Latest news with #SASAC
Business Times
8 hours ago
- Business
- Business Times
China asks state-owned developers to avoid public debt defaults
China has introduced a requirement for state-owned developers to avoid defaulting on publicly issued debt, in the latest attempt by authorities to contain the nation's prolonged property crisis. The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) added the directive to its latest performance metrics for about 20 developers that are controlled by the central government, people with knowledge of the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing a private matter. The commission did not respond to a faxed request for comment on Monday (Jun 23). While the regulator has so far stopped short of providing additional support to backstop the developers, the new stipulation underscores growing urgency to contain credit risks from China's protracted property downturn. Most of the biggest private developers have defaulted since 2021, shattering confidence in the housing market and leaving a pile of distressed debt that currently stands at almost US$140 billion. So far, state-owned developers have avoided the same fate, and their onshore bonds are trading at levels that suggest bondholders expect repayment. The companies overseen by SASAC range from leading firm Poly Developments & Holdings Group to smaller builder CCCG Real Estate. SASAC sets financial indicators for state-owned enterprises such as total profit and the ratio of debts to assets. While there's no guaranteed way to prevent SOEs from defaulting without higher-level intervention, the requirements are designed to ensure officials at the helm remain accountable for performance. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Tuesday, 12 pm Property Insights Get an exclusive analysis of real estate and property news in Singapore and beyond. Sign Up Sign Up One major developer, China Vanke, received state support in January, although that was led by local authorities in the company's hometown of Shenzhen. Vanke, which is backed by a local SOE, is not considered a central government-controlled developer. China's housing slump has dragged on for four years, with little sign of improvement. Prices of new homes slid the most in seven months in May, and sales also fell, signalling the effects of a stimulus blitz last September is wearing off. Like their privately owned peers, SOE developers have felt pressure from slumping sales. Last year, some resorted to steep price cuts to rekindle transactions. 'China's state-owned and private developers are both susceptible to a possible renewed property sales downturn,' Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Kristy Hung wrote in a recent note. She warned that state-owned builders face the risk of a full-year decline in sales this year. Central government-owned developers mostly rely on domestic financing, and the majority of their onshore bonds trade near or at par. Poly's 3.17 per cent yuan bond due next year even traded above par last week. But when considering those owned by local governments, yields of yuan bonds of state developers were the highest among 32 sectors, standing above 2.2 per cent in May, according to a note by China International Capital Corp. Some smaller firms are struggling. CCCG Real Estate, which operates under a state-owned infrastructure enterprise, has been on the brink of delisting from the Shenzhen stock exchange since April. It's the first listed state builder to be warned by the exchange for such risk. CCCG Real Estate expanded quickly in the three years since 2019, when it made a bold target to triple sales. Later, it booked two straight years of losses that left it with negative net equity, breaching the bourse's listing rules. To avoid delisting, it agreed to sell its entire real estate business to its parent firm for one yuan (S$0.18), according to an exchange filing on Jun 16. Still, all of CCCG Real Estate's 5 yuan bonds were trading above 98 yuan last week, Bloomberg-compiled data show. Premier Li Qiang this month pledged action to stop the decline in the real estate market, which has been depressing household sentiment just as the government is trying to boost consumption and offset the threat to exports from US tariffs. Even if China's housing market picks up, the long-term outlook remains grim. Demand for new homes in cities is expected to stay at 75 per cent below its 2017 peak in the coming years, due in part to a shrinking population, Goldman Sachs Group estimated. BLOOMBERG
Reuters
13-06-2025
- Automotive
- Reuters
FAW-VW to recall 202,662 Sagitar cars in China
BEIJING, June 13 (Reuters) - The joint venture of China's FAW Group ( and Germany's Volkswagen ( opens new tab will recall 202,662 Sagitar cars in China from July 15 over potential safety hazards caused by insufficient moisture-proof performance of wheel speed sensors, China's market regulator said on Friday.
