Still Growing

The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow by 10.8 percent in the second quarter of this year, though the expansion of the trade surplus should slow during the period, according to the State Information Center.

The consumer price index (CPI) is expected to reach 3 percent in the second quarter of this year, said the center in a report published on May 8.

Driven by strong investment and trade growth, China’s economy grew 11.1 percent in the first quarter.

The center said the economy’s consistently strong growth in the second quarter would be backed up by brisk growth in consumer spending and investment despite the tightening measures that have been put in place.

Big Investment

Social Security Fund, the nation’s largest institutional investor, will have more than 100 billion yuan to invest in 2007, according to Xiang Huaicheng, Chairman of the National Council for Social Security Fund, China Economic Weekly reported.

“A good part of bank deposits will reach maturity, and together with new funds coming in, the fund in 2007 is expected to have over 100 billion yuan to invest,” Xiang said in an interview with the magazine.

The fund will balance its investment portfolio among the mainland’s A shares, Hong Kong’s H shares and overseas stocks, he said.

The fund had invested about $1.6 billion abroad by the first quarter of this year.

IT Industry Slows Down

China’s IT service market will move ahead with structural changes this year as growth momentum slows, according to a recent report by CCID Consulting Co., a leading Chinese IT research institute.

“Slower growth indicates the industry’s upgrade,” said Jian Cang, an analyst with CCID. China’s IT service market reached 59.5 billion yuan in 2006, a 17.8-percent increase from the year before, but the rate of growth was slower than that in 2005, according to the report.

The Hong Kong-listed IT consulting firm expects the growth rate to be even slower in 2007.

The industry’s key drag is lower growth in the system integration service sector, which accounts for 30 percent of China’s IT services.

Go for NYSE

Two Chinese companies, Acorn International Inc. (NYSE:ATV) and Qiao Xing Mobile Communication Co. Ltd. (NYSE:QXM), were listed on the New York Stock Exchange on May 8.

Acorn International Inc., a Shanghai-based TV direct sales company, priced its initial public offering (IPO) at $15.50 apiece. With 7.7 million American depositary shares in the deal, Acorn International raised $119 million.

The company runs TV direct sales programs on four channels of China Central Television, the national TV broadcaster, and 28 satellite TV channels.

With 13.3 million shares in its deal, Qiao Xing Mobile, one of the leading manufacturers of mobile handsets in China in terms of sales volume, raised $160 million in the IPO.

Sinosteel Eyes on India

Sinosteel Corp., a Chinese mineral trading company, plans to build a $4-billion steel plant in India.

It will join other global steel majors in tapping the fifth-biggest iron ore reserves in the world, Bloomberg News reported.

The company will invest $500 million initially in the planned five-million-metric-ton plant in east Jharkhand Province, Sinosteel’s India Managing Director Wang Hongsen said in a telephone interview from New Delhi. The total investment will be made over eight years.

Sinosteel joins Arcelor Mittal, the world’s biggest steel company, and South Korea’s Posco in announcing plans to build mills in India even amid delays in allocating land and mining permits because economic growth of 9 percent is stoking demand for the metal.