AUTO SHOW: Visitors look at a Lexus model at the 16th Dalian International Automotive Exhibition held August 17-21 in the northeast coastal city of Dalian, Liaoning Province. Exhibitors from 12 countries displayed more than 1,100 automobiles (REN YONG)

T-bonds Issued in HK

China's Ministry of Finance announced on August 17 its third and largest yuan-denominated treasury bond issue in Hong Kong.

The amount totaling 20 billion yuan ($3.13 billion) exceeded the aggregate of bond issuance in Hong Kong in the past, including 6 billion yuan ($937.5 million) and 8 billion yuan ($1.25 billion) in 2009 and 2010, respectively.

Analysts expected the move to both diversify yuan investment options and boost the yuan bond market.

In the long run, with Hong Kong's status as an offshore yuan center confirmed by the Central Government, it is of highly supportive significance.

Listed in the U.S.

Chinese online video company Tudou Holdings on August 17 priced its initial public offering (IPO) on Nasdaq at $29 a share, which was at the midpoint of the expected range. Tudou is expected to raise around $174 million.

The listing is despite lagging investor sentiment toward U.S.-listed Chinese stocks and a market glut suggesting the listing could be difficult. The company sold 6 million American depositary shares.

Tudou's IPO comes as the company faces increasingly fierce competition in China's online video market, which is pushing up licensing costs for content and making it harder to retain users.

Tudou said it plans to use its share of the IPO proceeds for content, Internet bandwidth and working capital.

Loans for Forestation

A total of 320,000 hectares of high-standard forests have been planted in Anhui Province since the 1990s with loans from the World Bank, said the province's forestry authorities.

About 640 million yuan ($100 million) from the World Bank has been put toward planting trees, part of China's efforts to introduce foreign investment to help maintain ecosystems, said the foreign capital project office of Anhui Provincial Forestry Bureau.

The 320,000 hectares of forests account for 36.8 percent of the province's total man-made forest area.

In recent years, China has introduced foreign capital to the development of afforestation projects. In July, the World Bank approved $100 million in loans to five provinces in China, including Anhui, to promote integrated forestry.

Anti-dumping Measures

China's Ministry of Commerce announced on August 17 that it will begin its midterm review of anti-dumping measures on sulfamethoxazole (SMZ), an antibiotic imported from India.

The decision was made after the Shandong-based Shouguang Fukang Pharmaceutical Co. filed an application to the ministry in June for a midterm examination, said the ministry.

The company asked for an adjustment of tariff rates for antibiotic imports from India, as Indian SMZ producers and importers expanded their dumping efforts in China after the imposition of anti-dumping duties.

China imposed five-year anti-dumping duties, ranging from 10.1 percent to 37.7 percent, on SMZ imported from India on June 16, 2007.

The ministry said that it will examine the dumping margins based on current market conditions and evidence provided by Shouguang Fukang.