China National Petroleum Corp has signed a contract with the government of Benin in West Africa to build and operate a crude oil pipeline in the region. The 1,980-kilometer pipeline, which will start from the Agadem oilfield in neighboring Niger and end at the port of Seme Terminal in Benin, is the biggest investment in a cross-nation oil pipeline that CNPC has made in Africa, the company said. (China Daily)

Ford Motor company will set up its product R&D center and China operations center in Nanjing, capital of eastern Jiangsu Province. The two centers will be the upgrade of Ford's research and engineering center, one of the company's nine largest product development centers around the globe, which was established in Nanjing in 2007. (China Daily)

JD Logistics, the logistics arm of Chinese e-commerce giant JD, which had previously reported losses in its operations, has broken even.In addition, its parent company will keep on increasing investment in technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing, said Liu Qiangdong, chairman and CEO of JD. (China Daily) 

Nestle has teamed up with coffee giant Starbucks to launch a new series of coffee products on Thursday for the Chinese mainland market, which are also the alliance's first products in the market since it was established in August last year. The new products feature capsule coffee and allow consumers to make coffee at home or in the office by themselves, which is part of the alliance's efforts to tap such groups amid fierce competition in the coffee delivery sector. (National Business Daily)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPMorgan) won an auction on Friday to hold a 51 percent stake in its Chinese asset management joint venture (JV), making it the first foreign company to inch closer to take majority control of a fund management company. In the latest deal, JPMorgan acquired a 2 percent stake in China International Fund Management Co., Ltd. (CIFM) for 241 million yuan (34.4 million U.S. dollars), which represents a 33.89 percent premium from the previously estimated value of 180 million yuan. (National Business Daily)

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is upgrading its wholesale business by adding a new sourcing channel to better facilitate cross-border trade, particularly for small- and medium-sized enterprises. The e-commerce giant announced on Wednesday it is adding a new channel for buyers seeking standardized goods rather than tailor-made products on Alibaba.com, the company's business-to-business site. (National Business Daily)

The Walmart Food Safety Innovation Pipeline Round 3 is focused on supply chain insights that advance transparency and improve food safety from farm to fork. Since the Walmart Food Safety Collaboration Center (WFSCC) launched the request for proposals on May 30, the Innovation Pipeline has received wide attention from media, the global startup community and big global brands. (Global Times)

BMW further increased its sales in July 'primarily thanks to new SUV models'. The German premium car maker had delivered 157,062 BMW brand vehicles to customers worldwide in July, an increase of 1.6 percent compared to the previous year. (Global Times)

Airbus is stretching its lead over Boeing in aircraft deliveries as Boeing continues to be held back by the grounding of its 737 MAX. Chicago-based Boeing said Tuesday it delivered 19 planes in July, down from 39 in July 2018. It also reported that it received no new orders for the MAX in July, the fourth straight month without an order. (Global Times)

FedEx is severing ties with Amazon as the online retailer builds out its own delivery fleet and becomes more of a threat. The announcement Wednesday that FedEx would no longer make ground deliveries for Amazon comes two months after the delivery company said it was terminating its air delivery contract with Amazon. (Global Times)