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By KEITH BRADSHER

Published: January 30, 2010

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TIANJIN, China — China vaulted past competitors in Denmark, Germany, Spain and the United States last year to become the world’s largest maker of wind turbines, and is poised to expand even further this year.

A blog about energy and the environment.

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Shiho Fukada for The New York Times

A worker inside a wind turbine at a factory in Tianjin, China.

China has also leapfrogged the West in the last two years to emerge as the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels. And the country is pushing equally hard to build nuclear reactors and the most efficient types of coal power plants.

These efforts to dominate renewable energy technologies raise the prospect that the West may someday trade its dependence on oil from the Mideast for a reliance on solar panels, wind turbines and other gear manufactured in China.

“Most of the energy equipment will carry a brass plate, ‘Made in China,’ ” said K. K. Chan, the chief executive of Nature Elements Capital, a private equity fund in Beijing that focuses on renewable energy.

President Obama, in his State of the Union speech last week, sounded an alarm that the United States was falling behind other countries, especially China, on energy. “I do not accept a future where the jobs and industries of tomorrow take root beyond our borders — and I know you don’t either,” he told Congress.

The United States and other countries are offering incentives to develop their own renewable energy industries, and Mr. Obama called for redoubling American efforts. Yet many Western and Chinese executives expect China to prevail in the energy-technology race.

Multinational corporations are responding to the rapid growth of China’s market by building big, state-of-the-art factories in China. Vestas of Denmark has just erected the world’s biggest wind turbine manufacturing complex here in northeastern China, and transferred the technology to build the latest electronic controls and generators.

“You have to move fast with the market,” said Jens Tommerup, the president of Vestas China. “Nobody has ever seen such fast development in a wind market.”

Renewable energy industries here are adding jobs rapidly, reaching 1.12 million in 2008 and climbing by 100,000 a year, according to the government-backed Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association.

Yet renewable energy may be doing more for China’s economy than for the environment. Total power generation in China is on track to pass the United States in 2012 — and most of the added capacity will still be from coal.

China intends for wind, solar and biomass energy to represent 8 percent of its electricity generation capacity by 2020. That compares with less than 4 percent now in China and the United States. Coal will still represent two-thirds of China’s capacity in 2020, and nuclear and hydropower most of the rest.

As China seeks to dominate energy-equipment exports, it has the advantage of being the world’s largest market for power equipment. The government spends heavily to upgrade the electricity grid, committing $45 billion in 2009 alone. State-owned banks provide generous financing.

China’s top leaders are intensely focused on energy policy: on Wednesday, the government announced the creation of a National Energy Commission composed of cabinet ministers as a “superministry” led by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao himself.

Regulators have set mandates for power generation companies to use more renewable energy. Generous subsidies for consumers to install their own solar panels or solar water heaters have produced flurries of activity on rooftops across China.

China’s biggest advantage may be its domestic demand for electricity, rising 15 percent a year. To meet demand in the coming decade, according to statistics from the International Energy Agency, China will need to add nearly nine times as much electricity generation capacity as the United States will.

So while Americans are used to thinking of themselves as having the world’s largest market in many industries, China’s market for power equipment dwarfs that of the United States, even though the American market is more mature. That means Chinese producers enjoy enormous efficiencies from large-scale production.

In the United States, power companies frequently face a choice between buying renewable energy equipment or continuing to operate fossil-fuel-fired power plants that have already been built and paid for. In China, power companies have to buy lots of new equipment anyway, and alternative energy, particularly wind and nuclear, is increasingly priced competitively.

Interest rates as low as 2 percent for bank loans — the result of a savings rate of 40 percent and a government policy of steering loans to renewable energy — have also made a big difference.

As in many other industries, China’s low labor costs are an advantage in energy. Although Chinese wages have risen sharply in the last five years, Vestas still pays assembly line workers here only $4,100 a year.

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China’s commitment to renewable energy is expensive. Although costs are falling steeply through mass production, wind energy is still 20 to 40 percent more expensive than coal-fired power. Solar power is still at least twice as expensive as coal.

The Chinese government charges a renewable energy fee to all electricity users. The fee increases residential electricity bills by 0.25 percent to 0.4 percent. For industrial users of electricity, the fee doubled in November to roughly 0.8 percent of the electricity bill.

The fee revenue goes to companies that operate the electricity grid, to make up the cost difference between renewable energy and coal-fired power.

Renewable energy fees are not yet high enough to affect China’s competitiveness even in energy-intensive industries, said the chairman of a Chinese industrial company, who asked not to be identified because of the political sensitivity of electricity rates in China.

