Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan said on Sept. 20 he will expand the dim sum bond market and develop RMB-denominated gold and commodity markets to help China raise international pricing influence in those sectors. Offshore RMB loans reached 935 billion yuan last year and the RMB business funding arrangement quota has been increased to 500 billion yuan.

Volkswagen’s supervisory board has approved an agreement advancing the group’s largest restructuring; Porsche is slated to cut roughly 4,100 employees to plug an estimated €700m indirect-cost shortfall, with the reductions stacking on top of existing accords. In July Porsche management and labour representatives agreed to add 5,000 cuts to a previously agreed 4,000. Volkswagen on Friday trimmed its full-year profit-margin target to at most 1% from 4.0–5.5%, citing a Porsche asset impairment. Porsche CEO Michael Leiters faces pressure to present a turnaround plan amid a sharp sales decline and higher costs tied to the maker’s reversal of its EV strategy.

China State Railway Group said national railway freight totaled 2.69 billion tonnes in Jan–Aug, averaging 187,400 loaded cars per day. Rail shipments of coal were 1.389 billion tonnes over the period, including 928 million tonnes of thermal (power) coal. The railway increased outward coal flows from major producing regions — Shanxi, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang — and worked to ensure thermal coal deliveries met demand over the summer peak. Coal stocks at power plants directly supplied by the national railway remained at elevated levels.