Arkansas Democrat Gazette, AR
08-01-07
Business News short takes
BEIJING — Two of China’s biggest domestic car companies have formed a
partnership to develop new models amid Chinese efforts to create producers
able to compete with global automakers. Shanghai Automotive Industries Corp.
and Nanjing Automobile Corp. agreed to “comprehensive cooperation” on design,
production and sales, Nanjing Auto said in a statement issued over the weekend.
A woman who answered the phone Monday at Nanjing Auto’s publicity
department refused to give other details and calls to Shanghai Corp. were not
answered. The communist Beijing government has been encouraging such tieups in its fragmented auto industry, hoping Chinese producers will pool
resources to create competitive models.
China is the world’s second-largest and fastest-growing vehicle market, but sales
are dominated by General Motors Corp., Volkswagen AG and other foreign
producers. The country has about 150 automakers, most small and financially
weak.
Passenger car sales to newly prosperous Chinese drivers rose 37 percent last
year to 3. 8 million units, according to the country’s auto industry association.
Total vehicle sales, including trucks and buses, rose 25. 1 percent to 7. 2 million
units.
Nanjing Auto and Shanghai, both government-owned, said earlier they were
looking at cooperating to make better use of limited resources. The weekend
announcement said they were looking at an asset swap but made no mention of
whether they were discussing an outright merger. Fungus threat sends up
soybean prices
Soybean prices in Chicago rose on speculation a deadly fungus threatens to
spread into the Midwest, damaging the second-biggest U. S. crop. Asian
soybean rust was confirmed last week in two counties in southern Oklahoma, the
most northern infestation of the disease, which can destroy as much as 80
percent of infected fields. Iowa State University said in a report last week there
is a 40 percent chance in the next 30 days that the fungus will reach Iowa, the
biggest grower.
“The soybean rust possibility will tend to” increase speculative buying, said Dale
Durchholz, a market analyst for AgriVisor Services Inc. in Bloomington, Ill.
“There’s little downside risk in prices given the small acreage,” with plantings
down 15 percent from a year ago.
Soybean futures for November delivery rose 7. 25 cents, or 0. 9 percent, to $ 8.
4775 a bushel in Chicago. Prices plunged 11 percent in the past two weeks on
speculation rains improved Midwest crop conditions.
Futures still have gained 41 percent from a year ago and reached a three-year
high of $ 9. 50 on July 13. Soybeans were planted on 64. 08 million acres in the
United States, the fewest in 12 years, the Department of Agriculture said June
29.
About 61 percent of the U. S. soybean crop was in good or excellent condition as
of July 22, down from 62 percent a week earlier and the third weekly decline, the
USDA said last week. The government was scheduled to update the report later
Monday.
The U. S. soybean harvest was valued at $ 19. 7 billion in 2006, behind only
corn, government figures show. Nike settles worker-discrimination suit