Oyu Tolgoi hands over the Made in Mongolia Ecobus to Umnugovi aimag www.gogo.mn

Oyu Tolgoi’s Chairman of the Board of Directors Mr.Batsukh gave a speech opening the handover ceremony of Mongolian made eight ECOBUSes as part of the “Umnugovi public transportation improvement project” of “Gobi Oyu Development support fund” sponsored by Oyu Tolgoi LLC.

Mongolbank’s gold purchase increases www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Bank of Mongolia purchased 1,128 kg gold in January this year, which is 46.5 percent higher than the same period of the last year.

China's benchmark power coal price ends decline www.chinadaily.com.cn

BEIJING -- China's benchmark power coal price ended declines during the past week due to rising consumption from coal-fired power plants.

Rio Tinto back in race for stake in world’s largest lithium miner www.mining.com

Global miner Rio Tinto (ASX, LON:RIO) is said to be once again chasing a $5bn stake in Chile’s Chemical and Mining Society (SQM), the world's largest lithium producer, following the resolution of a long-dragged dispute between the company and the country’s government over royalties in Salar de Atacama.

The deal between SQM and Chile’s development agency Corfo, reached last month, freed the lithium producer to apply for an increase in its output quota amid a demand boom and surging prices for the white metal, used in the batteries that power electric vehicles.

According to local paper Diario Financiero (in Spanish) Rio’s renewed interest in SQM is welcome by the Chilean government, which had expressed concerns about a potential and dangerous concentration in the market should major lithium producers, such as China’s Tianqi, acquire the 32% interest in SQM.

Nutrien (TSX:NTR), born from the recent merger between Potash Corp. and Agrium, has to sale its interest in SQM by April 2019, as part of the condition of the merger last year between PotashCorp and Agrium that created the company.

US chemical company Albemarle Corporation (NYSE:ALB), the only firm other than SQM currently allowed to mine the white metal in the South American nation, which is also said to want the stake in the Chilean producer, is a close partner of Tianqi.

Albemarle owns a 49% stake in Talison Lithium, with Tianqi — China’s largest lithium producer — owning the other 51%. That relationship is seen as threatening for Chile because Talison is not only a major player in the market, but it’s also developing several lithium projects in Chile and Australia.

If any of the two (Albermale or Tianqi) grabs the stake in SQM, it would mean the world’s three top producers will own between 70% and 80% of the total market, Eduardo Bitrán, executive vice-president of Corfo, warned in an interview last month.

“We don’t want that. It will create conflict of interest that will upset the interests of SQM, the interests of Corfo, the interests of Chile and that’s a problem,” Bitrán told FT.com.

Rio Tinto back in race for stake in world’s largest lithium miner
Rio's current incursion in the lithium market is mostly limited to its 100%-owned lithium and borates mineral project in Jadar, Serbia, which is still in the early stages of development.

While the company’s chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques has not ruled out acquisitions in recent comments to the market, he has also noted the company would only consider opportunities that make a "smart buy".

That’s why purchasing a stake in SQM would not be inconsistent with Rio's current strategy, Investec said in a note to clients in November, adding that such move would only provide a foothold in a sector where the company has some exposure, but with Jadar still many years away, "if it is developed at all".

SQM, which has a market value at just over $15 billion, is expected to quadruple lithium production by 2026.

Industrial park and new town plan www.news.mn

Mongolia has 66 million livestock; however, there is a lack of leather and meat processing factories. B.Batzorig, Minister of Food, Agriculture and Light Industries has said his ministry is planning to establish a Leather & Wool Industrial Park in Emeelt, outside Ulaanbaatar. The park will have tanneries with an annual processing capacity of 8 million hides; there will also be facilities for processing 22 thousand tonnes of cashmere. In order to provide the workforce for the processing plants a new town 30 thousand will be built.

Mongolia ranks 125th place in Economic Freedom Index www.akipress.com

Mongolia’s economic freedom score is 55.7, making its economy the 125th freest in the 2018 Economic Freedom Index by the Heritage Foundation.

