Trade between China, Africa up 27.4% TRADE in goods between China and Africa rose 27.4 percent year on year to 1.34 trillion yuan (US$209.7 billion) in the January-October period, data from the General Administration of Customs showed Monday. The growth rate of imports outpaced exports in the first 10 months. China’s exports to Africa reached 782.54 billion yuan between January and October, up 24.5 percent year on year. Its imports from Africa hit 558.14 billion yuan, up 31.7 percent year on year. China’s exports to Africa mainly consisted of mechanical and electrical products and labor-intensive products. Two border cities limit rail imports TWO Chinese border cities are halting some commodity imports by rail to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infections coming in from other countries amid a fresh resurgence of the disease in northern areas of China. Erenhot, a key transit hub next to Mongolia in northern China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, suspended from Sunday certain non-containerized imports by rail that require manual loading and unloading to prevent virus transmission, according to a local government statement. These include some cargoes for coal, oil, copper ore, zinc and iron ore. Suifenhe, which lies on the border with Russia, halted from yesterday some non-container goods arriving from overseas by rail, such as those for coal and non-gold mineral ore, according to domestic media. Audi-FAW electric vehicle venture delayed VOLKSWAGEN’S premium automaker Audi’s joint venture to build electric vehicles in China with State-owned FAW Group is behind schedule due to a delay in approval by the relevant authorities, Audi said Monday. Building work would be initiated as soon as possible, the spokesperson added, without giving a start date for either the construction of the plant or the production of cars. FAW owns 40 percent of the joint venture, while Volkswagen and Audi own 60 percent. Equity investment market brisk, report says EQUITY investment in China has been brisk this year as the volume of funds raised and investment witnessed substantial growth in the first three quarters, an industrial report showed. From January to September, some 1.27 trillion yuan (US$198.9 billion) had been raised, up 50.1 percent year on year, according to a report from investment research institute Zero2IPO Research. | 