Grid operators are unhappy. They are reimbursed for the extra cost of buying renewable energy instead of coal-fired power, but not for the formidable cost of building power lines to wind turbines and other renewable energy producers, many of them in remote, windswept areas. Transmission losses are high for sending power over long distances to cities, and nearly a third of China’s wind turbines are not yet connected to the national grid.

Most of these turbines were built only in the last year, however, and grid construction has not caught up. Under legislation passed by the Chinese legislature on Dec. 26, a grid operator that does not connect a renewable energy operation to the grid must pay that operation twice the value of the electricity that cannot be distributed.

With prices tumbling, China’s wind and solar industries are increasingly looking to sell equipment abroad — and facing complaints by Western companies that they have unfair advantages. When a Chinese company reached a deal in November to supply turbines for a big wind farm in Texas, there were calls in Congress to halt federal spending on imported equipment.

“Every country, including the United States and in Europe, wants a low cost of renewable energy,” said Ma Lingjuan, deputy managing director of China’s renewable energy association. “Now China has reached that level, but it gets criticized by the rest of the world

krisluke ( Date: 28-Feb-2011 13:36) Posted:

Oil rises above $114 as supply woes persist after Libya cuts

* World's oil supply to tighten if unrest spreads in MidEast

* Technicals show Brent crude to rise to $117.70

* Coming Up: Chicago PMI, 1445 GMT

By Florence Tan

SINGAPORE, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Brent crude rose more than $2 a barrel on Monday as concern persisted about security of supply from the Middle East and North Africa even after top exporter Saudi Arabia boosted supply to meet the shortfall caused by a cut in exports from Libya.

Violent revolt in Libya has shut down down as much as three-quarters of its output, according to some estimates. As protests have intensified and spread through the Arab world, investors fear any impact on output from Saudi Arabia.

Brent crude rose by $2.18 to $114.32 a barrel by 0437 GMT. U.S. crude rose $1.68 at $99.57 a barrel.

Both benchmarks posted their highest weekly close in 2-1/2 years last week.

" There is the continued threat that conflicts will spread in the region that produces a large amount of oil in the world," said Ben Westmore, a commodities economist at the National Australia Bank.

" There's been a bit of a contagion already," he said.

The impact on oil supply would be severe if conflict were to spread to Iran, Kuwait and especially to Saudi Arabia, he said.

Saudi Arabia is the only producer with significant spare capacity that can be quickly started to deal with supply outages. Without access to that oil the world has little slack in the global supply system to deal with disruption.

The kingdom is using that capacity to plug the Libyan deficit and has boosted output to a level exceeding 9 million bpd, a senior industry source familiar with Saudi production told Reuters. That would be the highest since Saudi pumped around 8.3 million bpd in January, according to a Reuters survey, although some estimates are higher and one consultant pegged output last month 8.9 million bpd.

In Libya, armed rebels prepared for a counter-attack as the country's leader Muammar Gaddafi defied calls to quit in the hardest-fought of the Arab world's wave of uprisings so far.

On Sunday, police crushed protest in non-OPEC oil exporter Oman following a wave of pro-democracy protests across the Arab world.

Oman is the nineth largest producer in the Middle East and North Africa, just after Libya, with a production of 865,000 bpd, according to JPMorgan.

The market is " definitely bracing for the worst" as it remained unclear when the situation in Libya would stabilise, Westmore said.

JPMorgan increased late on Friday its 2011 Brent oil forecast to $108 a barrel, up from the previous $95, on tighter supply after Libyan output losses.

It also raised its 2011 average forecast for WTI crude by 3.2 percent to $96 a barrel.

" The new 2011 price forecast maps a projected outcome within a range of scenarios that could encompass the oil market over the next 12 months - ranging from a rapid normalization of geopolitical risk to the loss of output in a major oil producer," JPMorgan said in a report on Friday.

Following spikes in oil prices last week, the International Energy Agency has called on OPEC to draw on excess oil production capacity if required while adding that it is also ready to release emergency stocks when necessary.

But the response time meant that extra supplies would lag disruption, prompting volatility and near-term price spikes, Westmore said.

Iran's Oil Minister urged Saudi Arabia on Sunday to refrain from taking a hasty decision on increasing its oil production after the popular uprising in Libya, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Traders were looking ahead to manufacturing data to be released from the U.S. and China on Tuesday, Westmore said. (Editing by Ed Lane)

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28-Feb-2011 13:46

China Minzhong / China Minzhong Food forum

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hulumus, you quietly buy and sell......huh! hahaha!

