BEIJING

Fertilizer firms to meet

China is to host the 2004 IFA (International Fertilizer Industry Association) Technical Conference here from April 20-23.

Co-organized by the IFA, the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association and the China National Chemical Construction Corp, the conference aims to strengthen exchanges and co-operation between Chinese fertilizer makers and their foreign counterparts.

Bigger transport capacity

Scandinavian Airline Systems (SAS) has announced its decision to increase its transport capacity in China by 40 per cent in March this year. This will be realized through opening a new route from Shanghai to Copenhagen with three flights a week. Currently, SAS has a daily flight service on the Beijing-Copenhagen route.

Bjorn Ekegren, SAS general manager for China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Republic of Korea and Mongolia, said they will negotiate with the Chinese aviation authorities on the possibility of opening new routes from Beijing to Stockholm and from Guangzhou to Copenhagen.

SHANGHAI

Luxury sedan launch

British automaker MG Rover yesterday officially launched its sedans onto the Chinese market with the aim of cashing in on the rapid increase of demand for luxurious automobiles.

The company will sell the Rover 75 sedan and MG TF sport wagon in China.

German GDP dips

FRANKFURT: Germany's gross domestic product shrank by 0.1 per cent in 2003, the first full year of decline since 1993 when Europe's biggest economy contracted 1.1 per cent, a source aware of official data told reporters on Wednesday.

"It shrank slightly,'' the source said, adding that the data released yesterday showed a fall of 0.1 per cent.

In 2002, GDP grew 0.2 per cent. The 2003 figure is broadly in line with economists"expectations for flat GDP in 2003, the weakest in the past three years.

Deflation to end

TOKYO: Japan's bout of deflation could end by the fiscal year beginning in April 2005 as consumer prices start to rise, according to a Cabinet Office report seen by Reuters yesterday.

The consumer price index will increase by 0.5 per cent in the year, the report said, noting that the figure was a simulation, not a forecast, and was subject to change.

Deflation has bedeviled the Japanese economy for more than four years, squeezing company profits and worsening the problem of bad loans at banks.

Samsung profits up

SEOUL: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Asia's most valuable electronics company, reported a 24 per cent jump in quarterly profits yesterday thanks to explosive demand for flat screens and chips for digital cameras.

But net profits at the world's biggest memory chip maker and third-largest mobile phone producer fell short of forecasts, mainly because of losses at its credit card affiliate, Samsung Card, and a fall in the value of its stock holdings.

(China Daily 01/16/2004 page10)