Subject: CHINA IMP/EXP NEWS (CN940323)

From: [email-masked] (wangc)
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 94 11:25:18 CST

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  #           A WEEKLY NEWSLETTER FROM THE CHINA-LINK CLUB             #
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                       March 23, 1994 (CN940323)

CONTENTS                                                             LINES
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A): BUSINESS SECTION INDEX........................................6 lines
B): CHINA TRADE NEWS DIGEST......................................84 lines
C): CHINA MARKET WATCH..........................................114 lines
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A): BUSINESS SECTION INDEX......................................580 lines
    a) Weekly trade leads (3 items)..............................70 lines
    b) International trade news index...........................410 lines

BUSINESS SECTION OF CHINA IMP/EXP NEWS CAN BE AUTOMATICALY RETRIEVED FROM
[email-masked] with the SUBJECT: BUSINESS

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B): CHINA TRADE NEWS DIGEST.......................................84 lines
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Reduction In Corn Exports Is Forecast
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BY: MARGARET SCHERF
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS     DATE: March  16, 1994  00:06 EST

Excellent weather in recent weeks has led to a large increase in
forecast output in South Africa, up 3 million tons to 13.5 million,
it said. This will be the highest since the record 14.7 million
tons of 1980-81.

The report said the pace of China's shipments has slowed
recently and its forecast exports are down 500,000 tons this month.

However, it said, China's corn exports are still forecast to
reach 12 million tons, up 500,000 from the 1992-93 record.

Corn exports by the European Union are expected to hit 2 million
tons, close to its record high of 2.2 million tons in 1988-89.

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CHINA'S CRUDE OIL IMPORTS EXPECTED TO PEAK IN 2010
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DATE: March 18, 1994  19:09 E.T.  WORD COUNT: 352
Knight-Ridder Financial via The Journal of Commerce

    NEW YORK--Mar. 18--China's imports of crude oil will peak at about 1.4
million barrels a day in the year 2010, OPEC Secretary General Subroto
predicted, the OPEC News Agency said Thursday.

  OPEC studies indicated that China, through its extensive encouragement of
exploration and domestic production, would be capable of meeting 75 percent
of its oil demand.

  China has estimated reserves of 24 billion barrels of oil, as well as an
estimated 35 billion cubic feet of natural gas. It also has more than

  5 trillion metric tons of coal reserves, and it has a major capacity to
produce hydroelectric power, Subroto said.

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CHINA METALS WATCH: HIGH IMPORT COSTS IDLE CHINA'S COPPER BUYERS
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DATE: March 15, 1994  22:29 E.T.  WORD COUNT: 317
Knight-Ridder

  Tokyo--Mar 16--China is sniffing around for more copper in Asia,
although any buying resurgence is probably months away, traders say.

  China should eventually import about 250,000 tonnes of copper in
1994 to support rapid economic growth, but so far this year its
imports have been limited due to rising costs, they said.

  Inquiries from China have increased in the last week, but few
deals have been reached, according to traders.

  Premiums for delivery to Shanghai are quoted at around 110 US
dlrs a tonne, compared with 80 to 90 dlrs in early February, he said.

  "Premiums on the warrants are now at 70 to 80 dlrs a tonne, if
you can find them," he said. "You'd then have to pay 20 to 30 dlrs (a
tonne) to get it out of the warehouse, and another 40 dlrs in
freight" to ship it to China, bringing the total premium on the
warrants to around 140 US dlrs a tonne.  End

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Japan set to hike imports of Chinese, Thai rice
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DATELINE: TOKYO  PRIORITY: Rush  WORD COUNT: 0269
Agence France Presse English Wire       DATE: March 15, 1994  13:23 GMT

Japan  may  change its earlier quotas of foreign rice imports, boosting the
shares  of  Chinese  and Thai products, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
Minister Eijiro Hata indicated Tuesday.

Press  reports  speculated  that revised quotas for the current fiscal year
might  be 40 percent from China, 35 percent from Thailand and a combined 25
percent from the United States and Australia.

Thai  rice,  which  was  initially  unpopular  among Japanese consumers, is
gradually winning popularity, the Food Agency said.

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C): CHINA MARKET WATCH...........................................114 lines
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CHINA - TRADE WITH VIETNAM - 17 MAR 94
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AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU

SUBJECT:  GUANGXI'S DONGZHONG:  A SLEEPY BORDER TOWN AWAKENS TO THE
SOUND OF WARMING RELATIONS WITH VIETNAM

1.  SUMMARY.  Increasing SINO-VIETNAMESE border trade is fueling new
growth in guangxi province's poor and isolated areas.  when a new
karaoke bar arrives, can modernization be far behind?  end summary.
2.  a recent u.s.-chinese mission to investigate a vietnam-era crash
site on the sino-vietnamese border gave congenoff the opportunity to
observe life in the small frontier town of dongzhong in the mountains
thirty miles from the gulf of tonkin.

