An advertisement board totters in gale at a crossing of Jiuzhen Township of Zhangpu County, southeast China’s Fujian province, Sept. 2, 2010. Tropical storm Lionrock, the eighth of this year, made landfall on Fujian early Thursday morning. Under the impact of Lionrock, torrential rain was seen along the coast of Zhangzhou City, and the rain was the heaviest in Dongshan and Zhangpu counties. (Xinhua/Jiang Kehong)

Tropical storm Lionrock, the eighth of this year, made landfall on east China’s Fujian Province early Thursday morning, local meteorologists said.

The storm landed at Gulei Town of Zhangpu County at around 6:50 a.m. with a speed of 82.8 km per hour near its center.

Under the impact of Lionrock, torrential rain was seen along the coast of Zhangzhou City, and the rain was the heaviest in Dongshan and Zhangpu counties.

No casualties have been reported.

Local meteorologists have warned residents of mudflows and landslides that might be triggered by the tropical storm.

The meteorologists forecast that rainfalls would be up to 100 to 200 mm in Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, Xiamen and Putian cities of Fujian from Thursday to Friday.

By 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, 162,200 people in the province had been evacuated to safe places, and 50,703 fishing ships had been back to harbors.

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South Korea’s trade surplus marked 2.07 billion U.S. dollars in August, standing in positive territory for the seventh consecutive month, a government report showed Wednesday.

The trade surplus, however, more than halved from July when the figure posted 5.51 billion U.S. dollars, according to the report by the Ministry of Knowledge Ministry.

While exports rose 29.6 percent year-on-year to 37.52 billion U. S. dollars, imports climbed 29.3 percent to 35.45 billion U.S. dollars, the report showed.

Most sectors saw a gain in exports, with semiconductor and car part exporters saw outbound shipments spike 59.6 percent and 60 percent, respectively, in addition to automobile exports that expanded 27.5 percent on year.

Imports, on the other hand, rose on a gain in the nation’s purchase of natural resources, the report showed.

In the first half of 2010, South Korea was ranked the seventh- largest exporter in the world, rising two notches from a year ago, following China, the U.S., Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and France.

For the whole year, South Korea is expected to post a surplus of 32 billion U.S. dollars.

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China needs to raise the proportion of Chinese brands in its exports, to improve the nation’s trade quality and efficiency, a senior official said here Wednesday.

Chinese brands make up less than 10 percent of China’s exports, said Fu Shuangjian, deputy director at the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), at the 2010 China Trademark Annual Meeting, which kicked off Wednesday in Xining, capital city of west China’s Qinghai Province.

Excluding overseas invested companies, less than 20 percent of Chinese exporters have registered trademarks in China, while less than 5 percent have registered trademarks abroad, said Fu.

China exports products across the world, but they are often low value-added products, added Fu.

Chinese exporters are weak at product development and marketing, said Li Shunde, a law scholar who heads the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Intellectual Property Research Center.

China is encouraging domestic companies to file more international trademark applications, to compete in the global market and better protect its trademark rights.

The SAIC will boost efforts to protect trademarks at home, and it will also encourage domestic companies to buy foreign trademarks and have their own brands registered overseas, Fu added.

China’s exports grew 38.1 percent in July to 145.5 billion U.S. dollars, according to the General Administration of Customs. The growth rate was above the 35.2-percent growth rate of June.

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