SEMA comment on Chinese investment in Airport City announcement

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Responding to today's announcement that a Chinese construction firm will be involved in the Airport City scheme, Robbie Gillett from Stop Expansion at Manchester Airport commented:

"Today's announcement is about pouring money into businesses that are reliant on aviation expanding from Manchester Airport, which depends on burning more and more fossil fuels pushing us closer towards a dangerous climate scenario.  We should look beyond today's headline figures to ask: What sort of economy do we want to build?  One that relies on a carbon-intensive business model where we fly goods and services back and forth across the globe?  Or one where we create new jobs in a green industries, in sustainable transport and renewable energy to power a re-localised economy?

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Below's text from the Manchester Evening News - 13th October 2013

A Chinese construction company was today confirmed as part of the group that will develop an £800m business park next to Manchester Airport.

The Beijing Construction Engineering Group is involved in the joint-venture that will bring the Airport City scheme to reality over the next 12 years.

It is teaming-up with Manchester Airports Group, the Greater Manchester Pension Fund and UK construction firm Carillion to invest in the project, which aims to create up to 16,000 jobs.

Over the coming years, they will build a series of office blocks, logistics hubs, hotels and warehouses that will be filled by global companies lured to the region.

Property develop Argent, which is behind the One St Peter's Square scheme in Manchester city centre and led the revamp of London's Kings Cross station, has been appointed development manager.

The deal was announced by chancellor George Osborne during a special visit to Beijing today.  It also marks the Far East launch of the Manchester-China Forum, which aims to boost trade links between the two locations.  And it is hoped securing Chinese investment into the region will go a long way towards encouraging airlines to launch a direct service between Manchester and the Far East.

Charlie Cornish, chief executive of MAG, said: “We are delighted to confirm organisations of global standing as our joint venture partners.

“The inclusion of BCEG is significant because as a Group, we have been keen to forge greater links with the Far East and this gives us an opportunity to strengthen vital business links with China.

“With GMPF on board, Greater Manchester is investing in the future of the north west and Carillion bring sector-leading experience in project finance, delivery and sustainability, both in the UK and internationally.

“In Argent, we have the one of the most renowned developers in its field and by working together as a partnership, we are well positioned to deliver the UK’s first Airport City.”

The joint-venture sees MAG take a 50 per cent stake, BCEG a 20 per cent stake, Carillion a 20 per cent stake and the GMPF a 10 per cent stake.

The J-V partners will then look to build offices, warehouses, hotels and manufacturing plants for specific tenants and then sell those sites on for profit once they are up-and-running.

Airport City sits at the hear of Greater Manchester's Enterprise Zone, which means companies choosing to locate there can benefit from business rate reductions and other perks.

Pigs can fly, hundreds of them

Back in November 2010, British Prime Minister David Cameron, and Business Secretary Vince Cable, led the biggest UK trade delegation to China in 200 years. The government aimed to double UK trade with China over five years, and to narrow the gaping trade gap. This is indeed important for the UK economy, struggling to compete with China’s high value, hi-tech products. In 2009, the disparity between the value of goods the UK exports to China and the value of its imports was £19 billion.

Specific major trade deals negotiated by Cameron and Cable included a £1.9 billion contract for Rolls-Royce to supply jet engines to China Eastern Airlines, and a £45 million deal to export British breeding boars. JSR Genetics, an international pig genetics company, based in Driffield, East Yorkshire, was one of the companies to benefit from the trade deal. On 5th April 2011, JSR Genetics announced that over 800 breeding pigs, sent on a chartered Boeing 747 flight from Manchester, had landed in Guangzhou. The pigs were just three breeds - JSR Genepackers, GGP Gilts and JSR Geneconverter GGP Boars. JSR Genetics is part of JSR Farms, based in South Yorkshire. One of the photos scrolling on the website is of a plane being either loaded or unloaded with pallets.

Flying livestock around is environmentally disastrous, adding to the greenhouse gas emissions from passenger flights. But it is understandable that air is the usual mode for long distance transportation of livestock. A sea journey would take about a month. So herds of pigs are loaded onto jumbo jets. A flight from Winnipeg to Chengdu, in Chiana’s Sichuan province in July 2012, carried 850breeding pigs. The flight delivered a ‘nucleus herd’ for the buyers, Giastar, which is aiming to have 5 million pigs in production. And even higher numbers of pigs are loaded onto jumbo jet flights to Russia. AirBridge Cargo flew 1,150 ‘Large White’ pigs from Winnipeg to Moscow in March 2010, and crammed 1,275 breeding pigs onto a Boeing 747 flight from Montreal to Vladivostock in 2011.

Planes loaded with herds of livestock are just one, particularly carbon intensive, segment of lengthy food supply chains criss-crossing the globe, with multiple transportation legs between production, processing and consumption. But, even if within the industrialised, globalised food system, there is an alternative. Breeders can send small vials of semen, germplasm or embryos instead, by air. In the US, USDA is advocating this as a replacement for air freight of livestock.

By July 2012, 3,000 breeding pigs had been flown from the UK to China in the space of a year. Once the herds in China are established UK farmers will send bottles of semen to keep production going, but still plan to send a new batch of sows every two years. Apparently up to 900 pigs are packed onto jumbo jets. They get lie-down beds and water all the way. It sounds better than humans flying economy class. All the pigs arrived safely. That is good to hear. Corporate Watch reported that JSR Farms were prosecuted for falsifying information claiming that live export pigs were properly rested on an overland journey from Wiltshire to Hamburg. The pigs had been denied the mandatory 24 hour resting period.

China is massively increasing pork production, in industrial feedlots. By 2010 China produced 50 million tonnes of pork, half of the world total, from a herd of 660 million. Almost all the pork was consumed domestically. But the country’s self sufficiency in pork is superficial. Animal feed imports must be considered. In addition to flying in Boeing 747s full of breeding stock, China’s domestic pig production boom depends on imported animal feed, largely soybeans from the US and Brazil. Imports to China accounted for over half of the global soy market in 2009, and 2010.

By Rose Bridger