China passenger trips up 3% during Dragon Boat holiday
[HONG KONG] People took an estimated 657 million passenger trips during this year's Dragon Boat Festival holiday, up 3 per cent year on year, China's state broadcaster reported, with the indicator closely watched as a barometer of Chinese consumer confidence.
Consumption in the world's second-largest economy has suffered amidst sputtering growth and a prolonged property crisis, while uncertainty from the US-China trade war has also affected consumer confidence.
The Dragon Boat Festival took place from May 31 to Jun 2 – and is celebrated throughout the country with local dragon boat races and many people taking the opportunity to have a short holiday.
There were an average of 219 million domestic trips per day, broadcaster CCTV said late on Monday (Jun 2), with both China's rail and air volumes seeing robust passenger flow.
Cross border trips rose 2.7 per cent to 5.9 million, with a total of 231,000 foreign nationals entering the country visa-free during the holiday.
China has been expanding its visa policy, with citizens of 43 countries granted visa-free access, while visa-free transit for up to 240 hours in China is available for 54 countries.
Rail lines saw the peak of return passenger flow on Jun 2, with authorities adding 1,279 trains to more than 11,000 passenger trains overall across the country, while road travel was up 3 per cent year on year, with 600 million travellers recorded, mostly travelling short distances.
The holiday also boosted spending on entertainment, with total box office revenue reaching 460 million yuan (S$83 million), surpassing last year's 384 million yuan, according to data from online ticketing platform Maoyan.
Tom Cruise's latest movie Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning topped charts, and generated 228 million yuan, half of the total revenue during the holiday period, which was seen as a positive indicator for the upcoming summer season. REUTERS
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Times
27 minutes ago
- Business Times
China's power prices nosedive in relief to tariff-hit factories
[BEIJING] A crash in Chinese coal prices, and a flood of clean energy, are cutting power rates in major industrial hubs, easing pressure on some of the factories caught in the crossfire of trade hostilities with the US. In Jiangsu province, the average price for June contracts settled by centralised bidding plunged 24 per cent year on year to 313 yuan (S$56) per megawatt-hour (MWh), the lowest level regulators allow. In Guangdong, the rate dropped 8.3 per cent to the government's floor of 373 yuan per MWh. The two coastal powerhouses are heavily dependent on exports, with a combined economy bigger than that of France. The main driver is a collapse in the price of coal – down 30 per cent over the past year – which accounts for more than half of the electricity generated in China. A shift to market-based pricing, particularly for renewables, is also helping to weaken rates. 'Generation costs are cracking,' said David Fishman, a Shanghai-based principal at consultancy The Lantau Group. 'Coal generators, when they are bidding into the system, they are able to entertain lower prices because all of the generation costs are lower.' Just as economic conditions worsen due to the trade war, Chinese industry is finding relief in the government's drive for energy security. That effort has been most successful in power markets. The country is sitting on a glut of coal that's built up over years and leads the world in its rollout of wind and solar. Lower power costs are not universal though, because of the way the market is structured. The monthly contract declines apply to only about a quarter of electricity sales, Fishman estimated, with some 70 per cent of transactions decided on a yearly basis. Spot or short-term trades account for the rest. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up Still, a lot of annual deals are at least partially tied to monthly or short-term pricing, which will have expanded the number of beneficiaries, Fishman said. 'I would be surprised if there were a lot of power buyers out there just seething, looking at the prices dropping, thinking how come I didn't see that?' he said. Policy shifts Recent policy changes have also pressured electricity prices. The sharp drop in Jiangsu's monthly rate was largely due to the start-up of its spot market in June, said Nannan Kou, head of China research at BloombergNEF. Power generators were keen to lock in buyers ahead of the extra competition from spot traders, and lower coal prices allowed them to offer discounts while still eking out a profit, he said. Most regions in China are expected to have at least trial operations for spot markets, which rely on near instantaneous assessments of supply and demand, by the end of the year. Clean energy is a key pillar of China's embrace of market forces. Starting Jun 1, all renewables generators have to sell their power on the open market, although projects connected to the grid before that date will retain price protections that limit their downside. That creates the incentive to sell electricity without worrying too much about falling prices, said Lantau's Fishman, which could put more pressure on rates and deliver even lower costs to customers. BLOOMBERG
Straits Times
28 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Nintendo Switch 2 launches globally with shortages expected amid pent-up demand
