Daily News March 28, 2014

Environment and Pollution

Cnooc Plans More Spending Despite Profit Slide, WSJ

Cnooc is planning a big rise in capital spending this year as it shifts its focus to deep-water projects, despite posting an 11% fall in 2013 net profit.

China's air pollution reporting is misleading, China Dialogue

Real-time air quality assessments are critical for helping limit public exposure to high levels of air pollution, argues analyst Steven Q. Andrews.

China Gets Serious About Its Pollutant-Laden Soil, Science Now

A recent national survey found that 2.5% of China's arable land is too contaminated to grow food safely. The survey's details were so alarming that they were declared a "state secret." Now, the central government appears eager to tackle the problem; China's latest 5-year plan singles out five industries as egregious soil polluters and sets a target to reduce, by 2015, discharges of heavy metals by 15% from 2007 levels.

Crops, Dairy and Food Security

Walmart China loses customer confidence, Want China Times

After 40 years in China, Walmart, the world's largest retailer, is facing a crisis of trust in the market due to its failure to keep up consistent quality of service and its perfunctory responses to customer complaints.

Danish dairy giant Arla makes big gains in Chinese market, China Dairy

The value of Denmark's dairy giant Arla's stock in China's largest dairy,Mengniu, has risen 65 percent, making Arla's investment of 1.8 billion Danish kroner (around $333.3 million) now worth nearly 3 billion kroner.

Hong Kong bans import of poultry from Netherlands city, Want China Times

The import of poultry and poultry products from Dronten of the Netherlands to Hong Kong has been banned under the threats of avian influenza, Hong Kong's Center for Food Safety announced Monday.

China Grain Trader Cofco Nears Another Deal, WSJ

China's largest grain trader, state-owned Cofco Corp., and mainland private-equity firm Hopu Investment Management Co. are close to announcing a joint venture with Noble Group Ltd. N21.SG +0.41% 's agribusiness division, signaling Beijing's's continued pursuit of power in the global food market, people familiar with the situation said.

KFC tries to revive China sales with menu makeover, CBS News

Selling chicken is no easy task during outbreaks of bird flu. Just ask Yum Brands (YUM), the owner of KFC.

Ongoing Problems on Coal

Developing nations key as US, China get dirty on coal, smh

Coal prices are likely to drift gradually lower rather than crash as China declares war on pollution and lower demand in developed countries offsets a strong appetite from emerging markets, analysts say.

Coal: In Search of Lower Cost Export Routes to China

The primary competition to coal is natural gas, which emits roughly half the carbon per unit of energy that coal does.