DANCING WITH THE WIND: Wind turbines of China Huaneng Group's Santanghu Phase-I Project in Hami, a small city in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, were connected to the local power grid to generate electricity on June 21 (ZHU ZHENGHUA)

Rebates Removed

The State Council will abolish export tax rebates on 406 products, effective July 15, the Ministry of Finance said.

The products include some steel and non-ferrous metal products, fertilizers, as well as certain plastic, rubber and glass products.

Mainly targeting high polluting and high energy-consuming products, the new policy is another "iron hand" measure by the government to save energy and further reduce emissions. The State Council said in May that the government would use economic, legal, technical and even administrative measures when necessary to meet the goals set for cutting emissions.

More Gas Consumption

China will attempt to double the amount of natural gas in its total energy consumption basket during the next five years to reduce its reliance on coal, a senior official with the National Energy Administration (NEA) said on June 19.

"Natural gas accounts for only 4 percent of energy in China now. The country will raise that to 8 percent during the 12th Five-Year Plan Period (2011-15)," Wu Yin, deputy head of the NEA, said at an energy forum in Beijing.

China currently relies on coal for about 70 percent of its total energy.

Wu said China will enhance exploration efforts, build gas reserve projects and increase natural gas imports to meet the goal.

Indian Project

China's main rail vehicles manufacturer, CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co. Ltd., signed a contract with Siemens, the contractor of a subway project in New Delhi, on June 21 in Zhuzhou, Hunan Province.

Under the deal, the Chinese company will supply five energy-efficient trains for the Indian project.

The trains, each with three carriages, were exclusively developed by China and designed to be energy-saving with less noise and electromagnetic emissions, said Han Jun, publicity director of the company.

So far, the company has produced vehicles worth $500 million for overseas customers in central Asia and Middle East. By the end of 2009, it had received rail vehicle orders worth $30 billion, according to its official website.

Net Mapping

China is about to grant licenses to 18 domestic companies for providing Internet mapping services in China, with a number of applications from foreign vendors still being considered.

The 18 companies were selected from about 30 applicants, and a few applications from eligible foreign firms are still under examination, said the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping.

The bureau launched a regulation last month requiring all companies providing online mapping and location services in China to apply for approval, and to avoid disclosure of state secrets and uncertified publishing of maps online.

Applicants are required to keep servers for map-data storing inside the country and have no record of information leakage in any form in the past three years.

The total revenue of China's online map market rose from 245 million yuan ($36 million) in 2008 to 330 million yuan ($48 million) last year, said statistics from Analysys International.