Chinese retail sales up 9% during May Day holiday

BEIJING, May 3 (Xinhua) -- China's retail sales climbed 9 percent from a year ago to about 12 billion yuan (1.76 billion U.S. dollars) during the three-day May Day holiday, the Ministry of Commerce said Sunday.

The estimate was based on sales from May 1 to May 3 at 1,000 major domestic retailers monitored by the ministry.

The ministry said robust sales were reported for gold, jewelry, home appliances and autos, as retailers launched promotion campaigns.

Sales of gold and other jewelry rose 19.6 percent, the ministry said, without giving specific figures.

However, it said the Beijing Caishikou Department Store, a major gold retailer in the capital, saw its sales nearly double to 14.3 million yuan on May 1 alone.

Sales of appliances, such as LCD TVs, air conditioners, refrigerators and lap-tops, increased 11.4 percent, while those of automobiles grew 9.2 percent.

Promotions and prizes fuel Shanghai's retail spending

BEIJING, May 4 -- A series of promotions and prize awards fueled shoppers' enthusiasm during the May Day holiday in Shanghai as retail sales surged 14.2 percent from a year earlier.

Backed by various themed promotions, sales revenue at 423 large and medium retail businesses totaled 2.34 billion yuan (342 million U.S. dollars) over the three-day holiday, which started on Friday, the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce said yesterday.

The growth is, however, down by 7.8 percentage points from the same period last year because consumers still felt the pinch of the economic slowdown and fewer travelers came to Shanghai amid A-H1N1 flu concerns.

"Facing the challenges, retailers and government-related departments have adopted various measures to spur domestic demand and sales exceeded earlier expectations," said Chen Yuxian, a commission official.

Consumers made a beeline for major department stores and shopping malls from Thursday as they were lured by massive price discounts and prize promotions.

Nine retailers, including the Pacific Department Store at the Xujiahui commercial district, offered gift vouchers of up to 300 yuan if each consumer bought 300 yuan worth of products. The Xuhui District government also allocated a 2-million-yuan prize in a lucky draw, including three Mercedes-Benz sedans and 150 gold bars valued at 4,300 yuan each.

The combined sales in the Xujiahui commercial district surged 28 percent compared to a year ago to 114 million yuan during the three-day holiday, beating an earlier estimate of 100 million yuan.

The New World City in Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall also rang up 102 million yuan in sales after offering 120 yuan coupons for each purchase totaling 300 yuan.

Its average daily sales topped 781 million yuan over the three-day holiday, 4.6 times more than the sales in 2000 and was also the highest over the past nine years, according to the commission.

Retailers said the glittering sales also reflected the release of pent-up consumer demand that has been restrained over the past few months.

"Consumers need to buy shoes and garments as the season changes," said an official from Oriental Department Store in Xujiahui. "May is also a prime season for weddings and other celebrations, which gave a boost to market demand."

Purchases of clothes surged the most by 123.9 percent during the holiday and electronic products, home appliances, gold and health-care goods were also popular.

The combined sales of the Bailian Group rose 12.3 percent compared to a year ago to 888 million yuan over the three days.

Nextage Department Store in Pudong New Area rang up 23.1 million yuan in revenue on Friday, a jump of 60 percent and the No. 1 Department Store on Nanjing Road also gained 46 percent to 9.28 million yuan.

(Source: Shanghai Daily)

Wall Street rises on better-than-expected jobless data

Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

NEW YORK, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Wall Street posted moderate gains in early trading Thursday, as new claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly dropped last week to their lowest level since January.

The U.S. Labor Department said Thursday that new jobless claims fell to a seasonally adjusted 601,000 from the previous week's 631,000. Economists had been expecting a jump to 635,000.

Meanwhile, many retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., reported better-than-expected April sales. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, said its April same-store sales rise five percent, beating expectations.

Investors also are awaiting the formal release of the government's stress tests of banks.

The Dow Jones rose 40.62 to 8,552.90. Broader indexes also traded higher. The Standard Poor's 500 index rose 6.44 to 925.97;and the Nasdaq rose 13.41 to 1,772.51.

China car sales grew for fifth month in April, set new record

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Report: Global Financial Crisis

BEIJING, May 7 (Xinhua) -- China's automobile sales
probably reached a record high of 1.15 million units last month as the
government's stimulus plans began to pay off, estimates from the China
Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) indicated Thursday.

Official figures for vehicle production and sales are
scheduled for release next Monday.

Assuming the CAAM figures are borne out by official
data, April would be the fifth straight month of growth for the industry.

China unveiled a support package for the auto
industry early this year, cutting purchase taxes for cars with small engine
capacities and providing subsidies to rural purchasers.

The auto market boom showed that the stimulus
policies had greatly boosted consumer confidence, said Huang Yonghe, an expert
at the China Automobile Technology and Research Center.

According to CAAM, sales of minivans and economy cars
surged in April, with SGMW and ChangAn, China's two largest minivan makers,
recording sales gains of more than 50 percent from last year.

Sales of China's Chery, which makes cars with small
engine capacities, hit a record high of more than 42,000 units in April.

