China Strives for School Bus Safety

choi

The following three reports are from Bloomberg BusinessWeek, July 23, 2012. All titles here are from print.

(1) Dexter Roberts, Beijing: Between a Bubble and a Hard Place.
http://www.businessweek.com/arti ... ts-real-estate-boom

Quote:

"A plot of residential land in Beijing’s Haidian district sold at auction on July 10 for a record 2.63 billion yuan ($413 million), or 33,831 yuan per square meter.

"Real estate remains the primary driver of China’s economy, even beating out the export sector. When combined with associated industries including steel, cement, and household appliances, real estate accounts for about 30 percent of China’s $7.5 trillion GDP, estimates Tao Wang, head of China economic research at UBS Securities in Hong Kong.

"After its last real estate boom, China still has plenty of vacant apartments and office space.

Note:
(a) (a) Summary in print:
"> Cities big and small are loosening rules to encourage investment
> Local governments hope "easing in the property sector will help them"
(b) The report states, "The [Chinese] government knows that reining in the property market—by stiffening down-payment rules, limiting how many homes a single buyer could purchase, and raising transaction taxes on luxury property sales—played a part in that poor performance" in real estate.

stiffen (vt): "to make stiff or stiffer"
www.m-w.com


(2) Mark Clothier, Getting Chinese Kids to School in One Piece.
http://www.businessweek.com/arti ... ses-for-chinas-kids

Quote:

"The Chinese government says it plans to spend about 463 billion yuan ($72.7 billion) over the next decade on transportation equipment and upgrades for its school system. Navistar, which makes about half the school buses sold in the US, expects part of the budget will be used to buy 50,000 yellow buses annually by 2015.

"Buses in the US sell for about $80,000 and in China may fetch $50,000 to $60,000, he [Phil Horlock, Blue Bird’s CEO] says.

"In the US, where about 475,000 vehicles ferry 23.5 million kids to and from school each day, school buses are the safest form of transportation, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Each year about seven kids are killed in school bus crashes, or 0.2 deaths for every 100 million vehicle miles, compared with 1.5 deaths for cars.

Note:
(a) Summary in print:
"> China turns to Western bus makers after horrific accidents
> 'They have scrimped on quality and safety standards'"
(b) Navistar International
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navistar_International
(Two companies merged in 1902 to form International Harvester Company (IH) of Chicago, making farming equipment and others;  changed its name in 1986 to Navistar International; a leading manufacturer of school buses; Headquarters  Lisle, Illinois [a suburb of Chicago])
(c) Anhui Jianghuai Automobile ("JAC Motors" for short; state-owned; based in Hefei, Anhui province)  安徽江淮汽车股份有限公司
(d) Blue Bird Corporation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Bird_Corporation
(founded in 1932 by Albert L Luce, Sr; Headquarters  Fort Valley, Georgia [a neighbor of Macon])


(3) Chinese Stocks Say Farewell to the US.
http://www.businessweek.com/arti ... dot-s-dot-exchanges

Quote:

"More than 60 Chinese companies joined U.S. exchanges from 2008 through 2011 * * * [Now] China Development Bank * * * is providing more than $1 billion in financing to help companies leave the US stock market.

"The 82 companies in the Bloomberg Chinese Reverse mergers index lost 52 percent of their market value from June 2011 through July 16[, 2012]. Partly as a result, only one Chinese company has listed [or arrived in US from China] in the US this year, and several have left.

Note:
(a) Summary in print:
"> A state-owned bank helps companies go private
> "If they're not really big, they are essentially marooned"
(b) Fushi Copperweld  傅氏科普威
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fushi_Copperweld
(a Sino-American public company based in Beijing; Founded in 1915, the American company was sold for $22.5 million to Fushi International, founded by Li Fu in 2001)

Fushi International 傅氏国际股份有限公司 (总部：大连)