Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon
aims to alert you to the threats and opportunities that China and India present. China and India require serious attention; case of ‘hidden dragon and crouching tiger’.
Without this attention, governments, businesses and, indeed, individuals may find themselves at a great disadvantage sooner rather than later.
The POSTs (front webpages) are mainly 'cuttings' from reliable sources, updated continuously.
The PAGEs (see Tabs, above) attempt to make the information more meaningful by putting some structure to the information we have researched and assembled since 2006.
PARIS (Reuters) – Airbus (AIR.PA) has prolonged a planned closure of its final assembly plant in Tianjin, China, as a result of the coronavirus emergency, the planemaker said on Wednesday, adding it was monitoring for any signs of impact on deliveries.
It appears to be the first significant impact on aerospace production since the coronavirus outbreak, whose death toll has risen to nearly 500.
Airbus has said it is planning to raise output from the plant to six A320-family aircraft a month, just over 10% of Airbus narrowbody production, in early 2020 from a previous rate of four.
“The Tianjin final assembly line facility is currently closed,” Airbus said in a statement.
“Airbus is constantly evaluating the situation and monitoring any potential knock-on effects to production and deliveries and will try to mitigate via alternative plans where necessary.”
Industry sources said the Tianjin plant had been closed along with many businesses over the Chinese New Year but was due to reopen at the end of January.
The reopening has been suspended due to the virus outbreak hitting the logistics involved in keeping the line open.
Tianjin is one of two Airbus aircraft final assembly lines outside Europe, alongside a sister plant in Mobile, Alabama.
Customs authority at southern port of Sanshan brings forward deadline for scrap cargoes to arrive
Capacity has been ‘seriously exceeded’ and there are temporary controls on how many boats can dock
China is restricting imports of scrap metal as part of its efforts to reduce pollution. Photo: Reuters
The port of Sanshan in southern China’s Guangdong province stopped accepting scrap metal shipments on Thursday after an excessive build-up of stockpiles caused by importers racing to bring in cargoes ahead of new rules starting next week.
China, the world’s biggest metals consumer, is restricting imports of eight types of scrap metal, including high-grade copper scrap, from July 1 in a
Because scrap stockpiles at the port have grown too large, customs decided to bring forward the deadline for scrap cargoes to arrive at Sanshan from June 29 to June 26, according to a notice from the Sanshan port authority sent to customers and reviewed by Reuters.
Shipments arriving from June 27 could not be accepted, said the notice, whose authenticity was confirmed by a port official who asked to remain unidentified.
Sanshan’s import capacity had “already been seriously exceeded” and there were temporary controls on the number of boats allowed to dock, the official added.
It was not immediately clear when shipments would be able to resume. Firms that have received quotas from China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment will still be allowed to import the soon-to-be-restricted metal after July 1, but no quotas have been issued so far for Guangdong and its key scrap hub of Foshan.
The Sanshan port official said cargoes declared to customs before July 1 would be able to pass.
The environment ministry last week released the first batch of quotas, which for copper scrap totalled around 240,000 tonnes, mostly for companies in Zhejiang, another of China’s metal recycling centres.
China to issue scrap metal import licences as restrictions tighten
The port of Sanshan, which is near Foshan and under the jurisdiction of Guangzhou customs, is one of only 18 seaports in China authorised to handle solid waste imports.
Guangzhou customs did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment.
These were the latest flights to be grounded and it was not clear how many of its fleet of more than 100 planes was still in operation. Local reports suggested that it was barely a dozen.
The airline flies on 600 domestic and 380 international routes – but carriers in India must maintain a fleet of least 20 aircraft to continue to operate international services.
From London, the airline initially confirmed it had cancelled its flights between London, Paris and Amsterdam and India for 12 April, but later said that all international flights would be cancelled between 12 and 15 April.
It said it “regrets the inconvenience caused” to its passengers and was “working to minimise guest inconvenience”.
“In parallel, the airline’s management and its key stakeholders including its consortium of lenders, continue to work closely towards resolving the current situation,” it said.
There was no statement about the status of domestic flights.
Wedding party delay
Sandeep Kooner and her three children had been expecting to be on a flight from London to India on Friday evening to attend her niece’s wedding in Punjab.
But the 40 year-old who lives in Walsall will now miss the first few days of the week-long celebrations after her Jet Airways flight was cancelled.
“I had just sat down in the nail salon when I got a text message to say my flight had been cancelled,” she told the BBC.
She has now arranged to fly with Air India, but that will be days later and to Delhi – an eight hour drive to her destination – rather than a local one.
“I’m not 100% sure my problem is 100% sorted,” she says.
‘Necessary steps’
Television channels in India reported that the prime minister’s office had called for an urgent meeting to discuss the airline.
They also reported remarks by government officials saying Jet Airways only had funds to operate six to seven aircraft over the weekend.
India’s Aviation Minister, Suresh Prabhu, had tweeted that his ministry would “review issues related to Jet Airways” and “take necessary steps to minimise passenger inconvenience and ensure their safety”.
Jet Airways owes money to employees and suppliers and in recent weeks it has grounded aircraft and cancelled thousands of flights as its financial strains worsened.
The pilots union in India is planning a protest on Saturday and has written to the airline demanding that employees are paid. Staff of the airline were pictured by Priyanka Iyer of Business Television India marching to the company’s headquarters in Mumbai.
In March, when the crisis at Jet Airways led to thousands of flights being cancelled, the government immediately stepped in and asked public sector banks to rescue the private carrier.
It was a rare move. With India holding a national election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government did not want the airline to be grounded as that would have affected 23,000 jobs.
The lenders which took control of the airline have only released a fraction of the amount they had promised so the airline has not been able to pay aircraft leasing companies. This means its fleet has shrunk further from the 100-plus it had at the start of the year.
The lenders have started accepting bids from potential investors, but that process will take a couple of months to complete. And many analysts fear that Jet Airways will not survive even a week if immediate cash is not provided to keep the operations running.
Investment sought
The airline was founded by Naresh Goyal more than 25 years ago and he and his family currently own 52% of the airline, although that majority stake is expected to be lost as lenders’ restructure the debt.
A consortium of investors led by the State Bank of India (SBI) took control of the airline in March.
The group is searching for a new investor to acquire a stake of up to 75% in Jet Airways. The deadline for bids had been extended to Friday, according to reports.
Ellis Taylor, deputy Asia editor of Flight Global, told the BBC the airline was in a “precarious position”.
“The interim lifeline that the carrier talked about two weeks ago looks like it won’t materialise any time soon, and that really leaves its future looking bleak,” he said.
There were reports in local media that India’s aviation ministry might review the regulations setting the fleet cap, which could allow the airline to resume international services.
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 