for $2.3 billion.

This is another cooperative project between Lenovo and IBM after Lenovo purchased IBM's personal computer business in 2005.

According to their agreement, about $2 billion will be dealt in cash and the rest in Lenovo's shares.

IBM will continue to develop and improve Windows and Linux software for the X86 platform. After the deal, Lenovo will take over customer services and maintenance while IBM will continue to provide maintenance services on behalf of Lenovo for a limited period.

Technology research firms IDC and Gartner said Lenovo, the world's largest PC supplier, took 17 percent of global market share with total shipments of about 53 million units in 2013.

PX Shortage

China will see a wider shortage of paraxylene (PX) supply in 2014, a research report warned on January 23.

The supply gap will be up to 9.5 million tons in 2014, said a report by the Economics and Technology Research Institute under the China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) Corp., the state-owned oil refining giant.

The domestic PX industry managed to meet only 47 percent of China's demand for PX in 2013, which topped 16.41 million tons, up 18.5 percent from 2012, while imports of the chemical hit 8.7 million tons, up 42 percent.

Since 2007, PX projects planned in Xiamen, Dalian, and Kunming have been shut down after residents took to the streets in protest, as they believed the facilities would threaten the local environment.

China is the world's largest PX producer, accounting for about a quarter of the global PX production capacity, according to the report.

PX is a major raw material for making polyester products. Traditionally, PX production lines are attached to petrochemical engineering projects.