How many lots you still have at hand?

Hulumas ( Date: 26-Nov-2010 20:08) Posted:

I hold so many lots already!

des_khor ( Date: 26-Nov-2010 16:28) Posted:

I just ask my MFT friend and he said that uptrend still intake....

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28-Feb-2011 13:39

Straits Times Index / News Update!

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0.91 to 1.08 Singapore dollars?

krisluke ( Date: 28-Feb-2011 12:25) Posted:

Hutchison unit sets price range for $5.8 bln Singapore IPO

* Price range of $0.91-$1.08 a unit - prospectus

* To sell up to 3.9 billion units, excluding cornerstones

* Temasek, Paulson, Cathay Life among cornerstones

* Cornerstones to invest $1.6 billion

By Saeed Azhar and Charmian Kok

SINGAPORE, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Hutchison Whampoa's ports' unit is looking to raise as much as $5.8 billion in its Singapore initial public offering, making it the biggest listing in Southeast Asia.

Hutchison Port Holdings has set an indicative price of $0.91 to $1.08 per unit for the IPO, aiming to raise $4.2 billion through the sale share. Cornerstone investors will be putting in an additional $1.6 billion in the deal, according to its preliminary prospectus.

Based on the maximum indicative price, the market cap of the company will be $9.4 billion after the listing, which is likely to be within a few weeks.

Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings , U.S. hedge fund manager Paulson & Co and Cathay Life Insurance are among the cornerstone investors.

The listing by Hutchison, a ports-to-telecom conglomerate owned by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, is the first publicly traded business trust backed by port assets, according to its prospectus.

The company chose Singapore over Hong Kong because the city-state has been an attractive destination for infrastructure and real estate trusts, bankers said.

The units will offer a yield of between 5.5 percent to 6.5 percent to unit holders, according to the prospectus.

Paulson will invest $350 million in the IPO, whereas a Temasek unit will put in $100 million.

" Given the size of HPH Trust, we expect the proposed IPO to attract significant investor interest," said Sean Quek, Singapore head of research at Credit Suisse.

" In addition to the potential direct impact on trading volume, the IPO could also set the path for business trusts and port-related companies' listing here."

DBS , Deutsche Bank , and Goldman Sachs are joint bookrunners and issue managers.

JPMorgan , UBS , Barclays , Morgan Stanley are among co-lead managers. (Additional reporting by Harry Suhartono Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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28-Feb-2011 13:09

Straits Times Index / STI to cross 3000 boosted by long-term investors

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MAS needs to stretch and flex to respond to Singapore’s latest economic jitters- Morgan Stanley

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The financial research agency said MAS’ policy response will need to deal with increased uncertainty
both on the inflation and growth front as inflation forecast for 2011 has been revised from 2.7% YoY to 4.2%.

The inflation rate for 2012, meanwhile, has been changed from 2.7% YoY to 2.3%

In a statement, Morgan Stanley said while that the economic data for January points to inflation peaking in 1Q11, the inflation trajectory is “likely to be bumpy.”

The recently released Jan-11 inflation data show January headline inflation reaching +5.5% YoY (vs. +4.6% YoY in December 2010), a 26-month high. The figure is above consensus expectations of 4.4% YoY.

“Accommodation inflation will accelerate whilst car inflation should decelerate… [Also,] inflation should follow a broad deceleration path in the course of 2011, though we expect headline inflation to stay significantly above the 1.5%-2.0% historical trend average,” the research firm said.

Morgan Stanley has factored in an average oil price of US$110/bbl for 2011 and 2012 and warned about energy and food inflation peaks in 2Q11.

Although MAS is seen to implement a one-off upward recentering in the April review following the latest economic developments, Morgan Stanley thinks a widening of the policy band is more likely.

“With upcoming elections, the raising of the upper band allows more room for near-term appreciation which will help policymakers cope with upside inflation risks given the supply shocks. On the other hand, the lowering of the lower band will help policymakers to cope with the increased growth uncertainty from the supply shocks and the demand-destruction it might bring,” the firm said.

Morgan Stanley added that the increased bandwidth will give policymakers the flexibility in dealing with “a fairly fluid macro environment” especially since MAS meets less frequently compared to other Central Banks.

The next MPC review will be another 6 months away.

