iPhone talks with China Mobile now going smoothly

Taiwan-based Qisda has received ODM handset orders from a first-tier handset vendor with shipments to begin in the fourth quarter of this year, company president Hsiung Hui was quoted by the Chinese-language Commercial Times as saying at an investors conference. The paper indicated that Qisda most likely secured the ODM orders from Motorola. The selection of Qisda by Motorola would have been due to Qisda’s previous experience in the development of customized handsets for telecom services p... more

Large amounts of methane gas stores are reportedly buried inside Asia’s coal beds. Some analysts think it could be the next big investment. It’s estimated that trillions of cubic meters of methane are trapped and could be used to meet some of the region’s power demand. China alone holds nearly 30 trillion cubic meters of methane gas, about three times the U.S. amount, a Merrill Lynch representative said. Until now, logistics and extraction costs have prevented its use, but incr... more

China’s largest coal company, Shenhua Group, will produce the country’s first barrel of oil converted from coal in September, a senior official of the company said Tuesday. The project will cost more than 10 billion yuan (US$1.39 billion), China Business National Daily said, citing Xue Jilian, deputy director of the company. The first production line in its Ordos Coal Liquefaction Base in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region can produce more than one million t... more

China’s ministries of finance and water resources on Saturday announced the allocation of 315 million yuan ($44 million) to help spring cultivation in areas affected by the severe winter weather and drought. Northern regions which have suffered from a drought since the previous winter will receive 200 million yuan to improve farm irrigation. The remaining 115 million will be used for reconditioning damaged water conservancy facilities in southern China, said a statement from the Fi... more