Customers line up to get their hands on the Nintendo Switch 2 gaming device at an electronics store in Tokyo on June 5. PHOTO: REUTERS TOKYO - Nintendo's Switch 2 launched on June 5 and is widely expected to be in short supply globally amid pent-up demand for the more powerful next-generation gaming device. 'The level of demand seems to be sky-high,' said Mr Serkan Toto, founder of the Kantan Games consultancy. The Switch launched in 2017 and followed the underperforming Wii U. The home-portable device became a juggernaut with games including two The Legend of Zelda titles and Covid-19 pandemic breakout hit Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The Switch 2 bears many similarities with its predecessor but offers a larger screen and improved graphics and debuts with titles including 'Mario Kart World'. 'The much larger audience of Switch users should translate to stronger adoption in the opening part of its lifecycle,' said Mr Piers Harding-Rolls, an analyst at Ampere Analysis. 'Nintendo is better prepared this time around' to deal with the high demand, he said. The launch of the US$499.99 (S$643) Switch 2 is a test of Nintendo's supply chain management during US President Donald Trump's trade war. Nintendo in May forecast sales of 15 million Switch 2 units during the current financial year. President Shuntaro Furukawa said Nintendo will strengthen production capacity to respond to strong demand and focus on sales promotion in an effort to exceed the forecast. The company, which is known for conservative forecasts, also expects to sell 4.5 million Switch units. A staff member holds a megaphone on the day Nintendo starts selling the Nintendo Switch 2 game console globally, at an electronics store in Tokyo on June 5. PHOTO: REUTERS Nintendo said it received 2.2 million applications for its Switch 2 sales lottery on its My Nintendo Store in Japan. Pre-orders at Target sold out in less than two hours. 'You are looking at weeks or months until you can walk into a store and buy a Switch 2,' said Mr Toto of Kantan Games. Investor expectations for the new device are similarly lofty. Nintendo's shares are trading near highs and have gained almost 30 per cent in 2025. Concerns include whether momentum for the Switch 2 will be sustained after hardcore gamers have upgraded. 'The volume of first-party games on offer at launch isn't as strong as it could be, so some more casual users may wait and see how the games available build over the next one to two years before making the leap,' said Ampere's Harding-Rolls. Ampere forecasts Switch 2 sales to exceed 100 million units in 2030. Nintendo has sold 152 million Switch units in total. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
AsiaOne
34 minutes ago
- AsiaOne
Japan's ispace counts down to second moon-landing attempt on Friday, Asia News
TOKYO — Japanese startup ispace aims to become the first non-US company to achieve a controlled moon landing as it prepares for the touchdown of its second uncrewed spacecraft on Friday (June 6), two years after its inaugural mission ended in failure. Tokyo-based ispace hopes to join US firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace, which have accomplished commercial landings since last year amid an intensifying global race for the moon that includes state-run missions from China and India. The mission also highlights broad public- and private-sector expectations from Japan, which remains committed to lunar exploration as part of Nasa's Artemis moon programme, despite mounting uncertainty about its future as President Donald Trump reshapes US space policies. "A moon landing is not a dream but it has become a reality," ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada has said. The company's first lunar lander in April 2023 crashed onto the moon's surface due to a software issue that incorrectly assessed its altitude during descent over precipitous terrain. Its second lander, named Resilience, in January shared a SpaceX rocket launch with Firefly's Blue Ghost lander. Blue Ghost took a faster trajectory to the moon and touched down successfully in March. Currently circling about 100km above the lunar surface, Resilience carries a rover built by ispace's Luxembourg subsidiary and payloads worth a total of US$16 million (S$21 million), including scientific instruments from Japanese firms and a Taiwanese university. After Friday's landing on Mare Frigoris, a lunar sea relatively close to the moon's north pole, scheduled for 4.17am Japan time (3.17am Singapore time), the 2.3m high lander and the microwave-sized rover are tasked to capture images of regolith, the moon's fine-grained surface material. If successful, ispace said it will transfer the ownership of the collected material to Nasa to fulfil what it says would be the world's first commercial transaction of lunar resources. According to a 2020 Nasa statement, ispace's Japan and Luxembourg units would each receive $5,000 under this arrangement. Nasa was not immediately able to comment on the impact of the Trump administration's proposed budget reductions on the contract. An ispace spokesperson declined to comment. Japan's lunar enthusiasm The company envisions establishing a lunar colony of 1,000 inhabitants by the 2040s, tapping the moon's water resources. It plans seven more missions in the US and Japan through 2029, including a Nasa-sponsored one as part of the Artemis programme, to capitalise on increasing demands for lunar transportation. About a dozen corporate partners have provided support for ispace missions, including titanium materials from Citizen Watch and design expertise from automaker Suzuki. In Japan, a wide range of businesses from construction firms to carmakers engage in lunar exploration research, and the breadth of industrial interest in the moon may surpass that in the United States, said Atsushi Uchida, Research Director at Mitsubishi Research Institute. The government has been keen to promote Japan's roles in the Artemis programme, signing an agreement with Nasa last year to include two Japanese astronauts and a Toyota-built rover in forthcoming missions to the lunar surface. Exploration of the moon and Mars is one of the key objectives of Japan's newly-established multibillion-dollar space venture fund. "Having ispace, a domestic transportation option, is a huge advantage for Japanese businesses and universities that foray into lunar exploration using government funds," said Ritsumeikan University professor Kazuto Saiki, who participated in Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (Jaxa) SLIM mission that achieved Japan's first lunar landing last year. Jaxa President Hiroshi Yamakawa said last month that he was rooting for ispace's re-attempt because their "success will attract attention to the whole Japanese space industry". Investors are keen. Shares in ispace, which made a blistering market debut in 2023 but languished after the landing failure, have risen about 60 per cent year-to-date, epitomising a space startup boom in the Japanese capital market. [[nid:674994]]
