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Tag: China

  • China Telecom, Huawei hold NB-IoT symposium

    China Telecom, Huawei hold NB-IoT symposium

    China Telecom and Huawei co-hosted a symposium in Shenzhen yesterday aimed at exploring the potential of narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) technology in smart city applications.

    The symposium attracted participants from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) as well as representatives from industries including water, gas, smart meters and other fields.

    Attendees were told that the wide coverage and massive simultaneous connection capabilities of NB-IoT meke it ideally suited for deployment in smart city areas including water and gas management, street lighting and car parking.

    “NB-IoT-based Smart Water and Smart Gas are the main components in Smart City, fully exhibiting the informatization level in the public service provisioning sector of a city,” China Telecom GM of government and enterprise Sun Jian commented.

    “China Telecom and Huawei have initiated together pilot NB-IoT applications on Smart Water and Smart Gas with industry partners, including Shenzhen Water and Shenzhen Gas. Through comprehensive cooperation on standards formulation, technological research, network construction, service development, business model exploration, and associated aspects, all parties wish to jointly promote informatization construction for water and gas industries.”

    Huawei president of marketing and solutions Zhang Shunmao added that Huawei is currently shipping 200,000 NB-IoT capable chips per month, and expects to increase this to 1 million per month in the future.

    This year the company is also scheduled to deploy more than 30 NB-IoT networks for Smart City applications – particularly for public service provisioning – in over 20 countries this year.

    Separately, IoT provider Thinxtra has announced a partnership with Hong Kong wireless technology company Victory Concept to develop IoT devices for Asia-Pacific enterprises to implement using the low-power-wide area (LPWA) Sigfox network.

    Thinxtra recently announced plans to deploy a Sigfox network throughout Hong Kong by June. The devices will also be compatible with Sigfox networks in 32 countries worldwide.

    “The Thinxtra network will offer companies and researchers in Hong Kong the chance to create new products and services based on IoT. We believe that Hong Kong has the potential to be a world-leading IoT design and manufacturing hub,” Thinxtra Asia MD Murray Hankinson said.

    “With the skills and facilities to provide a reliable supply of high-quality, low-cost devices in Hong Kong, Victory Concept is helping us create the right conditions for IoT innovation to flourish here and spread around Asia Pacific and to the world.”

  • Hyundai, Kia China sales down 52 pct in March

    Hyundai, Kia China sales down 52 pct in March

    Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors sold 72,032 vehicles in China in March, down 52.2 pct from year earlier. Hyundai Motor China sales 56,026 vehicles in March, down 44.3 percent from year earlier.

    Kia Motors China sales 16,006 vehicles in March, down 68 percent from year earlier.

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  • DHL eCommerce expands presence in South China

    DHL eCommerce expands presence in South China

    DHL eCommerce plans to further increase its presence in South China through the introduction of its e-commerce logistics services in the Fujian province.

    The company has also announced the expansion of its Shenzhen Distribution Center and Hong Kong Distribution Center to manage a capacity of 81 million shipments a year.

    “With exports expected to make up 75% of China’s e-commerce turnover three years from now, a strong and reliable logistics framework has to be set in place to meet growing needs,” said Zhi Zheng, Managing Director, Greater China, DHL eCommerce. “Manufacturing and export hubs like Fujian will be the center stage of all future growth of e-commerce exports in China. DHL’s expertise in international shipping and fulfillment, along with our global network and strong e-commerce expertise will play a fundamental role in connecting China’s e-tailers with online markets across the world.”

    Zheng added: “We are expanding our presence in South China to better service merchants here, and provide them with the opportunity to tap on the massive cross-border opportunity. This underpins our growth strategy for South China where we will focus on growing our outbound e-commerce trade and continue to expand our offerings across Tier 2 and 3 cities.”

