Cash-rich China has been ambitiously looking into investments overseas, mostly in the U.S. The latest data about China's overseas direct investments (ODI) shows Beijing's capital has been expanding in the U.S. According to data released by Beijing yesterday, China's ODI almost doubled year-on-year to $9.79 billion (TL 22.2 billion) in September. It was up 28.2 percent to $3.95 billion into the U.S.

Chinese companies are on a North American buying spree, investing $14 billion in the U.S. last year alone to hit a record high. Of the investments made the data indicated unconventional oil and gas was top draw, with $3.2 billion invested in deals that include CNOOC's (CEO) purchase of Calgary, Alberta-based Nexen Energy's U.S. operations, Sinopec's (SHI) joint venture with Chesapeake Energy (CHK) of Oklahoma City, and a Sinochem International stake in West Texas's Wolfcamp Shale.

Commercial real estate also saw big purchases, with 18 investments in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Detroit totaling $1.8 billion.

 

Some call Detroit "China's newest city." Dongdu International Group of Shanghai bought two downtown icons, the David Stott building for $4.2 million and the Detroit Free Press building for $9.4 million, both at auction. Moreover, Chinese purchasers are making bulk purchases of "inexpensive properties" - those selling for $25,000 or less - in the rings surrounding the city center. Chinese companies are also becoming big employers of Americans, providing more than 70,000 full-time jobs as of the end of last year. That's an eightfold increase since 2007. Huawei Technologies and Lenovo are big employers, but just one company - Smithfield - accounted for 37,000 of the total workers at Chinese companies.

Meanwhile, according to AFP, foreign direct investment (FDI), which excludes financial sectors, into China came in at $9.01 billion for the month, the commerce ministry said, up only 1.9 percent year-on-year but showing a significant improvement on August's $7.20 billion, which was the lowest since July 2010.

 

China has been actively acquiring foreign assets, particularly energy and resources, to power the world's second-largest economy, with firms encouraged to "go out" and make overseas acquisitions to gain market access and international experience. ODI was up 90.5 percent in September, and officials have said it could exceed FDI this year. For the first nine in months total ODI stood at $74.96 billion, up 21.6 percent, with FDI at $87.36 billion, down 1.4 percent. Over the period, Chinese investment into the

 

European Union soared 218 percent to $9.0 billion, the ministry said. ODI into Japan leaped 150 percent, while also going up 69.7 percent into Russia and 19.5 percent into Hong Kong, the ministry added, without giving totals.

 

Ministry spokesman Shen Danyang attributed the rapid growth in ODI to "strong market forces" - China's need to invest abroad and demand from destination countries - along with policy support from Beijing and foreign governments. In the first nine months FDI fell 43.0 percent from Japan to $3.39 billion, 24.7 percent from the U.S. to $2.17 billion, 18.8 percent from the European Union to $4.84 billion, and 13.7 percent from the ASEAN group of Southeast Asian countries to $4.90 billion. But it rose 32.5 percent from South Korea to $3.23 billion and 32.3 percent from Britain to $1.01 billion.

Please contact us in case of Copyright Infringement of the photo sourced from the internet, we will remove it within 24 hours.