Toy export growth hits 5-year high CHINA, the world’s biggest toy exporter, saw its toy exports grow 37.8% year on year in 2021, hitting a five-year high, industry statistics released Tuesday showed. China exported US$46.12 billion worth of toys in 2021, according to the China Toy & Juvenile Products Association. The United States remained the top destination of China’s toy exports, with exports to the country surging 57.3% year on year to US$13.48 billion. Toy sales in the domestic market rose 9.6% year on year to 85.46 billion yuan (US$12.65 billion) in 2021, the statistics showed. Petrochemical refining project starts operation THE country’s largest refining and chemical integration project has been put into production in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, Xinhua reported yesterday. The project, undertaken by Shenghong Petrochemical with an investment of 67.7 billion yuan, has an annual processing capacity of 16 million tons of crude oil. Shenghong is one of the three major private petrochemical refining projects supported by the State Council, said Ma Shiguang, mayor of Lianyungang. Ireland imports more from China CHINA became the third largest source of imported goods for Ireland in the first quarter of this year, up two places compared to a year ago, the latest official data shows. In the first quarter, Ireland imported 2.87 billion euros (US$3 billion) of goods from China, up 64% year on year, according to the Central Statistics Office of Ireland. The value of the goods imported by Ireland from China during the period only ranked behind Britain (6.38 billion euros), and the United States (3.97 billion euros). Huaneng project ready for commercial operations CHINA is set to connect its first commercial compressed air energy storage plant to the grid as it seeks more ways to harness fast-growing clean power resources for around-the-clock use. China Huaneng Group Co. said its Jiangsu Jintan Salt Cave project recently underwent four days of successful trials and is now ready for commercial operations. The 60-megawatt plant will be the largest compressed air energy storage plant built anywhere in the world since 1991, according to BloombergNEF. The plant will use electricity at night when demand is low to pump air into an underground salt cavern. Then, when demand is high during the day, it can release the compressed air at high enough pressure to spin a turbine and produce electricity. | 