Lenovo back on the growth track www.chinadaily.com.cn

Despite achieving a three-year revenue high in the last quarter, Lenovo Group Ltdthe world's second-largest personal computer maker－posted a loss due to a one-off charge of $400 million resulting from a United States tax reform, the company said on Thursday.

Fitch expects to rate MAK, proposed bonds 'CCC+(EXP)' www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Fitch Ratings expects to assign Mongolia-based coal mining company Mongolyn Alt (MAK) LLC a Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of 'CCC+(EXP)'. Fitch has also assigned the company's proposed US dollar senior unsecured notes an expected rating of 'CCC+(EXP)' with a Recovery Rating of 'RR4'.

UK says signs over 9 billion pounds in deals during PM's China trip www.reuters.com

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Britain signed deals worth more than 9 billion pounds ($12.83 billion) creating over 2,500 jobs across the United Kingdom during Prime Minister Theresa May’s visit to China this week, the British government said on Friday.

Alibaba to buy 33% of spinoff Ant Financial www.asia.nikkei.com

HONG KONG -- China's largest e-commerce company, Alibaba Group Holding, said Thursday that it has agreed to buy a 33% stake in Ant Financial Services Group, a mobile payments affiliate controlled by Alibaba founder Jack Ma Yun.

Under a deal announced the same day as better-than-expected quarterly earnings, Alibaba will buy new shares in the operator of the popular Alipay payment service in exchange for certain intellectual property rights owned by the e-commerce giant. There will be no cash impact on Alibaba following the closing, it said.

The move will align the duo's interests further in areas including user acquisitions from offline and online platforms and international expansion, Alibaba Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai said in a conference call. Their strategic partnership dates back to 2014, when Alibaba and Ant Financial reached a profit-sharing agreement.

This will mark Alibaba's first investment in the affiliate, valued at more than $74 billion by Hong Kong-based brokerage CLSA in 2016.

Alipay was established in 2004 under Alibaba but spun off as a separate entity in 2011 to come under the control of Ma. The move, which followed regulations requiring third-party payment services to be wholly owned by Chinese companies or individuals, led to a dispute between Alibaba and foreign shareholders SoftBank Group of Japan and Yahoo of the U.S.

Alibaba's reunion with Ant Financial is also seen as preparation for the affiliate's anticipated public listing in addition to fueling its global acquisition drive. Tsai said Alibaba expects Ant Financial to continue its fairly aggressive plan to continue to gain more new users and take market share. The agreement comes not long after Ant Financial's plans to acquire U.S. money transfer company MoneyGram International fell through. That deal failed to win approval by the U.S. government over national security concerns last month.

Meanwhile, Alibaba's revenue jumped 56% on the year to 83.02 billion yuan ($13.18 billion) for the three months ended December, supported by Chinese consumers' enthusiasm for online shopping. This compared to the average estimate of a 49.95% rise to 79.84 billion yuan by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. The company's bread-and-butter commerce segment continued to drive growth, especially with a push from China's biggest shopping event on Nov. 11.

For the event -- Singles Day -- Alibaba claimed to have broken its own record again by selling $25.3 billion of goods on that day alone, 40% more than last year. Alibaba also has been pushing its artificial intelligence technologies to attract customers through personal recommendations.

Its cloud computing business also reported revenue growth of 104% on the year to 3.59 billion yuan, pushed by increasing paying customers and more customers willing to pay for higher-value-added products, the company said. Karen Chan, equity analyst at Jefferies, said in a recent report: "We estimate Alibaba Cloud to reach breakeven with 3.2% operating margin by fiscal year 2019."

Alibaba also accelerated its push into offline retailing, aiming to pull customers into its empire. In November, the company said it would invest 22.4 billion Hong Kong dollars ($2.86 billion) in China's top hypermarket operator, Sun Art Retail Group. Looking ahead, the company pledged to double its Hema supermarket branches by the end of 2018. Hema customers will be able to receive fresh products in about 30 minutes after clicking from an additional 30 stores in Beijing and three new ones in Xian by the end of 2018.