China's March auto sales grew 5 percent from a year
earlier to 1.11 million units.

China auto sales hit new high in April

BEIJING, May 8 (Xinhua) -- Sales of China's domestically made vehicle set a record high of 1.153 million units in April, up 25 percent from a year earlier, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said Friday.

This represents an increase of 3.91 percent from March. In March, sales rose 5 percent year-on-year to 1.11 million units.

Automakers produced 1.157 million motor vehicles last month, up17.9 percent year-on-year, according to CAAM. It was 5.61 percent higher than March.

CAAM said the April figure showed the country's auto industry had seen signs of recovery as the government's stimulus policies began to have an effect.

The association said the continuous pick-up in passenger car sales was bolstered by government stimulus policies. China unveiled a support package for the auto industry early this year, cutting purchase taxes for cars with small engine capacities and providing subsidies to rural purchasers.

In the first four months, motor vehicle sales hit 3.832 million units, up 9.4 percent year on year, while a total of 3.725 million units were produced, up 6.4 percent, according to CAAM.

Passenger car (sedans, SUVs and MPVs) sales in April rose 37.37percent from a year earlier to 831,000 units. The March figure stood at 772,000 units. While commercial vehicles (busses, trucks and pick-ups) fell 4.53 percent from March to 322,100 units in April, but rose 1.38 percent from a year earlier.

Passenger car sales in the first four months climbed 15.09 percent from a year ago to about 2.83 million units. Production totaled more than 2.69 million units, up 9.75 percent year on year.

Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

China's auto sales expected to blossom in April

Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

BEIJING, May 6 (Xinhua) -- April sales numbers released by leading carmakers in China indicated the country's automobile market has walked out of the shadow of the global financial crisis as the government's stimulus measures began to pay off, Wednesday's China Daily reported.

General Motors said on Tuesday its vehicle sales in China soared 50 percent year on year in April to 151,084 units, a new monthly high.

Its German rival Volkswagen was also expecting monthly sales record for April. The company's China CEO Winfried Vahland predicted Volkswagen's sales in April were likely to surpass March figures, which hit 112,466 units, presenting the company's historical high.

"It is a clear signal that the domestic automobile market is back on track and will keep growing this year," Zhong Shi, an independent auto analyst told the paper.

The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers is expected to release its official sales figures this Friday or next Monday.

The country's automobile market has been growing for four consecutive months since last December, after it encountered the first drop since 2006 in August 2008.

Hui Yumei, analyst with automobile market research company Sinotrust, said the robust auto sales would continue in May and expected total sales to exceed 10 million units in 2009.

Both Hui and Zhong agreed the government's active and timely stimulus measures and industry support plan have spurred demand.

SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co, GM's mini-commercial vehicles joint venture, saw its sales in China leaped 60.6 percent in April from a year earlier to 95,544 units, driven up by the 5-billion-yuan subsidy program to stimulate auto sales in rural areas launched by the government in March.

The country's sales growth in the first three months has surpassed US figures and led China to come top in sales numbers in the global automobile market during the first quarter.

Eurozone retail sales slightly down in March

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Report: Global Financial Crisis

BRUSSELS, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Retail trade volume in the euro zone fell 0.6
percent month on month in March, the European Union's (EU) statistics bureau
Eurostat said Wednesday.

In March, food, drinks and tobacco sales decreased 1.4 percent on a monthly
basis in the 16-nation euro area, while the non-food sector remained unchanged,
Eurostat said.

Year on year, the eurozone retail sales slumped 4.2 percent in March, with
food, drinks and tobacco down 5.2 percent and the non-food sector down 1.9
percent.

Meanwhile in the 27-nation EU, retail sales dropped 0.3 percent from the
previous month and by 3.1 percent from year-ago levels.

Statistics showed that among the EU member states for which data were
available, total retail trade fell in ten, rose in six and remained unchanged in
Denmark and Romania on a monthly basis.

The highest increase was observed in Slovenia, which was 6.8 percent, while
the largest decrease was in Lithuania with a drop of 4.3 percent.

Retail sales are an indication of household demand, one of the three major
economic drivers. With the European economy in crisis and a rising jobless rate,
analysts warned retail sales will shrink as private consumption is set to
fall.

Net sales of Mexican glassmaking giant Vitro fall 34.5%

Special
Report: Global Financial Crisis

MEXICO CITY, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Mexican glassmaking giant Vitro said in a
Monday statement that it had lost 84 million dollars in the first quarter,
compared with the 30-million-dollar profit during the first quarter of 2008.

Net sales fell 34.5 percent in the first quarter compared with the same
period of 2008, due to a weaker peso and lower volumes. Export sales fell 37.6
percent while domestic sales fell 25.5 percent.

The firm said it also lost sales due to the spin-off of container maker
Comegua. Container sales fell an annualized 37.1 percent, while glass sales fell
31.5 percent.

Even so, margins rose by 12.7 percent compared with the same period a year
earlier.

Vitro, founded in 1909, is Mexico's largest glassmaker for construction,
industrial and domestic use, and has distribution centers in 10 nations across
the Americas and in Europe.

