A total of 24 Chinese companies have a total of US$12 billion in bond payments due by the year’s end, Bloomberg reported. “We may see more onshore bond defaults in the second half, helping weed out the weakest companies,” said Wang Ying, an analyst at Fitch Ratings. But Wang added that firms with a strong, state-owned enterprise background like the Aluminum Corporation of China and power generation firm Datang were unlikely to default. Three additional firms may also have to buy back a total of US$975 million in notes by year’s end if investors exercise sales options.