FINE CHINA SHOW: Xue Xinglin, a researcher on china, demonstrates a nonopaque, super-thin ceramic bowl during the China Ceramic Expo held in Tangshan, Hebei Province, on September 16. The five-day event attracted over 300 ceramic companies from 20 countries (ZHENG YONG)

Anti-Subsidy Duties

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on September 20 began imposing provisional anti-subsidy duties on some U.S. exports of solar-grade polysilicon, a major material for making solar cells.

MOFCOM said a preliminary investigation found that some solar-grade polysilicon imports from the United States were subsidized, which had caused substantial damage to Chinese producers.

Chinese importers of the product from U.S. companies, including Hemlock Semiconductor Corp. and AE Polysilicon Corp., are required to pay a deposit rate of up to 6.5 percent.

Other companies, including REC Solar Grade Silicon LLC, REC Advanced Silicon Materials LLC and MEMC Pasadena, Inc., would not be subject to such duties because they had not been subsidized or the rates were too low.

The decision comes after MOFCOM slapped anti-dumping duties of 53.3 percent to 57 percent on U.S. solar-grade polysilicon imports in July.

Production Cuts List

On September 16, China unveiled a list of 58 companies that should cut their excess production capacity by the end of the year as a part of the country's economic restructuring drive.

The enterprises are from 13 industries with overcapacity, mostly energy-consuming and highly-polluting, including steel, coke, cement, printing and dyeing sectors, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Local authorities must ensure that overcapacity of the companies is thoroughly eliminated, rather than transferred to other regions.

This is the third batch of enterprises that are required to cut overcapacity by the end of 2013.

The move is part of government efforts to adjust and upgrade industrial structures and push forward energy conservation and emissions reduction.

Tencent Investment

Tencent Holdings Ltd., China's leading Internet firm, has invested $448 million in Sogou, the search engine arm of Internet company Sohu.com Inc., the companies announced on September 16.

As part of the strategic cooperation, Tencent also merged its Soso search related businesses and other assets with Sogou.

Tencent holds 36.5 percent of Sogou's equity capital on a fully-diluted basis, which could increase to approximately 40 percent in the near future, the companies said.

The move will expand Sogou's market presence and "significantly elevate its position in the highly competitive PC search market, and even more so in the rapidly evolving mobile search market," said Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO of Sohu.

Sohu, together with its affiliates, remains the controlling shareholder of Sogou, which will continue to operate independently as a subsidiary of Sohu.

Tencent and Sogou have agreed to jointly develop, cross-promote and integrate their respective products and services, while collaborating in areas of search technology, user insights and data sharing, according to the press release.

Sogou's products include the No. 1 Chinese character pinyin input method on PCs and mobile devices, the No. 3 PC browser and No. 3 PC search engine in China by page views, according to market research institutions.