• China’s medical apparatus market will be worth ¥100 billion ($1 = ¥6.83) in 2010 after growing 12% to 15% annually since the 1990s, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported from an industry summit held in Beijing in late November.

• The US measurement and technology company Agilent Technologies has joined with Shanghai Institute of Biological Sciences and Chinese Academy of Sciences to open a centre for systems biology in Shanghai. The centre will use biomarker identification to better understand diseases.

• China has granted approval to its first home-grown swine flu vaccine, which the producer Sinovac says is effective after only one dose.

Find out more about the pharmaceutical, medical and biotech market research work we do here.

Sources: CBBC, Xinhua, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, FCO Country Updates and other news sources.

l        Ford Motor Company is to invest US$490m in an assembly plant in China to produce the next-generation Focus compact car, which it plans to sell worldwide.  The US motor giant will partner with Mazda and Chang’an in a joint venture in Chongqing, scheduled for completion by 2012.  This will be Ford’s second plant in Chongqing.

l        A US supplier of clean electric transportation and storage technologies is to establish two joint venture companies with Shenzhen Goch Investment (SGI).  SGI will invest US$10m in a joint company to manufacture and assemble electric vehicle charging equipment, and US$5m in a company to market and sell these charging systems in China.

l       The president and CEO of General Motors, Frederick Henderson, said that China has surpassed US to be the largest market for the automobile giant.  For the first nine months of 2009, GM’s sales in China totalled almost 1.3m vehicles, 56% up on the previous year.  Sales in September were at an all-time monthly record.  GM, the largest vehicle producer in China, last month launched a wholly owned science lab in Shanghai, which will focus on advanced propulsion technology, battery cells, mega-city safety resource, advanced vehicle development and light materials, GM said.

         More information about market research in the Automotive sector can be found at: http://www.b2binternational.com/China/b2bsectors/automotive.php 

Sources: CBBC, Xinhua, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, FCO Country Updates and other news sources.

PetroChina, the Shanghai-listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), and mainland China’s biggest producer of oil, recently became the largest company in the world.

Following a stock-price rise of 3%, taking its total market value to some $336 billion, PetroChina is now the most valuable company in the world.  It is worth approximately $100 million more than fellow Oil & Gas giant, United States-based Exxon Mobil.  Industrial Bank of China (Banking), China Mobile (Telecommunications) and China Petroleum (Oil & Gas) are three further Chinese companies which rank among the biggest in the world.

China’s overall economy became the third largest in the world earlier this year, now resting behind just the U.S. and Japan.  Many economists expect China to overtake Japan within the next few years to gain second spot.

Last year, an increase in demand for whisky from China and India – two of the world’s biggest and fastest growing economies – was largely responsible for strong growth and expansion among Scotch whisky makers.  This year, Chinese demand in this specialist beverage market is said to be causing a global whisky shortage!

In 2007, total global sales of all whiskies amounted to 495 million liters.  In 2008, malt whiskies demonstrated a 5% increase in worldwide sales, with even higher sales growth in China.

According to the Scotch Whisky Association, $1 billion has been invested across the Scotch whisky industry for 2008-2009, much of which is expected to be used to expand production capacity.

90% of all Scotch whisky produced is exported; exports rose 4% to a record $5 billion in 2006. At this time, whisky sales accounted for 25% of Britain’s total food and drink exports.

Sales in China have been soaring – rocketing from $2 million in 2001 to $1.1 billion in 2006 (helped by a 65 to 10% drop in tariffs in 2001).

However, the sheer size and the preferences of the Chinese market are now causing a global shortage at the top end of the market (for 12-year-old and older malts).  Reports claim that so much whisky is being exported that distilling companies in Scotland have been forced to ration supplies.

To find out more about the work we do in the Food & Beverage Industry, call +86 (0)10 6515 6642 or visit: http://www.b2binternational.com/China/b2bsectors/food.php

A recent article appearing on AdAgeChina.com reported that the China Advertising Association has introduced new guidelines for 2009 to consolidate internet media advertising standards.  It is hoped that these new measures will make it easier for digital media companies to sell advertising space and reduce the associated production costs.

Digital media in all its various forms has seen rapid growth in China over recent years.  China, with 290 million internet users (more than 80% of whom have broadband connections) in November 2008, is the world’s largest internet market, and the number of new internet users grows by nearly 240,000 per day.

It is estimated that up to $2.3 billion was spent on digital media in 2008, with some experts predicting this amount could grow by 35% in 2009.  Yet Chinese marketers spend only a fraction of their advertising budgets in online media compared to marketers in the world’s second largest internet market, the United States.

Internet advertising in China has, until now, been a complicated business.  The new guidelines have reduced some 170,000 different sizes of internet ads to just 199 standard formats.  It is hoped that this figure, which applies to more than 80% of China’s websites, can soon be cut further to help manage what has become a fragmented digital media industry.

With fewer size options and format permutations for online advertising, more marketers should be willing and able to invest in online advertising in the future.  Online advertising has witnessed huge growth in many other countries around the world, and it increasingly forms a vital and integral part of any company’s marketing mix.

Two news articles about the Chinese automotive industry have been circulating this past week.  First is the news that in January, China overtook the United States in monthly vehicle sales for the first time, according to figures from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

If the trend continues throughout the rest of 2009, China will become the world’s largest vehicle market, having already overtaken Japan in 2006 to become the second-biggest auto market.

While car sales have slowed in China over recent months, the slowdown has been even greater in America, and car manufacturers are all looking at new ways to encourage sales - new advertising campaigns, sales promotions and pricing discounts, improved customer service and warranties, etc.

On the back of this comes news that China’s largest independent car manufacturer, Chery, which is known for its small cars, is hoping to introduce a Chinese luxury car line.

Still in the early stages, neither the launch date nor the name of the new luxury brand has been announced.

In the past, Chery has been criticized by some for developing more projects than it can manage successfully.  However, its new company philosophy is to concentrate more resources on a smaller number of tasks.

By announcing its intentions to enter a new market, we assume that the company intends to focus considerable efforts on serving this new segment, and we presume that it has carried out a thorough market assessment study to establish that there is an opportunity for its specific new offering.