Tags: 2011 inflation rate revised to 4.2%, MAS seen to implement a one-off upward recentering in April

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28-Feb-2011 13:01

CapitaLand / Capitaland

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1.4k psf , if a 1300 apartment will cost almost 2 million. (99 years lease)

Will one buy at such high psf for a 99 yrs leasehole?

krisluke ( Date: 25-Feb-2011 09:32) Posted:

Capitaland: Won tender for Bishan residential site with bid of $550m ($869psf GFA), 27% above 2nd highest bid from KepLand, with total of 19 bidders. This is the 1st site released after 4th round of measures and both the number of bidders and price of the bid indicates confidence of developers.

Site is attractive located, within walking distance to Bishan MRT & Junction 8 and co plans to build a 600-unit dev. Estimates put the avg selling price at approx $1.4k psf, a bullish figure, 30% higher than the resale mkt ($720-890psf) and higher than Clover by the Park ($900-1000 psf).

Co land bank is now at $2.7m and increases low-end exposure which is seeing more demand lately but may be viewed cautiously given bid’s high price. Deutsche maintains Buy with TP$4.87 and CIMB maintains Neutral with TP$3.27.

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28-Feb-2011 12:58

CapitaLand / Capitaland

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Home prices to drop 3-5% in 2011

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This comes after private residential sales fell 10.7 m-o-m to 1,189 units in January.

According to OCBC, Kwek Leng Beng, executive chairman of City Developments, said they are expecting the home prices to fall this year amid government curbs.

Tags: Singapore home prices, Singapore residential sales, Singapore government curbs

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28-Feb-2011 12:56

CapitaLand / Capitaland

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You are almost right. Smiley

I copy and paste the postings and sent to the tua tow kay of Capitaland telling him the Genius in Sharejunctions.

boyikao3 ( Date: 23-Feb-2011 20:28) Posted:

Let's see what I said last year Nov will hold its ground... Smiley

boyikao3 ( Date: 23-Nov-2010 17:03) Posted:

For those knowlegable in TA, this s also known as the "Shoulder Line", The right shoulder is now formed. If this level dun hold, a super head and shoulder formation since June last year would tell you the next big trend...

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28-Feb-2011 12:43

Others / 4D KT to Share !!!

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Must buy 2133 again, looks like nice number, will come out top 3 ..

niuyear ( Date: 28-Feb-2011 11:26) Posted:

I filled up wrongly , supposed to be 2138, i filled up 2133.

Ti gong loves gong kia

rotijai ( Date: 27-Feb-2011 18:55) Posted:

starter ..

2133.. tat's close.. gj :

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28-Feb-2011 12:42

Others / 4D KT to Share !!!

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x 0

1st	4560
2nd	6224
3rd	8830

0583 2133
3215 4392
5229 5544
5650 7493
8363 8775

0206 0729
1848 2839
2890 3239
4422 4657
6348 9710

1st	4560
2nd	6224
3rd	8830

0583 2133
3215 4392
5229 5544
5650 7493
8363 8775

0206 0729
1848 2839
2890 3239
4422 4657
6348 9710

1st 4560
2nd 6224
3rd 8830

0583 2133 3215 4392 5229
5544 5650 7493 8363 8775

0206 0729 1848 2839 2890
3239 4422 4657 6348 9710

must buy again, 2133. will come out first prize soon.

niuyear ( Date: 28-Feb-2011 11:26) Posted:

I filled up wrongly , supposed to be 2138, i filled up 2133.

Ti gong loves gong kia

rotijai ( Date: 27-Feb-2011 18:55) Posted:

starter ..

2133.. tat's close.. gj :

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28-Feb-2011 12:39

China Gaoxian / ChinaGaoxian

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Wow, basement condo in Lim Chu Kang, first time heard of basement condo, must be very cheap. Hhow much per square foot....

warrenbegger ( Date: 27-Feb-2011 23:09) Posted:

Sometime they had to let themself bite by snake to know which snake r posion, some still can save but some in lim chu kang basement condo liao. LOL! We all kanna rape before, the most important lesson is will u be wiser after the rape? Or u really want to get rape in order to be wiser?

iPunter ( Date: 27-Feb-2011 22:36) Posted:

oic... in time to come, you will learn to be an expert... :

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28-Feb-2011 12:30

SingTel / Singtel Bullish???

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Big transaction this morning !

14,691

ozone2002 ( Date: 28-Feb-2011 00:11) Posted:

u the Singtel expert..

can get free calls + sms soon from singtel..:)

niuyear ( Date: 25-Feb-2011 10:59) Posted:

Below 2.90 was always good buy, be it for short trading or long term holding.

Huat arhhhhh...........

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