-------------------------------------------------
ascending the mountains, descending into the past
-------------------------------------------------

3.  most signs of guangxi's new urban prosperity quickly dissipate when
the paved road turns to dirt three hours south of manning and ascends
into the shiwan mountain range along the vietnamese border.  to travel
further into the mountains is to travel back into china's past.
barefoot peasants work fertile terraces with their water buffalo, and
the hillsides are carved into broad layers of manually-irrigated rice
paddies, sugar cane fields, and scattered orchards.  there is limited
mining but almost no signs of industry more advanced than brickmaking.

4.  the majority of the sparse population live in small mudbrick homes
with thatched or tin roofs.  faded mao suits and matching hats are the
predominant fashion, completing the picture of a mostly poor local
population literally scratching a living from the mountainsides.

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dongzhong: a crossroads in every sense of the word
--------------------------------------------------

5.  the small border town of dongzhong, pop. 4,900, is a junction of
time and culture.  the shifting population lives an ancient lifestyle
on the verge of radical change.  the modest local produce market comes
alive each day with a variety of local traders and merchants:  han
chinese, neighboring vietnamese, and great numbers of several local
ethnic minorities, principally duong and yao.  many of the minority
women, particularly the elderly, dress in bright blue and orange fabric
with beautiful, elaborate headdresses.  the local main street, on the
other hand, is a listless corridor of dirty, unlit shops carrying cheap
consumer goods and chinese medicines.  there are no restaurants,
although there is a cooking area at the new four-story guesthouse built
recently for visiting traders and entrepreneurs, with financing from
beijing.  provincial authorities brought cooks and waitresses from
fangcheng, three hours to the east, to feed the joint mission.

6.  the people wandering through the small collection of alleys that is
the center of dongzhong speak a cacophony of local dialects.  however,
the majority of the shopkeepers speak clear cantonese.  several
reported that they were ethnic chinese who had been forced from vietnam
in 1978-79.  a large number of children, surprised but receptive to the
presence of foreigners, pass on their way to or from local schools.
their threadbare clothing and dirty faces contrast starkly with the
cheap, yet immaculate, two and three-piece suits worn by local leaders
who themselves are from the same households.

------------------------------------------------
to get rich is glorious, even if it takes awhile
------------------------------------------------

7.  rural guangxi remains a far cry from the neon lights of the pearl
river delta, yet it may finally be on the verge of economic change,
albeit at a slower pace than the "chinese miracle" further east.  the
road leading to dongzhong, and to vietnam beyond, is being upgraded,
leading to speculation that dongzhong may be destined to gain some of
the attention now being given to guangxi's principal border crossings
with vietnam, dongxing to the south and pingxiang to the north.  in
dongzhong, the central government has financed construction of a new
market literally on the border to accommodate increasing trade with
vietnam.  local awakens to the sound of warming relations with vietnam
entrepreneurs are gradually making the transition from mudbrick to
cement dwelling.  power lines, although still providing only
intermittent electricity, seem commonplace.  perhaps most telling,
dongzhong now boasts its very own karaoke bar.

------------------------------
looking south to vietnam . . .
------------------------------

8.  cross-border trade with vietnam seems to be definlng western
guangxi's short-term economic future rather than foreign-investment as
in other parts of south china.  local officials report that dongzhong
is beginning to regain some of the population that fled during the 1979
sino-vietnamese conflict in spite of continued local fears over
undetected mines, unexploded ordnance, and remaining signs of property
damage.  much of the conflict, however, seems to have been forgotten.
many local signs are in vietnamese, and authorities south of the border
are reported to have allowed the reintroduction of cantonese, the
predominant trading and market dialect which had been banned in 1979.
dongzhong's mayor presents his business card written in chinese on one
side and vietnamese on the other.  the small frontier posts on both
sides of the border do a brisk business checking documents and goods as
growing numbers of traders float back and forth.  consumables flow
north into china and manufactured goods return south to vietnam.

-------------------------------------------------
 . . . while the emperor in the north is far away
-------------------------------------------------

9.  the occasional faded picture of mao zedong in the back of a tiny
shop or a barely visible political slogan on the side of a wall
indicate that at one time beijing's hand extended fully to the remote
south.  however, china's industrial revolution is virtually
non-existent here and small towns like guangxi's dongzhong are little
more than forgotten outposts in the economic hinterland.  clearly
impatient for any trickle-down effect, dongzhong is making a active
effort to take a new road, one that leads directly south into vietnam.
martin

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