China sees steady freight growth in first 10 months

China's national freight volume, an indicator of economic activity, maintained steady growth in the first 10 months as the country's economic expansion remained steady, official data showed. China's railways, highways, waterways and civil airlines carried a total of 43.64 billion tons of cargo from January to October, up 5.5 percent year on year, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.

In breakdown, rail freight grew 6.4 percent to 3.54 billion tons in the period, while air cargo increased 1 percent to 6.11 million tons. Highway freight volume rose 5.2 percent year on year to 33.96 billion tons, while waterway freight volume gained 6.5 percent to 6.13 billion tons. Meanwhile, profits of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) grew steadily in the first 10 months of 2019, official data showed.

The combined profits of China's SOEs rose 5.4 percent year on year to 2.94 trillion yuan (about $418 billion) for the January-October period, the Ministry of Finance said on its website. The pace edged down from the 6.6-percent increase in the first nine months. The centrally-administered SOEs generated a combined profit of 1.94 trillion yuan, up 7.5 percent year on year.

Total revenues of the SOEs reached 50.13 trillion yuan during the period, up 6.5 percent from a year earlier. The debt-to-asset ratio of the SOEs stood at 64.3 percent by the end of October, unchanged from the same period last year, according to the ministry.

Moreover, more than 600 minor market violations by enterprises have been exempt from administrative penalties in Shanghai amid the city's efforts to foster a more vibrant business environment, especially for innovative enterprises and those involving new business models.

The exemption was based on a list of 34 minor violations that would be freed from penalties in the city, which has been improving its business environment, Lu Weidong, director of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Justice, said at a forum focusing on optimizing the business environment through legal approaches in Shanghai.

The list, the country's first of its kind in a provincial-level region, included violations in marketing, quality and food safety as well as fire control that do not cause consequences and that the company has taken the initiative to rectify.

A trading company based in Minhang district was found to use the phrase "the latest patent", which is banned by the country's advertising law, when introducing its products on e-commerce platforms JD and Alibaba. The company was facing a maximum penalty of 100,000 yuan ($14,000) according to the law.

The bureau said that the company was finally exempt from penalty as it showed proof to the market watchdog that it had applied for a patent, didn't mean to mislead consumers, and took the initiative to alter the wording of its advertisement. "It was not only about monetary fines. More importantly, our company would have been put on a credit blacklist.