When government officials last year authorized Sassin International Electric Shanghai Co. to bill its exports in renminbi instead of dollars as part of a trial program aimed at boosting international use of the Chinese currency, company executives were delighted. The Shanghai-based maker of low-voltage circuit breakers exported the vast majority of its $50 million in sales in 2008. Invoicing customers in renminbi could save the company banking fees and eliminate the risk of currency losses. “We look forward to the day when renminbi is widely used globally,” says David Dong, director of international sales at Sassin.
Dong is still looking. Several months after Sassin gained that authorization, back in July 2009, the company hasn’t issued a single invoice in renminbi and doesn’t know when it will. Tight restrictions on the renminbi program as well as...