Chinese festive spending remains robust, retail sales up 13.8%

Special Report: Spring Festival Special 2009

BEIJING, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- China's spending enthusiasm over the Lunar New Year holiday seemed undimmed by the global financial crisis, figures from the Ministry of Commerce showed Saturday.

Retail sales rose 13.8 percent to 290 billion yuan (42.4 billion U.S. dollars), from 255 billion yuan over last year's week-long Lunar New Year holiday, or Spring Festival.

The robust spending was helped by sales promotions in major cities as well as government subsidies for farmers to purchase home appliances.

Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, organized a shopping campaign with about 10,000 companies offering discounts that added up to 400 million yuan, the ministry said.

Shopping malls in Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Shandong had promotions, free gifts and lucky draws to lure customers, who were willing to spend for the China's major holiday despite the economic downturn.

"There are more customers than usual. That's totally unexpected. I feel shorthanded on my own," said a salesgirl surnamed Yang, on duty Saturday at Sogo department story in Beijing.

A sample survey by Beijing Commercial Information and Consultation Center of the Municipal Bureau of Commerce showed 100catering, supermarket and department store companies in the city reported total sales up by 150 million yuan, an average of 8 percent, over the past week.

Sales of home appliances in rural areas surged as a result of government subsidies.

The government began in 2007 to grant a 13-percent subsidy to farmers to buy color TVs, refrigerators, mobile phones, washing machines and freezers. The program is in effect in 12 provinces.

The ministry said leading home appliance producers supporting the program saw sales rise 25.6 percent during the week-long holiday.

Traditional purchases of food, cigarettes, liquor and wine, fireworks continued to grow, the ministry said.

Food sales at major retailers rose 23 percent, while beverage sales increased 17.5 percent and combined sales of cigarettes, liquor and wine were up 14.7 percent.

Meanwhile, China's three major telecom operators estimated that a record 18 billion text messages were sent from Jan. 25 to 31.

CMB to raise funds via bond, share sales

BEIJING,April 30-- China Merchants
Bank (CMB), the country's sixth-largest bank, is set to raise funds through bond
and share sales this year to help cover the rapidly depreciating value of its
holdings in recently acquired Wing Lung Bank of Hong Kong, a top bank executive
said.

The bank will not rule out the possibility of raising
funds by selling new shares this year in an effort to improve its capital
adequacy ratio, which has been eroded due to the investment in Wing Lung Bank,
CMB chairman Qin Xiao said earlier in Hong Kong.

The bank completed its acquisition of Wing Lung Bank
in October last year.

CMB's core capital adequacy ratio also dropped 1.44
percentage points to 6.56 percent at the end of last year, compared to 8 percent
at the end of the third quarter in 2008.

According to CMB's 2008 earnings report, the decrease
in its core capital adequacy ratio was mainly due to the partial offsetting of
surplus capital by the premium of the secondary acquisition of Wing Lung Bank.

CMB set aside 579 million yuan as provision for
impairment losses on goodwill mainly because of its takeover of Wing Lung Bank,
the bank said in the report.

Although the bank had raised 30 million yuan in
September 2008 to supplement capital through sale of subordinated bonds,
analysts said CMB would continue to face enormous pressure in 2009 from its
acquisition of Wing Lung Bank.

"CMB's provision of 579 million yuan for impairment
losses on goodwill is far below our estimate of 2 to 3 billion yuan," Guohai
Securities' analyst Feng Wei said.

Feng said that CMB would have to set aside a similar
amount for impairment losses on goodwill in the next few years, due to the
acquisition.

CMB had earlier said that it planned to issue up to
149 billion yuan worth of financial bonds in the next three years. The total
amount to be raised will be no more than 10 percent of the bank's liabilities at
the end of the previous year, a bank statement on April 22 said.

CMB's total liabilities at the end of 2008 stood at
1.492 trillion yuan.

Although accumulated profits of the past few years
may help CMB keep its core capital adequacy ratio above 6 percent this year, it
has to raise at least 40 billion yuan through bond sales to maintain the
regulatory minimum of 8 percent capital adequacy ratio, Industrial Securities
analyst Wang Qian wrote in a report.

CMB agreed on June 2, 2008 to buy 53.1 percent of
Wing Lung Bank for HK 19.3 billion dollars in cash and then made a general offer
for the rest of the Hong Kong bank, valued at 4.66 billion U.S. dollars.

(Source: chinadaily.com.cn)

Slovenian car sales drop by 22% in first quarter

BELGRADE, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Car sales in Slovenia fell by some 22 percent to 14,648 in the first quarter of 2009, the Slovenian news agency STA reported on Wednesday.

The car sales in March also fell by 22 percent compared to the same period last year, dropping to 5,731, the agency reported, citing a report of the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce.

Renault remained the top-selling brand in Slovenia in March with 753 cars sold. This is 29.4 percent less than in the same month of 2008.

The only car maker to increase its sales in March was Kia, which sold 337 cars, which is up 98.2 percent year-on-year.