Zoomlion, China's leading construction machinery producer, has signed a deal worth $340 million to purchase a majority share in farm machinery maker Chery Heavy. In deals signed Tuesday, Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Development Co Ltd, based in the Central China's Changsha city, purchased 1.8 billion shares, or 60 percent of Chery Heavy Industry Co Ltd, for 2.08 billion yuan.
Updated 5 Years ago

A former director at China's economic planning agency who oversaw corporate bond issues between 2003-2006 is being investigated, the country's top prosecutor said on Friday, the latest official to be implicated in an anti-corruption drive. Zhang Dongsheng, who was more recently the head of the employment and income distribution division at the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), was "suspected of taking bribes", the Supreme People's Procuratorate said on its official microblog.
Updated 5 Years ago

Royal Caribbean's newest cruise ship, Quantum of the Seas, will have its home port in China. The $935 million ship floated out of a German shipyard last week and will spend the winter sailing between New York and the Caribbean before moving to its new base next summer in Shanghai.
Updated 5 Years ago

A Chinese manufacturing gauge fell more than analysts estimated in August as a credit slowdown and property slump add to risks the world's second-largest economy will miss its growth target this year. The preliminary Purchasing Managers Index from HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Ltd was at 50.3, trailing all 22 estimates in a survey of economists that had a median projection of 51.5. The measure dropped from July's final reading of 51.7 and, if confirmed on Sept 1, will be a three-month low. Numbers above 50 indicate expansion.
Updated 5 Years ago

An American doctor who contracted Ebola treating victims of the deadly virus in Liberia has recovered and will be discharged on Thursday by the Atlanta hospital that treated him with an experimental drug, his charity said. Dr. Kent Brantly of Texas was given ZMapp, a drug used on a handful of patients in the West African outbreak and produced by US-based Mapp Biopharmaceutical.
Updated 5 Years ago

Brazilian power firm Neoenergia will increase its installed generating capacity by 150% over the next five years, as large-scale hydroelectric projects come online. In an operations report, the company said its generation park would increase to 4.05GW over the period from 1.63GW today.
Updated 5 Years ago

Colombia produced 47.3Mt of coal in the first half of 2014, a 14% year-on-year increase, according to the national mining agency (ANM). About 91% of coal production was exported, the agency said in a statement. Colombia, Latin America's largest coal producer, turned out 40.5Mt in the first half of 2013.
Updated 5 Years ago

Brazil's São Paulo state water utility Sabesp is waiting for approval from national water agency ANA to carry out a 504mn-real (US$223mn) drought relief project. Planned by state governor Geraldo Alckmin, the initiative involves redirecting water from the Paraíba do Sul river in Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais states to São Paulo state. Critically, some of the water would also flow into the key Cantareira water supply system.
Updated 5 Years ago

Chinese brokerages will start making markets next week on China's New Third Board, its leading over-the-counter (OTC) exchange but one long derided as a dead-end market populated by small little-known, opaquely managed firms. The move has revitalized interest and trading volumes have exploded, but analysts warn of significant risk.
Updated 5 Years ago

Bank of America Corp. agreed to pay almost $16.7 billion to end federal and state probes into mortgage bond sales, the harshest penalty yet related to loans that fueled the 2008 financial crisis. The settlement, which includes $9.65 billion in cash and $7 billion in consumer relief, resolves civil investigations by government prosecutors, the U.S. said today.
Updated 5 Years ago