McDonald's and Hualian link up
MCDONALD'S has launched a joint venture with Hualian Group, one of the largest supermarket chains in the city.
DuPont to invest more in China
DUPONT will continue to expand its investment in Shanghai if China enters the World Trade Organization.
Russia to sail China-US route
CONTAINER shipping is booming despite the fact that this is traditionally the slack season.
Chevrolet Blazer on the trail
GENERAL Motors (GM) is on time and on target in hiring and training a work force as it prepares to roll off its first Chevrolet Blazer in mid-December.
Dragon Head founds Chinese textiles website
"THE marriage of traditional industry and advanced commercial methods is perfect for the new century," Vice-Mayor Jiang Yiren said last week.
ECnet to grow from booming e-business
ECnet Co, from California, a provider of business to business e-commerce enabler for the high-tech manufacturing community, is upbeat on its expansion into the local market.
It's official, Win2000 now on local market
MICROSOFT officially unveiled last Thursday its landmark generation operating system - Windows 2000 Chinese version - in the local market despite the fact that it has already been selling well for almost one month.
Xujiahui offers lots of advantages
BOTH local Shanghainese and foreigners see Xujiahui in the city's southwest Xuhui District as one of Shanghai's best residential areas.
On-line gene data bank a rich research resource
GENETIC researchers across China will for the first time have access to a database of 40 billion genes from May when a new on-line data bank opens in Shanghai.
Discovering quiet luxury downtown
RESIDENTS in Shanghai can see large stocks of high quality properties in the suburbs, but new, high quality ones in the downtown area seem hard to find.
New Nestle bottled water plant built
By Wan Lixin
COMPLETION of the first phase expansion of Nestle Sources Shanghai Ltd plant, which now boasts an annual production capacity of 100 million bottles of water, was announced last week. "The opening of the plant shows our great expectations for and great commitment to the growing Chinese market," said Josef Mueller, head of the All Nestle Operations in China and chairman of Nestle Sources Shanghai Ltd. The first Nestle sales office in China opened in Shanghai in 1908. Over the last decade, Nestle has launched a number of products onto the Chinese market with great success including instant coffee, milk powder, baby cereals, chocolate wafers and ice cream. The new bottled water plant was launched after the Swiss company acquired Shanghai Drins Beverage Co Ltd in 1998. At present, total consumption of bottled water in China stands at 3 billion bottles a year, and the number is growing at 12 to 15 per cent a year, according to the company. While the total consumption of bottled water is considerable, the per capita consumption remains low, about 1/15 of that in the United States. This may signify a huge potential, but market competition is also intensifying. Since the first bottled water plant was set up in South China's Guangdong Province in 1988, the number of plants has mushroomed, exceeding 100 at one time. But in the last few years, a wave of acquisitions and mergers reduced the number to about 30, as consumers became more particular about the quality and brands of the products. The company's new expanded factory is one of the 18 operating in China, four of which are located in Shanghai. The company has already made 5 billion yuan ($600 million) in direct investment in China. In 1999, it had sales of 3.8 billion yuan ($450 million).
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