Melbourne-based entre-preneur Darren Dai has discovered a great way to increase the sale of Austra-lian pine and softwoods to his Chinese furniture manufacturing clients: taking renminbi as payment. Last year the head of Koalstralia Resources began accepting the Chinese currency, also known as the yuan, from customers instead of U.S. dollars.The change helps the company's Chinese clients reduce transaction costs, including hedging and the typical 1.5 percent foreign exchange fees. "In turn," explains Dai, "Koalstralia can benefit from more orders from the Chinese market." The company has taken 8.2 million yuan ($1.3 million) in payment since last year, about 10 percent of its receivables.
展开▼
