MNI China Press Digest Nov 24: Sino-Australia, SMEs, Iron Ore

Highlights from Chinese press reports on Friday:

• China and Australia will work together to resolve trade issues and reach the consensus made by both leaders recently, according to Shu Jueting, spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce. Speaking at a press conference, Shu said the countries are moving in the right direction and recent progress in settling WTO disputes showed resolutions were possible. On the U.S., China hopes Washington will translate the San Francisco commitments into practical actions and create good conditions for two-way trade and investment. (Source: MOFCOM)
• The State Council will encourage financial institutions to support the development of small and medium-sized enterprises listed on the Beijing Stock Exchange and the New Third Board, according to a document on gov.cn. It will support commercial banks to customise financial products and services for innovative SMEs, develop credit, guarantees and supply-chain finance that fit into their R&D, technology introduction, mergers and acquisitions, and moderately relax loan requirements for listed SMEs.
• China should diversify its sources of steel resources and cut the dependency on iron ore imports as speculation-driven volatility in overseas iron ore prices erodes profits of domestic steel companies, Yicai.com reported citing analysts. Prices have reached “unreasonable” levels and only 16.88% of the 247 sample steel mills were profitable. China should accelerate its “cornerstone plan” to diversify steel resources from overseas, domestic mines and scrap steel. The price of imported iron ore continued to run at a high level of over USD125 per ton since late October as the market expected higher infrastructure demand at the backdrop of the issuance of additional CNY1 trillion China Government Bonds.