China National Petroleum Corp., China Merchants Bank and Tsinghua Tongfang Co. Ltd. were the three new additions to the list.

The other 12 brands included China Mobile, China Central Television, Haier, Lenovo, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, State Grid, Bank of China, China Life, Changhong, China Railway Group, Air China and Sinopec.

China ranked seventh on the 2008 list in terms of the highest number of listed brands, moving up one place from last year. The United States had 243 listed brands, the overall highest number, followed by France and Japan.

Telecom Interaction

Nokia Siemens Networks has signed off on a deal worth 550 million euros ($870 million) to help China Mobile Ltd. expand its network capacity, according to a statement made by the Finnish-German joint venture on July 11.

The contract includes designing, building, maintaining and optimizing China Mobile’s radio and core network. Nokia Siemens Networks also will help China Mobile improve its customer service and control its capital and operating expenditure.

Nokia Siemens Networks, headquartered in Espoo, Finland, is an international telecom infrastructure company with operations in about 150 countries.

Oil Imports Rise

PetroChina Co. Ltd. and Sinopec Group, China’s two largest oil producers, will import 720,000 tons of oil in July for the country’s eastern regions to ensure adequate oil supplies during the Beijing Olympics.

Of the total, Sinopec purchased 370,000 tons and PetroChina bought 350,000 tons, according to ChemNet, a major website for chemical and petrochemical industry information in China.

Customs statistics indicate that China imported 21.01 million tons of refined oil in the first half of the year, 16.4 percent more than that in the same period last year. The total included 3.67 million tons bought in June, a 12.6-percent increase over the amount purchased in June 2007.