Asia Times
27-02-2025
- Business
- Asia Times
DeepSeek is now the brain of Chinese state-owned firms
Major state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in China have connected to DeepSeek's artificial intelligence model after the central government launched an 'AI+' program to call for boosting efficiency. Xinhua reported that at least 20 companies owned by the central government have integrated DeepSeek into their operations. These companies are engaged in the energy, telecommunication, automobile, financial and construction industries. In the energy and chemical sectors, Sinopec, PetroChina, CNOOC, Sinochem, China National Nuclear Power Co, China General Nuclear Power Group, China Southern Power Grid and China Oil and Gas Pipeline Network Corp (PipeChina) said they have already linked their AI models to DeepSeek-R1, which was launched on January 20. 'With DeepSeek and other large language models (LLMs), PipeChina's oil and gas control centers can set up their production plans within minutes instead of four hours,' Xu Kun, deputy general manager of Beijing Zhiwang Digital Technology Company, a unit of PipeChiona, told the China Central TV in an interview. 'They can also improve accuracy with AI models by 10%.' LLMs refer to AI models like ChatGPT, which can understand human language or achieve natural language processing (NLP). 'Besides, PipeChina can use DeepSeek to reduce the time needed to simulate the construction of salt caverns for gas storage from tens of days to just one hour,' Xu said. PipeChina, controlled by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council, is the construction contractor for the China–Russia East-Route Natural Gas Pipeline, or the Power of Siberia. The pipeline transfers 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually from Russia's eastern Siberia to northern China. In 2022, PipeChina set up Beijing Zhiwang Digital Technology to digitalize its operations. Last December, PipeChina launched its 'Pipeline Network' AI model using Huawei Cloud. It said it had deployed the model across more than 20 application scenarios and planned to use it in 80 more. On February 17, Chinese President Xi Jinping met corporate leaders at a symposium in Beijing. These company heads included Huawei Technologies' Ren Zhengfei, Alibaba's Jack Ma, Tencent's Pony Ma, DeepSeek's Liang Wenfeng and Unitree's Wang Xingxing. On February 19, the SASAC met with a group of central SOEs to summarize the results of their AI development and plan for future work. SOEs refer to all state-owned firms controlled by the central and local governments, while central SOEs are those owned by the central government. 'Central SOEs should seize the strategic window period for the development of the AI industry. They should improve LLMs, focus on applying core technologies, build an open ecosystem, develop original innovations 'from 0 to 1' and commercialize scientific achievements,' the meeting said. 'The central government should increase efforts to support Central SOEs to use AI technology, highlight the development of AI technology in the coming 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), support the creation of more leading AI enterprises and start-ups,' it said, adding that the government and Central SOEs will increase capital investment to ensure that talents can focus on research and development over the long run. 'AI competition is all about data scale and quality,' Zhou Lisa, a researcher at the China Enterprise Reform and Development Society, a research unit of SASAC, told Xinhua. 'Central SOEs have substantial data resources, so they can use DeepSeek to share and marketize their data.' 'Many SOEs in the energy sector have already deployed their AI applications to promote intelligent transformation. Connecting with DeepSeek can allow them to provide even more solutions,' she said. She said, for example, that Sinochem used DeepSeek's capabilities in complex information processing, logical reasoning and open-domain knowledge to meet the needs of different business scenarios; and that China Southern Power Grid used DeepSeek to upgrade its AI model called Big Watt, which was launched in September 2023 to collect data about facility damages. China has been developing AI models for industrial use in the past few years. In May last year, China Mobile launched its Jiutian AI model, which has professional knowledge in 15 industries, including telecommunications, electricity generation, logistics, energy, metal, construction, transportation and aviation. It said it would tailor-make AI models for 40 more industries. In July, China Telecom launched a generative AI model called TeleChat2, which is good at video editing and graphic design. The company said TeleChat2, which understands different Chinese dialects, can be widely used in public services across different cities. However, challenges remained when Chinese firms tried integrating their Internet-of-Things and AI technologies. Dong Zhaojie, an AI expert of China Southern Power Grid, said in June 2024 that the company deployed drones to check its electricity transmission poles and took over ten thousand pictures of split pins on them. He said he thought the AI model would be smart enough to identify the damaged split pins from the pictures, but it was not. He said engineers finally had to go to the sites to collect data and teach the AI model that there could be 500 different kinds of split pin damage. He said that once the AI model started working, the company saved about 10 million yuan (US$1.37 million) in annual expenses for finding damaged split pins. While state media celebrate China's advancement in AI technologies, a Jiangsu-based commentator called Qianqian warns that AI could replace tens of millions of jobs in China, from factory workers and deliverers to medical professionals and civil servants. She says people should keep learning new skills to avoid losing their jobs. Yong Jian is a contributor to the Asia Times. He is a Chinese journalist who specializes in Chinese technology, economy and politics. Read: China connects everything to DeepSeek in nationwide plan
South China Morning Post
18-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Bigger, faster, stronger: China's state-owned giants set out 2025 goals
China's local state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have pledged to serve as the 'cornerstone' of the nation's economy and focus on restructuring and merging their businesses to improve their efficiency in their plans for 2025. Expanding their investments, supporting emerging industries, and making a strong start to the Year of the Snake were also major themes as local authorities managing SOEs across the country set out their agendas for the year. The moves come as China focuses on finding fresh drivers of economic growth amid rising external uncertainties and intensifying competition with the United States. 'Amid new circumstances, tasks and goals, Beijing's state-owned assets and enterprises must continue to serve as a cornerstone of the capital's high-quality economic and social development,' said a readout from 2025 work meeting of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) in Beijing, which was released this month. The body also pledged to 'make every effort to drive sustained improvement in the state-owned economy, shoulder greater responsibilities, and deliver stronger results.' Similar rhetoric stressing SOEs' contribution to economic growth has been echoed by other local SASAC branches – including those Hubei, Sichuan and Anhui provinces, as well as Shanghai – in recent months.
South China Morning Post
13-02-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Can China's state-owned giants drive a tech ‘big bang'?
China's state-owned industrial giants have set up nearly 100 new research hubs as part of a government initiative launched in 2022 to drive technological breakthroughs in a slew of strategic fields. The huge state-directed effort is part of a broader push by Beijing to counter Washington's attempts to contain China's technological progress and revitalise the Chinese economy through game-changing innovations. The project – which is being led by China's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) – has identified 201 research fields in 60 industrial sectors in which it aims to achieve breakthroughs, according to government announcements and state media reports. It was launched with the approval of the Central Commission for Comprehensively Deepening Reform – a body headed by President Xi Jinping – in February 2022. SASAC, which oversees 90 trillion yuan (US$12.3 billion) of assets belonging to 98 centrally-controlled state-owned enterprises (SOEs), set up a tech innovation bureau the following month. Much about the campaign remains shrouded in mystery, with the government yet to release a full list of the state-owned industrial giants involved and the research projects they are pursuing.
