Analysts say the big cities are losing appeal to farmers despite higher wages. Many, they say, would rather resume planting in the countryside after the government promoted a series of stimulus packages to spark the rural economy, they said.

A Long Way to Go

China's commitment to a bigger role of the renminbi is deep-seated. However, fulfilling this goal may be much easier said than done.

Nearly two months have passed since early July when the country kick-started a pilot program allowing companies in five cities, including Guangzhou, Dongguan, Zhuhai, Shenzhen in Guangdong Province, and Shanghai Municipality, to settle cross-border trade transactions in renminbi.

Paying directly in yuan, rather than the U.S. dollar, can help traders fend off exchange risks and save transaction costs. That is the good news. The bad news, of course, is that the market response has been unexpectedly tepid until now.

Very few traders have participated in the program, and the value of deals involved were minimal, said Liang Yaowen, Director of the Foreign Trade Bureau of Guangdong Provincial Government. For example, Dongguan registered six deals settled in the program on July 8, the opening day of the program. But since then, only one transaction has been conducted.

Many foreign buyers have remained on the sidelines, expecting the Chinese currency to strengthen against the U.S. dollar, said Liang. More importantly, the program is limited to Hong Kong, Macao and Southeast Asian countries, keeping away domestic exporters that trade with other areas.

With a view to propelling a greater use of the yuan, the policy-makers have been brewing a plan to expand the program to cover more Chinese cities and detailing the procedure for traders to receive tax rebates.

Chalco Struggles on

For Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd. (Chalco), the Hong Kong-listed arm of Chinese aluminum giant Chinalco, this year's dynamics are more about survival.

With the convergence of domestic downturns and the world financial crisis, the free-fall in aluminum prices has slammed earnings. On August 24, Chalco reported a wider-than-expected net loss of 1.63 billion yuan ($238 million) for the April-June period, marking its third quarterly loss in a row.

To pull out of this slump, the company has heavily slashed executive pay, and idled 30 percent of its capacity to ease market saturation. Nevertheless, the curb on output has not yet made much difference to the market collapse. Domestic aluminum prices have shed more than 33 percent, atop a steep fall late last year.

But Chalco has not let the market bust overwhelm priorities. For one thing, the company has been securing long-term resource supplies by stepping up efforts to explore bauxite ore mines.

Another source of optimism is a government pilot program allowing electrolytic aluminum makers to skip power grid companies as middlemen and purchase cheap electricity directly from the generators. This should be a boon for Chalco, which is keen to get control of production costs.

"The market will gradually recover, and we can strengthen out efforts to break even in the second half," said Xiong Weiping, Chairman of Board of Chalco.

Sinopec Fares Well

The China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec), China's largest oil refiner, has raked in a net profit of around 33.2 billion yuan ($4.9 billion) for the first half of this year, quadrupling that of a year earlier period.

Three retail fuel price hikes from March to June, which were a result of China's fuel-pricing reform, have put a floor under its refining business. Under the new pricing regime put in place earlier this year, domestic retail prices of diesel and gasoline have largely moved in line with international ones.

The subsequent windfall has proven a significant turnaround for the once-struggling refiner. Last year it experienced painful losses after paying sky-high prices for crude oil imports, while unable to pass along higher costs to consumers. International crude prices, meanwhile, have recently staged a comeback to around $70 a barrel, but they remain far less than what they were a year ago.

Sinopec said it expected results of the first three quarters of 2009 to be more than 50 percent higher, compared with the same period last year, as domestic demand picks up steam. At the same time, it has also pledged to raise crude oil and refining output by up to 10 percent by 2011 as part of a broader overseas expansion.

Sports Economy

The U.S. courier giant FedEx Express Corp. has recently announced it will extend its sports sponsorship of the China Badminton Team (CBT). The company has been a major partner of the team since 2005.

"We are delighted to continue our partnership with this world-class team, and we believe the value and spirit of speed, accuracy, leadership and teamwork are a common mission embodied and shared by both parties," said Eddy Chan, President of FedEx China. "We look forward to a future of numerous mutual successes from this expanded and deepening partnership."

"Our team greatly appreciates having support from our long-standing partner, FedEx, and their efforts to keep our team at the top of their mind," said Li Yongbo, head of CBT.