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China motorists cross 330m as cities struggle to cope

Shanghai

CHINA now has about the same number of licensed drivers as there are people in the US, even though two out of three adult Chinese still aren't qualified to operate a motor vehicle.

There are now more than 300 million motorists in China, compared with the US population of 319 million, according to the Chinese public security ministry and US census data. It took just four years to add 100 million new drivers in China, and 35 of its cities now have more than one million vehicles, with major urban centres like Beijing and Shenzhen having twice that number, the ministry said in a statement on its website on Friday.

The rising number of motorists will boost vehicle demand while increasing the burden on cities already struggling to cope with pollution and congestion. The public security ministry said separately this week that it is looking at making it easier to get a licence by removing the need for mandatory driver's education classes.

"Congestion is already pretty bad, especially in tier-one cities," said Lin Huaibin, a Shanghai- based analyst at forecaster LMC Automotive, referring to the biggest metropolitan areas. "The government is already trying to tackle pollution issues."

Carmakers are expected to sell about 23 million new vehicles this year, according to a forecast by the state-backed China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou have implemented caps on the number of new cars as part of measures to control tailpipe emissions. Bloomberg

The China auto sales continue its growth...

GM says November China auto sales up 5.3 percent year-on-year

SHANGHAI - General Motors Co and its Chinese joint ventures sold 310,094 vehicles in China in November, up 5.3 percent from the same month a year earlier, the U.S. automaker said on Wednesday.

That follows a 3.2 percent year-on-year rise in October and a 15.2 percent rise in September.

The company's sales in the first 11 months of the year totaled 3.18 million vehicles, up 10.1 percent from the same period a year earlier.

GM has said it plans to invest $12 billion in China between 2014 and 2017 and build five more plants to ramp up its manufacturing capacity.

GM makes vehicles in China in partnership with China FAW Group Corp and SAIC Motor Corp Ltd . REUTERS

http://www.todayonline.com/business/gm-s...-year-year

Well I guess depending on who says it:

Car Sales Decline For Fifth Month In a Row As Chinese Economy Cools, But Toyota Bucks Trend

http://online.wsj.com/articles/nissan-ho...1417511396

(03-12-2014, 03:41 PM)valuebuddies Wrote: [ -> ]Well I guess depending on who says it:

Car Sales Decline For Fifth Month In a Row As Chinese Economy Cools, But Toyota Bucks Trend

http://online.wsj.com/articles/nissan-ho...1417511396

The sales declines for Japanese car makers are for a good reason, due to national pride

Japanese car makers are losing out in the race, than the European and US car makers. It has nothing to do with their quality, and marketing strategies.

I think the yen decline will have positive impact on Japanese car sales pre CNY

(03-12-2014, 04:24 PM)specuvestor Wrote: [ -> ]I think the yen decline will have positive impact on Japanese car sales pre CNY

I am not sure in China, but in Asean most of Japanese cars are assembled in Thailand/Indonesia, Yen causes not much impact isn't it?

IIRC critical components for the China JV are imported for obvious reasons

http://infopub.sgx.com/FileOpen/Cancella...eID=327071

CONVERTIBLE BONDS DUE 2017 -
CANCELLATION OF BONDS DUE TO CONVERSION
The board of directors (the “Board”) of China Merchants Holdings (Pacific) Limited (the “Company”) wishes to announce that HK$3,000,000 in aggregate principal amount of HK$1,163,000,000 1.25 per cent. convertible bonds due 2017 (credit enhanced until 2015) (the “Convertible Bonds”) have been converted and cancelled pursuant to the exercise of conversion rights by the holder thereof (the “Conversion”). Accordingly, following such conversion and cancellation, the aggregate principal amount of the Convertible Bonds remaining outstanding as of 4 December 2014 is HK$830,000,000.
Arising from such conversion, 573,307 new ordinary shares in the capital of the Company (“Shares”) have been issued at the conversion price of S$0.826 and the total number of issued and paid-up Shares of the Company has increased to 1,042,795,032.

Based on outstanding HK$830m worth of CBs, the potential shares to be converted at $0.826 is 158.615m.

http://infopub.sgx.com/FileOpen/Cancella...eID=327492

CONVERTIBLE BONDS DUE 2017 -
CANCELLATION OF BONDS DUE TO CONVERSION
The board of directors (the “Board”) of China Merchants Holdings (Pacific) Limited (the “Company”) wishes to announce that HK$13,000,000 in aggregate principal amount of HK$1,163,000,000 1.25 per cent. convertible bonds due 2017 (credit enhanced until 2015) (the “Convertible Bonds”) have been converted and cancelled pursuant to the exercise of conversion rights by the holder thereof (the “Conversion”). Accordingly, following such conversion and cancellation, the aggregate principal amount of the Convertible Bonds remaining outstanding as of 9 December 2014 is HK$817,000,000.
Arising from such conversion, 2,484,333 new ordinary shares in the capital of the Company (“Shares”) have been issued at the conversion price of S$0.826 and the total number of issued and paid-up Shares of the Company has increased to 1,045,279,365.


Based on outstanding HK$817m worth of CBs, the potential shares to be converted at $0.826 is 156.131m.

http://m.theepochtimes.com/n3/1142507-ch...orruption/

An article on Chinese tolls.
Will the pressure from public force the government to reduce toll fee (sooner or later)?
Although the government most of the time do compensate cmp for any changes, vested buddies should still monitor the overall situations and policy from the Chinese gov.

On boat.