BizChina

China, the world's largest maker and consumer of steel products, fired back Thursday at the United States for its anti-dumping measures against Chinese steel exports, launching its own punitive taxes on steel from US as well as Russia.

The Ministry of Commerce said Thursday on its website that US and Russian steelmakers must pay anti-dumping duties as high as 25 percent beginning today. The US steel industry must also tack on a 12 percent tax when it exports its products to China.

The announcement comes after a series of damaging measures against Chinese steel exports launched by the US and Europe in recent months. China's provisional duties will hurt steel exporters from the US and Russia, said a Chinese steel expert.

A month ago, Apple sold only 5,000 iPhones in its China debut, as against 65,000 in much smaller Korea. It is too early to declare the iPhone a failure in the country, but the launch missed expectations by a mile. Apple follows a long roster of businesses like eBay that have made the dumb mistake of not taking into account local Chinese consumer preferences, as I wrote in "How Apple and IPhone Blew It In China."

Apple should have taken a cue from the German carmaker BMW. BMW localizes for Chinese consumers. The average Chinese buyer of luxury cars such as BMW, Mercedes and Bentley is 40 years old, much younger than in other markets. He has a chauffeur for weekdays but hits the freeways himself on weekends. BMW accommodated local habits by extending the backseat legroom in its Series 5 line by several inches. It also created its first social media site, MyBMWClub.cn, to appeal to younger owners. Using an understanding of local consumers in developing its strategies has worked for the company. In 2009 through October, BMW has sold 71,952 vehicles in China, up 36.7% from 52,622 a year before. The country is now the company's largest market for its flagship Series 7 line, and its fourth largest market overall.

France's Groupe Danone finally lost its foothold in China this fall after a two-year legal battle with local beverage maker Wahaha. Apple's iPhone logged a disappointing debut there in November. Figuring out the Chinese retail market -- which posted 5.9 trillion yuan ($867.6 billion) in total sales in the first half of this year -- is far from a piece of cake for some big international corporations.

But not for Kraft. The president of Kraft International, Sanjay Khosla, told Forbes how the world's second largest food company overhauled its recipe for success to align with the particular appetites of China's 1.3 billion people. It now boasts the biggest market share in China in two major categories: cookies and powdered beverages.

Kraft Foods seized 22.4% of China's $1.6-billion cookie market for the year ending in September 2009, AC Nielsen research shows. Kraft's major competitor, Taiwan's Tingyi, ranked No. 2 with 8.3% of the market, while local leader Dali grabbed a 5.7% share. Switzerland's Nestle squeezed into the top five with a 2.6% share.

Chinese car sales and production both exceeded 12 million between January and November, state media has said.

The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers expects car sales and output to top 13 million for the full year, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

China has never produced more than 10 million cars in one year before.

State incentives have boosted car sales, and the government has reiterated its plans to continue economic stimulus measures next year.

Despite the downturn and falling sales at most global carmakers, demand for cars in China is booming.

In November alone, sales reached 1.35 million units, according to the preliminary figures.