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  • Vietnam beats China in product reputation ranking, but scores below most ASEAN peers

    Vietnam beats China in product reputation ranking, but scores below most ASEAN peers

    Made in Vietnam products score low in almost all product attribute categories. Vietnam has been ranked 46th on the Made in Country Index 2017 released by Germany’s Statista Market Research Co, which asked more than 43,000 people in 52 countries and territories to look at goods produced in 49 countries and the European Union as a group.

    Vietnam hit an index score of 34, while China took the 49th position with a score of 28, said the survey.

    However, it stood behind most Southeast Asian countries in the survey, except for the Philippines, which ranked 47th.

    The index features 10 categories: high quality, high security standards, very good value for money, uniqueness, excellent design, advanced technology, authenticity, sustainability/eco-friendliness, fair production and status symbol.

    Vietnam scored low in all categories but “very good value for money”, where it made it to the top 10, standing in eighth place. “Made in China” products claimed the top spot as voted by over a third of respondents.

    Even “in Vietnam itself, ‘Made in Vietnam’ does not have a good reputation”, the survey said.

    Vietnamese consumers like products from Japan the most. Other products most preferred in Vietnam come from Denmark, Australia, the Netherlands and South Korea.

    “Made in Vietnam” products are found popular in Ecuador and the United Arab Emirates, where they rank 10th and 20th, respectively.

    Germany tops the Made-In-Country Index, scoring 100 points, while Switzerland and the EU are runners-up, scoring 98 and 92, respectively. Iran sits at the bottom of the pile.

    In most countries, products from Germany, the U.S. or Japan are the most favored.

    Specifically, in 13 of the 52 responding countries, Germany has the best image as a manufacturing country. The U.S. holds this status in eight countries, while Japan claims seven.

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  • Huawei revenue grows 32% in 2016

    Huawei revenue grows 32% in 2016

    Huawei has reported a 32% increase in revenue for 2016, but profit grew just 0.4% as the company invested heavily in R&D.

    Group annual revenue for the year was 521.6 billion yuan ($75.7 billion), while net profit reached 37.1 billion yuan.

    Carrier business group revenues grew 24% to 290.6 billion yuan, as the operator focused on digital transformation as well as exploring opportunities in emerging categories including cloud and the IoT.

    Enterprise revenues meanwhile grew 47% to $5.9 billion yuan. Consumer revenues likewise increased 44% to 179.8 billion yuan due to strong smartphone shipments of 139 million.

    But the company’s 76.4 billion yuan in R&D spending muted profit growth for the year. Huawei rotating CEO Eric Xu said the spending marked an investment in future growth.

    “As humanity continues to explore and make new breakthroughs in the digital world, digitization and increasing intelligence present huge business opportunities for all industries, and are also paving the road for new growth for the ICT industry,” he said.

    “We will stay customer-centric and will support digital transformation in all industries, in order to create value for our customers and to grow sustainably.”

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  • M1 to deploy vEPC solution from Huawei

    M1 to deploy vEPC solution from Huawei

    Singapore’s M1 Limited has announced plans to launch the nation’s first cloud-based virtual enhanced packet core (vEPC) network solution with Huawei.

    The deployment is aimed at further enhancing M1’s core network resiliency, while also enabling dynamic and more efficient use of network resources to support wide-ranging Smart Nation use cases, and shortening the time to market in the deployment of new IoT services.

    By harnessing the latest cloud-computing and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) technologies, M1’s fully distributed and agile packet core network will be able to dynamically deploy core resources wherever they are needed, and provide flexibility to swiftly scale up and down resources based on customer demands.

    Furthermore, with software functions separated from the underlying hardware platforms, the cloud-based virtualized core network allows faster “in-service” software upgrades, as well as significantly reducing downtime for maintenance and testing of new services. Through this, M1 expects to improve its operational efficiency and strengthen network resiliency.

    “The deployment of our agile cloud-based virtualised core network will strengthen our network resiliency and enable us to deploy our resources more efficiently, M1 CTO Denis Seek said.

    “The highly scalable nature of the network will also enable us to meet the dynamic resources demands of new products, shorten the time-to-market innovative products, and enable us to reduce implementation and maintenance costs.”

