China Tech News

Commercial application of self-driving trucks is progressing perhaps more steadily than for autonomous passenger cars because trucks operate on open highways and aren’t subject to the vagaries of downtown traffic.

“Self-driving trucks will be able to operate commercially in confined areas, such as quarries,” said Lars Stenqvist, chief technology officer of Volvo Group during an interview with Shanghai Daily. “In reality, they are almost doing that now. The self-driving technology will reach more public areas, like harbors and dedicated highway lanes.”

Earlier this month, Volvo Group unveiled an autonomous concept truck for the first time in China. The truck is designed for hub-to-hub transport in semi-confined areas. It has been trialed in Beijing, where onlookers could watch it turn and do other maneuvers without a driver.

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In a sharp contrast to the industry-wide revolution to eliminate fossil-fueled vehicles, little evolutionary is happening to an equally old living fossil: automotive retailing.

While China’s booming e-commerce puts almost the entire world at the touch of our fingertips, buying a car is still a huge project of legwork and haggling.

Why do we have to put up with all this when we are spoiled by overnight deliveries from our Singles Day shopping spree? For years, I have been told by industry veterans that automotive retailing is not quite as simple as running a grocery store.

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ALIBABA Group will pay HK$22.4 billion (US$2.9 billion) to buy 36.16 percent of Sun Art Retail Group, which operates Auchan and RT Mart malls, from Ruentex Group as it works to drive offline and online business synergies.

“Physical stores serve an indispensable role in the consumer journey and should be enhanced through data-driven technology and personalized services in the digital economy,” Alibaba chief executive officer Daniel Zhang said in a statement yesterday.

“By fully integrating online and physical channels together with our partners, we look forward to delivering an original and delightful shopping experience to Chinese consumers.”

Auchan Retail, Alibaba Group and Ruentex will each hold about 36.18 percent, 36.16 percent and 4.67 percent of Sun Art after the the deal.

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SHANGHAI stocks rose yesterday on gains made by blue-chips and investors were cheered that state-owned enterprises’ revenue and profit grew steadily and also on the Chinese central bank boosting liquidity in the financial market.

The Shanghai Composite Index edged up 0.53 percent to close at 3,410.50 points.

China's blue-chip index ended at a fresh 28-month high yesterday, bolstered by robust gains in brokerage firms according to Reuters. The blue-chip CSI300 index rose 1.8 percent, with its financial sector sub-index higher by 2.3 percent and the real estate index up 5 percent, according to Reuters.

Investors turned optimistic after the Ministry of Finance said Chinese SOEs posted steady growth in revenue and profit in the first 10 months of the year.

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BRITAIN slashed its growth forecasts for its Brexit-bound economy and expects to borrow sharply more going into the next decade, finance minister Philip Hammond said yesterday as he delivered a gloomy budget statement in parliament.

Slower economic growth will mean lower tax revenues, giving Hammond little room for the bold moves that many in his Conservative Party — still smarting from an election mauling in June — are demanding to help households after years of cuts in public spending.

Hammond said he was taking a balanced approach to steering Britain’s economy through the next few years when it will face the challenge of leaving the European Union.

“We understand the frustration of families where real incomes are under pressure,” he said, acknowledging high inflation and weak wage growth. He pointed to forecasts that unemployment will continue to fall.

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SHANGHAI'S economy grew steadily in October as industrial output, consumer prices and foreign trade all rose.
The city’s foreign trade in October jumped 14.3 percent from a year earlier to 266.08 billion yuan (US$ 40.22 billion), reversing a 5.7 percent drop in the same month last year, according to Shanghai Statistics Bureau.



Imports surged 18 percent to 154.65 billion yuan while exports rose 9.6 percent to 111.43 billion yuan compared to October last year.

Exports of machinery and electronics rose 9.3 percent to 81.67 billion yuan from the same month last year, accounting for 73.3 percent of Shanghai’s total exports in October. Exports of high-tech products grew 7.6 percent to 53.55 billion yuan.

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CHINA will need 6,103 more passenger aircraft over the next 20 years, the Aviation Industry Corporation of China said yesterday.

According to the “China Civil Market Outlook for Civil Aircraft (2017-2036)” report, by the end of 2036 the number of passenger aircraft for civil aviation transport will reach 7,079, including 6,065 large and medium jumbo jets and 1,014 regional aircraft.

In the same period, China’s cargo fleet in the civil aviation market will reach 748.

Stable growth in China’s economy, tourism, urbanization and the upgrading of consumption are major factors increasing demand for aircraft, the report said.

Over the next 20 years, the ratio of wide-body passenger aircraft in the civil fleet will increase due to trade accelerated by the Belt and Road initiative.

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BLACK Friday and Thanksgiving online sales in the United States surged to record highs as shoppers bagged deep discounts and bought more on their mobile devices, heralding a promising start to the key holiday season, according to retail analytics firms.

US retailers raked in a record US$7.9 billion in online sales on Black Friday and Thanksgiving, up 17.9 percent from a year ago, according to Adobe Analytics, which measures transactions at the largest 100 US web retailers, on Saturday.

Adobe said Cyber Monday is expected to drive US$6.6 billion in Internet sales, which would make it the largest US online shopping day in history.

In the run-up to the holiday weekend, traditional retailers invested heavily in improving their websites and bulking up delivery options, preempting a decline in visits to brick-and-mortar stores. Several chains tightened store inventories as well, to ward off any post-holiday liquidation that would weigh on profits.

TVs, laptops, toys and gaming consoles — particularly the PlayStation 4 — were among the most heavily discounted and the biggest sellers, said retail analysts and consultants.

Commerce marketing firm Criteo said 40 percent of Black Friday online purchases were made on mobile phones, up from 29 percent last year.

The National Retail Federation, which had predicted strong holiday sales helped by rising consumer confidence, said on Friday that fair weather across much of the nation had also helped draw shoppers into stores.
The NRF is set to release Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales numbers tomorrow.
US consumer confidence has been firming over this past year, due to a labor market that is creating jobs, rising home prices and stock markets that are at record highs.

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POWERED by Chinese smartphone users splurging billions on mobile games and online shopping, tech giants Tencent and Alibaba are racing up the elite league of the world’s most valuable companies.



Hong Kong-listed Tencent, famous for its games and WeChat messaging service, became the first Asian firm to break into the US$500 billion league last week — briefly overtaking Facebook as the world’s fifth biggest company by market value.

Alibaba is just a few billion shy of joining its Chinese competitor at the top table of public listings — and is already there when taking into account its private affiliates. While the top five — Apple, Google’s parent company Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook — thrive across the world, the two Chinese firms have made their fortunes by cornering China’s own vast market of 750 million Internet users.

Tencent and Alibaba do have a major advantage over American rivals because China severely restricts access to its Internet, with Facebook and Google kept outside the “Great Firewall.”

Alibaba, meanwhile, has dominated the e-commerce market, with Chinese consumers flocking to its shopping platforms to buy everything from laundry detergent to Boeing 747s.

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CHINA’S manufacturing and services activity rebounded in November beyond market expectations, indicating a steady economic outlook in the fourth quarter.



The official Purchasing Managers’ Index, which measures vitality in the manufacturing sector, rose to 51.8 in November from October’s 51.6, the National Bureau of Statistics said today.

That was higher than market expectations for 51.4 and remained in expansionary territory for a 16th straight month.

November’s PMI was 0.2 points higher than the average so far this year.

Zhao Qinghe, the bureau’s senior statistician, said the PMI revealed a balanced growth in demand and supply, and that momentum has rapidly shifted to new industries.

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