BLOOMBERG

Fewer of China's wind turbines are idle after investments in new wind farms slowed and developments shifted to areas with better grid access, aiding operators such as China Longyuan Power Group Corp.

The annual rate of China's idled wind capacity may fall to 12 percent this year from 17 percent in 2012, Guo Yanheng, deputy director of the National Renewable Energy Engineering Information Management Center, said in an interview. Ten percent of China's wind power capacity was sitting unused in the first half of the year, 2 percentage points lower than a year ago, according to the center's data.

Idled capacity has dogged China's wind farm operators after a rush to build turbines in the windiest areas of the nation surpassed the grid's ability to absorb and transmit the power. This year may be the first since 2010 that the rate of idled turbines has declined, according to the renewable energy center's records.

"The entire industry is more matured than it was three or four years ago with wind operators considering not just wind speed and availability of land, but transmission capacity," said Michael Parker, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.

BBC NEWS

Rail-mounted cranes use a complex system of ropes and pulleys to offload containers from cargo ships onto lorries at Greece's southern port of Piraeus.

The equipment was built by China's State-run shipping company, COSCO, which paid 500 million euros ($659 million) to upgrade and run the terminal. It is Greece's largest inward investment and gives China a key access point to Europe.

And the country's growing relationship with China works both ways. Greek companies are increasing exports to the Chinese market, although they are still only one-twentieth of what China sells here.

Evi Morfonidi, export manager of Frutop in Athens, said: "Our company has been welcomed in the Chinese market - I believe other companies can do that as well."

There is another growing link between the two countries. At the historic sights of Athens or on the picture-postcard Aegean islands, Chinese tourists are arriving in growing numbers - a welcome boost for Greece's biggest industry.