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  • UPS expands China-Europe rail service

    UPS expands China-Europe rail service

    UPS announced the addition of six stations to its Preferred full and less-than-container load (FCL and LCL) multimodal rail service between Europe and China. The additional stations will give customers moving goods on the world’s largest trade lane more options to reduce supply chain costs and better balance cost/time-in-transit requirements.

    Changsha, Chongqing, Suzhou and Wuhan Stations were added in China to the existing stations of Zhengzhou and Chengdu. In Europe stops in Duisburg, Germany and Warsaw, Poland were added to the existing stops of Lodz, Poland and Hamburg, Germany.

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  • Tata Motors announces JV with Jayem Automotives for special performance vehicles

    Tata Motors announces JV with Jayem Automotives for special performance vehicles

    Tata Motors on Friday has announced the launch of JT Special Vehicles, a 50:50 joint venture with Jayem Automotives, for the development of special performance vehicles based on the latest series products, informed the automaker in an official statement.

    As part of the agreement, both Tata Motors and Jayem Automotives will work towards performance enhancement and appearance of series vehicles to offer an innovative range of niche aspirational products for the passenger car customers.

    Guenter Butschek, CEO and Managing Director, Tata Motors, said, “We are delighted to partner with Jayem, a brand known for its capabilities in concept creation and prototyping of special performance vehicles. This partnership is a step towards creating long-term relationships as a part of our transformation journey and to bring more exciting performance variants to our product range”

    J Anand, Managing Director, Jayem Automotives, said, “We are excited about our joint venture with Tata Motors and to be a part of their transformation journey. We aim to bring World Class Performance Products to market in a short time, and to fulfil expectations of passionate customers in the niche segment of sportier cars.”

    JT Special Vehicles will develop a range of performance vehicles in a phased manner at a dedicated line, currently being explored at Coimbatore. With all processes including design, precision machining, assembly, and testing facilities driven under one roof, this facility will aim to deliver the next level of personalisation and enhanced performance with agility and efficiency.

    As part of Tata Motors’ Passenger Vehicle business strategy, while an architecture approach with two platform strategy will reduce complexity, these special performance vehicles will be targeted to augment the latest product range in our vision to build aspirational cars, added the automaker.

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  • Hong Kong offers a loophole to China’s ivory ban

    Hong Kong offers a loophole to China’s ivory ban

    China, the world’s largest importer and end user of elephant ivory tusks, is shutting a third of its ivory factories and retail stores on Friday (March 31), the first major step ahead of a formal ban on ivory sales by the end of the year.

    China will shut 67 carving factories and stores with the remaining 105 outlets to be shut before the end of the year, according to documents released by China’s Forestry Administration.

    The high-profile move has been hailed by activists, but they caution that Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, remains a prime obstacle in eradicating the illegal elephant poaching trade.

    The former British colony, which has the largest retail market for ivory and has traded it for more than 150 years, is a prime transit and consumption hub with more than 90 per cent of consumers from mainland China.

    Hong Kong set a time table for a ban on ivory trading last year with a phase-out time of five years. Lawmakers met this week to discuss the ban but have yet to decide on details and whether to shorten the phase-out process.

    Rights groups say a five-year horizon is too long and the problem of laundering ivory will become far more rampant before a total ban is in place.

    WildAid, a wildlife non-government organisation, estimates up to 30,000 elephants are killed illegally every year. It said markets like Hong Kong had provided “laundering mechanisms for poached ivory and perpetuated the demand”.

    While the price of ivory has fallen by almost two thirds in the last three years, according to a report by Save the Elephants, the danger from poaching remains acute.

    China made a big push to eradicate ivory sales and demand has fallen since early 2014 due to a crackdown on corruption and slowing economic growth. Public awareness campaigns starring Chinese celebrities have also helped to highlight the impact of poaching.

