China’s central bank injects 1 tn yuan via medium-term loans, same rates

The People’s Bank of China said it was keeping the rate on 1 trillion yuan worth of one-year medium-term lending facility loans to some financial institutions steady at 2.95% from previous operations.

China’s central bank injected funds through medium-term loans into the financial system on Monday, while keeping the interest rate unchanged for the 19th month in a row.

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said it was keeping the rate on 1 trillion yuan ($156.77 billion) worth of one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans to some financial institutions steady at 2.95% from previous operations.

The PBOC added that the operation was a rollover of the same amount of MLF loans maturing in November, including 800 billion yuan worth of such loans expiring on Tuesday and another 200 billion yuan of MLFs due on Nov. 30.

The central bank also injected another 10 billion yuan worth of seven-day reverse repurchase agreements into the banking system on the day, compared with 100 billion yuan worth of such notes due on Monday.

LinkedIn is pulling out of China, though Microsoft remains

While Microsoft chases growth for Bing, Teams and its cloud service, Azure, from China, its Windows operating system still dominates in the country with stringent regulations

Microsoft Corp is shutting down LinkedIn in China following increased regulatory scrutiny, but the firm has other businesses still exposed in the important market.

While other tech behemoths — like Google and Facebook Inc. — have mostly stayed out of China, Microsoft’s search engine Bing and its cloud-based business software remain. In addition, its Windows operating system still dominates in China, the Wall Street Journal reported.

LinkedIn is the only major US-owned social network operating in the country, where the government requires such platforms to follow strict rules and regulations.

The Redmond, Washington-headquartered tech giant said it was pulling the plug on LinkedIn in China nearly seven years after its launch and would replace it with a stripped-down version of the platform that would focus only on jobs.

“We’re also facing a significantly more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements in China,” LinkedIn said in a blog post on Thursday, adding it did not find the same level of success in the more social aspects of sharing and staying informed like it has globally.

LinkedIn said it would replace the Chinese service with a new portal called InJobs.

The new service, which will be launched later this year, will not include a social feed or the ability to share posts or articles, it said.

Global energy crunch: China expands power curbs to 20 provinces

At least 20 Chinese provinces and regions making up more than 66 percent of the country’s gross domestic product have announced some form of power cuts, mostly targeted at heavy industrial users

The world’s second-biggest economy is caught in the grips of a widening power crisis that’s threatening to stymie growth and further tangle already snarled global supply chains.

At least 20 Chinese provinces and regions making up more than 66 percent of the country’s gross domestic product have announced some form of power cuts, mostly targeted at heavy industrial users. The reasons are two-fold — record high coal prices are causing power generators to trim output despite soaring demand, while some areas have pro-actively halted electricity flows to meet emissions and energy intensity goals.

Power outages in northeastern China have plunged millions of homes into darkness, triggered factory shutdowns and threatened to disrupt the water supply in at least one province, the Al Jazeera reported. The Global Times tabloid on Tuesday said the “unexpected” and “unpr­ece­dented” electricity cuts in the provinces of Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang were caused by power rationing during peak hours. The nationwide power shortages mirror tight energy supplies in Europe and elsewhere that have roiled commodity markets.

London nickel and tin prices extended losses into a second session on Tuesday, as widening power cuts in top metals consumer China spark worries over downstream demand.

India emerges as Dubai’s second biggest trade partner after China

Saudi Arabia came fourth with 30.5 billion dirhams up 26 per cent from H1 2020, followed by Switzerland at 24.8 billion dirham

India has emerged as Dubai’s second-biggest trading partner after China with the overall volume touching 38.5 billion dirhams in the first half of 2021, according to official data released on Sunday.

According to a Dubai government statement, the emirate had a trading volume of 86.7 billion dirhams with China in H1 (first half) of 2021, followed by India and the US at third position.

Trade with India grew 74.5 per cent year-on-year to 67.1 billion dirhams from 38.5 billion dirhams in H1 2020.

China recorded 30.7 per cent growth year-on-year with total trade with Dubai standing at 66.3 billion dirhams in H1 2020.

In H1 2021, the USA traded 32 billion dirhams with Dubai, up 1 per cent year-on-year from 31.7 billion dirhams.

Saudi Arabia came fourth with 30.5 billion dirhams up 26 per cent from H1 2020, followed by Switzerland at 24.8 billion dirhams.

The total share of the five biggest trade partners in H1 2021 amounted to 241.21 billion dirhams compared to 185.06 billion dirhams in H1 2020, up 30.34 per cent.

Gold topped the list of commodities in Dubai’s H1 external trade at 138.8 billion dirhams (19.2 per cent of Dubai trade), followed by telecoms at 94 billion dirhams (13 per cent).

Diamonds came third in the list at 57.3 billion dirhams (8 per cent), followed by jewelry at 34.1 billion dirhams (4.7 per cent), and vehicle trade at 28 billion dirhams (4 per cent).

Dubai’s non-oil external trade surged 31 per cent in the first half of 2021 to reach 722.3 billion dirhams from 550.6 billion dirhams in the corresponding period in 2020.

Exports grew 45 percent year on year in H1 2021 to 109.8 billion dirhams from 75.8 billion dirhams, which supports the goal of the 10 x 10 program (one of the nation’s ‘Projects of the 50’ initiatives) to increase the UAE’s exports to 10 global markets by 10 per cent annually.

This battery idea from 1970s could help EVs take lead in auto industry

Sodium-based batteries aren’t going to take electric cars any further than lithium can, but the materials needed to make them are widely available.

There’s no shortage of excitement for electric vehicle battery startups or multibillion-dollar investments in the industry, as companies, backers, and scientists look for the winning play. China, though, is already moving on to the next leg in the race — one that isn’t dependent on a big, bold breakthrough — with sodium-ion batteries. Done right, this technology could lead to widespread adoption in a market largely dependent on subsidies and where EV sales are still a fraction of all cars.
China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., or CATL, the world’s largest battery manufacturer, unveiled its latest product in July — a sodium-ion battery. The following month, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said it would drive the development, standardization, and commercialization of this type of power-pack, providing a cheaper, faster-charging, and safe alternative to the current crop on offer, which continues to be plagued by a host of problems, not least, faulty units catching fire.

Sodium-ion batteries aren’t a new development. They were being researched in the 1970s, but interest was quickly overtaken by a newer, fancier, more promising variety — the lithium-ion battery. Their widespread use meant the sodium-based ones didn’t have many takers and any ongoing development took a back seat.

Now, decades on, the challenges with lithium-ion batteries are becoming apparent. Carmakers and battery manufacturers are focused on bringing down costs — a perennial obstacle. And while lithium-ion batteries have been one of the greatest inventions in power storage, they are increasingly coming up against issues including the cost and availability of materials, and safety. There’s a constant tug-of-war between stable chemistry. so the battery doesn’t combust. and greater energy density. Clear solutions have largely confounded scientists, and what is available isn’t good enough to make lithium-ion scalable and commercially viable for electric vehicles.