China Consumer & Retail Wrap for the Week of 8/18/2010

August 18 – Gome Electrical Appliances (HKG: 0493), China's second biggest retailer of its kind, will open a 20,000 m2 store in Shanghai this Saturday, the largest in Asia Pacific. 40% of its goods will be communication, computer and consumer electronics goods.

August 18 – A string of China's ministries and commissions are drafting policies on ramping up imports, according to a commerce ministry insider. The details are likely to be announced in September at the earliest. China's imports gained 30.8% to $262.3 bullion in July compared to a year earlier.

August 17 – 5,308 imported BMW 5 series cars made between January 12 and June 30, 2010 will be recalled starting August 20, according to China's quality watchdog.

August 17 – Tesco, Britain's largest and the world's third largest retailer, said it will open five more stores in China by October, taking the total number to 87. The five stores will be located in Shanghai, Ningbo, Nantong, Beijing and Anshan.

August 17 – Retail sales in Shanghai grew 17.5% year on year to ¥292.1 billion ($1 = ¥6.8) in 1H 2010, fueled by the ongoing World Expo, according to the local commerce committee.

August 17 – Prices of 57 daily necessities rose 7% in July, 1.2 percentage points faster than in June, according to the commerce ministry. Vegetable, egg and pork prices were up 49.7%, 9.3% and 4% respectively from June.

August 17 – 360buy.com, a leading Chinese B2C electronics and household appliances trading site, said it hoped its revenue would overtake Suning (SHE: 002024) or Gome (HKG: 0493) by 2012. Suning and Gome are the nation's top two retailers of the same kind posting ¥117 billion and ¥106.8 billion in sales respectively last year. 360buy raked in ¥6 billion last year, more than the previous 6 years combined.

August 16 – A survey has found that 45.6% of the subjects used credit card for online shopping. Nearly 1/3 had 3 to 5 credit cards.

August 15 – The Ministry of Health said an investigation found no evidence Synutra formula caused three infant girls to grow breasts, easing some pressure on China's strained dairy industry that was severely hit by another contamination scandal in 2008.

August 13 – China imported 388,200 vehicles in 1H 2010, up 170% on the same period last year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

August 13 – The Shanghai government plans to subsidize plug-in hybrid vehicles buyers ¥20,000 on top of the central government's incentives, boosting the aggregate subsidies to up to ¥50,000, according to the local office for promotion of alternative energy-powered vehicles. The city aims to have 20,000 green cars by 2012.

August 12 – Carefour will open a 35,000m2 shopping complex in Jiangxi provincial capital Nanchang by 2011. The supermarket will cover 20,000m2.

August 12 – Starbucks plans to open 3 more stores in Fujian provincial capital Fuzhou by October 2010, taking the total number to 10.