    The wholesale price of raw ivory fell to US$730 (S$1,020) per kg in February from US$1,100 per kg in November 2015 and US$2,100 per kg in early 2014, according to Save the Elephants.

    “Hong Kong’s commitment is in stark contrast to China who are leading the way,” Oliver Smith, chief executive of David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation, said in a letter to Hong Kong lawmakers, adding that if the five-year period was unchanged, “an additional 150,000 elephants will have been killed”.

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  • Carrefour China joins One Store One School One Farm Project across China

    Carrefour China joins One Store One School One Farm Project across China

    By end March, 2017, 300+ students from 13 primary schools and 250+ employees from 12 Carrefour China stores have joined One Store One School One Farm Project across China (Shanghaï, Schenzhen, Chendu, Beijing, Shenyang and Wuhan).

    13 activities including bakery class, little experts (lab test) and farm experience were organized, and the education and knowledge of food safety, nutrition and anti food waste have been promoted to all of those students and their families.

    This operation has been rewarded by China Youth Development Foundation with the Contribution Award 2016  for One Store One School One Farm Project launching in China.

  • High potential for greenhouse grown melons in Asian retail

    High potential for greenhouse grown melons in Asian retail

    Strong local economic growth is fueling the activities of Rijk Zwaan in Southeast Asia. According to area manager, Ahmet Tunali, the growing rich middle class and their demand for premium products are opening the doors for complete chain management.

    “As a result of the increase in wealth, big retail chains are gaining a foothold and are looking for direct suppliers of high quality, special products”, said Ahmet Tunali, Area Manager at Rijk Zwaan. They are getting into direct trade relationships with produce companies, as well as new products and varieties.”

    The area manager said that, for these reasons, there is more demand for produce grown in a protected environment. “Greenhouses have become a standard to grow environmentally friendly produce, with less water and less chemicals. The products can be marketed at a premium since they are of a better and more consistent quality than produce from the open field. This creates new markets, such as the one for hydroponic lettuce. This is growing at a rapid pace, especially in Vietnam, where we have a obtained a large market share with our Salanova and other lettuce varieties.”

    Bell peppers are another important product category for Rijk Zwaan in Southeast Asia. “In the north of Thailand, in the regions of Chian Mai and Chiang Rai, a lot of green, red, yellow and sometimes orange peppers are grown in greenhouses at altitudes of 400 to 1100 meters. These growers sell directly to retail and skip the so called ‘wet market’ (the Asian wholesale market).”

    And then there are the greenhouse grown melons. They are a good example of the possibilities with fresh produce chain management in Asia.

    “We gained a lot of experience with the introduction of melons in South America, and since a few years we’ve been looking at what the odds are in Thailand. In close cooperation with both growers and retailers, we successfully introduced a new type of melon in this market, the Golden Emerald melon. This melon is marketed as a premium product by large retailers and is characterized by its extended shelf life, taste and uniform quality and firmness.”

    Tunali expects a lot more to come from the Southeast Asian market in the coming years. “It will become very important to select and introduce varieties and complete concepts according to the demand and possibilities within the local market. It is a very promising market with a lot of opportunities for the development of protected crops.”

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  • China Telecom Global teams with HKT on m-payment

    China Telecom Global teams with HKT on m-payment

    China Telecom Global (CTG) has entered an agreement with HKT Payment, the mobile payment subsidiary of Hong Kong operator HKT, to issue a co-branded mobile payment solution.

    The companies will collaborate to issue a co-branded virtual Tap & Go card for subscribers to CTG’s CTExcel multinational mobile brand.

    Tap and Go is the contactless mobile payment technology used by HKT Payment for its stored value facilities (SVF) mobile payment service.

    Through the collaboration CTExcel customers will be able to take advantage of the payment option at a wide range of merchants, China Telecom Global CEO Deng Xiaofeng said.

    “We think mobile payment is an area that will help CTG to differentiate its mobile solution with extra benefits. This partnership is the first step into this space in Hong Kong and aims at empowering CTExcel users to enjoy smart and convenient mobile payment at over 6 million merchant outlets worldwide as well as online,” he said.

