China surpasses Japan; auto sales up 15%

5:00 PM Hong Kong, China – Stocks in China region rose extending the best monthly gain in one year on policy outlook. China overtakes Japan as the world’s second-largest economy. Survey finds business conditions stable in July. Manufacturing activity grew at a slower pace in July. Steel mills are expected to lose on the rising materials costs in the second half.

China’s manufacturing activity continued to grow at a slower pace in July as the government took measures to curb the risk of overheating to adjust the economic structure.

Passenger car sales in China grew at a faster pace in July after the government announced subsidies for fuel-efficient models thus leading to more incentives being offered by dealers to clear inventories.

Retail deliveries of cars, sports-utility vehicles and multipurpose vehicles surged 15.4% in July from a year earlier to 822,330 units, the China Automotive Technology & Research Center said in its statement today.

Global Asset Manager Carlyle Group received more than 2.4 billion yuan in commitments for its Beijing-based yuan fund and has set up an investment management venture to serve as an advisor to the fund to tap growth opportunities in China.

The fund has a target size of 5 billion yuan and is ready to make investments in large growth companies in China, the asset manager said on July 30.

China Iron & Steel Association said July 30 that many of the country’s steel producers will report losses in the second half of this year.

“As steel prices have lost ground since May and raw materials such as iron ore and coking coal keep climbing, some steel mills could not sustain production and made losses. The condition will be hard to reverse in the second half,” said Shan Shanghua, the secretary of the association.