COMPLETING A QUICK LINK: The rails of the 1,318-km Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway have been completely laid out as of November 15, 2010. After completion, it will only take four to five hours to travel from Beijing to Shanghai (NIU YIXIN)

Price Controls

The State Council announced price control guidelines to curb surging prices across the country.

Efforts will be made to ensure market supplies, improve subsidy systems, make price controls more targeted and strengthen market supervision, said a statement released on November 17 after a State Council executive meeting presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao.

The government will further support agricultural production and put state reserves of grains, edible oils and sugar on the market when necessary in order to guarantee supplies.

They will also continue to reduce prices of power, gas and rail transportation for chemical fertilizer producers, and increase production of oil, especially diesel oil, to guarantee a sufficient supply.

The government will also offer temporary price subsidies for the needy, and increase allowances for needy students and student canteens.

Treasury Bonds

The Ministry of Finance announced on November 17 that it would issue the country's third-ever 50-year national treasury bonds with a yield of 4.4 percent.

With a total face value of 28 billion yuan ($4.22 billion), the bonds were on sale for five days from November 18 and became tradable on November 24, according to a statement on the ministry's website.

China first introduced the 50-year treasury bonds on the interbank market in November 2009 with a 4.3-percent coupon rate.

The country issued the second round of 50-year T-bonds on May 21 this year at a coupon rate of 4.03 percent.

Iron Ore Output

China's iron ore output was expected to exceed 1.3 billion tons within three to five years, said Zhou Zhongshu, President of China Minmetals Corp., at the China Mining Conference and Exhibition held November 16-18 in Tianjin Municipality.

Domestic iron ore supplies have been rising for the last two years. In the past 12 years, China had discovered more than 900 new reserves, including 152 large and super-large reserves, according to the ministry.

During the first nine months of 2010, China's iron ore output increased 26 percent year on year to 780 million tons. But iron ore imports dropped 2.5 percent to 460 million tons during the same period, compared with a jump of 41.6 percent in 2009.

Aircraft Sale

On November 17, China's AVIC International Holding Corp. signed a deal with aircraft manufacturer Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China (COMAC) to sell 100 ARJ21-700 aircraft in overseas markets.

They will work together to sell China's independently developed regional jet in the international market, according to the agreement signed at Airshow China 2010 held in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province.

The ARJ21-700 jets have completed more than 900 hours of tests during more than 400 trial flights since the first trial in November 2008, according to COMAC officials. The first ARJ21-700 plane is expected to be delivered to customers in 2011.

Brand Investment

Beijing Automotive Group Co. Ltd. plans to invest 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) over the next three years to develop its own car brand named after the city.

The independent Beijing brand will have nine lines of automobiles, including three SUV lines.

The company has dedicated most of its resources to commercial vehicles, mostly buses. It produces 700,000 commercial vehicles annually, making it one of the largest commercial vehicle makers in the world.