    HKT Payment head Monita Leung added that in addition to the extensive global payment network, “the unique Tap & Go peer-to-peer payment services PayBuddy and PayMaster enable our partner to reach and engage wider markets including children and young adults.”

    CTG has separately agreed to provide the network in China and Hong Kong for for global roaming and IoT solutions provider UROS Uni-fi Roaming Solutions.

    Under the agreement, CTG will provide 4G mobile services in both markets, delivered via both traditional SIM cards and eSIM technology.

    ““CTG is excited to support UROS for its connectivity requirements across HK and mainland China. With its CTExcel brand, CTG is committed to providing high quality mobile service across the regions for both consumers and enterprises without compromising quality and reliability,” Deng said.

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  • Manager in China motivates staff by making them tear up their money

    Manager in China motivates staff by making them tear up their money

    A manager at a retail store in eastern China motivates her underperforming sales staff by forcing them to tear up their own 100-yuan bills.

    A video showing five young salespeople tearing up the notes at the command of their boss at a Gome electrical appliance store in Jinan, Shandong province drew condemnation over the weekend.

    The incident took place on the evening of March 22. The five employees were forced to tear up the cash because they did not meet their daily sales quotas of 100 deals.

    The local police department gave the manager a warning and fined her 1,000 yuan (US$688). The manager said that she had meant to teach her employees not to waste company resources.

    In the video, the manager shouts at the employees and insists that they tear up the cash if they want to keep their jobs, although it also shows staff members warning her that destroying money is illegal.

    The police department said that any deliberate destruction of yuan would result in a police warning and a fine of up to 10,000 yuan.

    The video caused widespread outrage among mainland social media users.

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  • Octogenarian new ambassador for Reebok China

    Octogenarian new ambassador for Reebok China

    Octogenarian Wang Deshun, a silver-haired actor known as “China’s hottest grandpa”, is Reebok China’s newest brand ambassador.

    Wang, who was born in Shenyang in 1936, stars in the sports brand’s latest Chinese video campaign “Be More Human” alongside actress Yuan Shanshan and actor Wu Lei.

    The senior citizen first caught attention in 2015 when he strutted bare-chested down the runway for a local designer in Beijing Fashion Week.

    “Only seriously getting into fitness at the age of 70, Wang’s example has helped reshape China’s views on aging and shown you’re never too old to pursue your goals,” says Reebok, which aims to become “China’s best fitness brand”.

    It is expanding its new lifestyle retail concept FitHubs, which integrate retail, fitness and other activities for customers. There are locations already in Hangzhou, Qingdao and Wuhan, with 50 scheduled to open this year. Reebok, owned by Adidas, plans to have 500 FitHubs by 2020.

    Its focus is on three key categories: running, training and classics. This year it is especially promoting its running line.

    “With running in particular experiencing an unprecedented surge in popularity in China in recent years, the category is a key focus for this year,” says the company.

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  • Mulberry Asia launches with Challice as partner

    Mulberry Asia launches with Challice as partner

    English luxury brand Mulberry Group has launched Mulberry Asia in partnership with Challice, which will run its business in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

    Mulberry Asia will start trading in Hong Kong from April 3, with a subsidiary in China and a branch office in Taiwan expected to follow this year.

    Mulberry owns 60 per cent of the share capital of Mulberry Asia, with Challice holding the balance.

    There will initially be four stores: two in China, one in Hong Kong and one in Taiwan. The new JV will also manage regional wholesale sales. A Chinese-language Mulberry.com site will be launched along with a regional omni-channel platform, with the partners planning “significant” marketing investment in north Asia.

    Mulberry plans to invest about £3 million (US$3.7 million) in additional support over the next two years to build brand awareness in the region.

    In the near term, a store will be opened in Shanghai, while stores in Beijing and Hong Kong will be relocated.

    Founded in the UK in 1971, Mulberry is best known for its leather goods.

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