Managing The Dragon

In case you haven’t noticed, there are some pretty incredible numbers coming out of China these days. For example, Kate Zhu, executive director at Morgan Stanley Research, reports that preliminary numbers indicate that car sales in July may be as much as 87 percent ahead of last year, driven by strong performances of small and [...]

Last month, I suggested that because equipment such as excavators and wheel loaders are used in infrastructure projects, China’s construction machinery industry might be used to monitor the progress of China’s stimulus program. In China’s Construction Machinery Industry:A Benchmark For the Stimulus Program (Part I), I provided a brief industry overview and discussed some of [...]

China’s construction machinery industry is an interesting one to study in some detail because it illustrates many of the trends in China that we have highlighted at various times on MTD and that I identified in my book, Managing the Dragon. Construction machinery is yet one more industry where China is leading the world in [...]

As an unprecedented 1,500 foreign and domestic automakers and parts suppliers gather in Shanghai for China’s annual auto expo, China stands out as the only bright spot in an otherwise gloomy global auto industry. China’s auto sales hit a monthly record of 1.11 million vehicles in March, exceeding U.S. sales for the third month in [...]

“Trees don’t grow to the sky,” a wise man once told me. After increasing at rates ranging from 20 percent to 50 percent per annum since China joined the World Trade Organization in December, 2001, vehicle sales in China fell victim to a slowing China economy, higher fuel costs, and a drastic falloff in demand [...]

As expected, China announced the much-awaited reforms to its fuel pricing policies.  Under the new system, “You pay as you fill up the tank.”  As China Daily put it, “the more you drive, the more it costs you — and the planet. This is a simple market rule but it has taken nearly two decades for [...]

The Chinese always speak of three legs to their country’s economic stool: exports; government spending and domestic consumption. Everyone expects China’s exports to the developed economies of the world to slow dramatically in 2009 as these economies struggle in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Though China may find new or expanded export markets in [...]