From the category archives:
One of the companies I visited during my last trip to Beijing was Sinovac (SVA: 7.55 -0.30 -3.82%), the largest manufacturer of flu vacinne in China. I didn’t recommend the company for several reasons (and I’m glad I didn’t becuase its stock has taken a big hit) but it is one that I continue to [...]
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One thing I admire about Warren Buffett is that he always told it like it is…good or bad. And he has usually been right too.
According to Buffett, things aren’t going to get better any time soon. The “economy will be in shambles throughout 2009 and, for that matter, probably well beyond.”
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China Shuangji Cement is a large Chinese cement producer and it is about to double its production when it opens a new high-volume plant. The Chinese government is still spending on infrastructure projects like crazy.
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Chinese officials think their stimulus plan is working. The Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet’s National Development and Reform Commission, Liu Tienan, said:
“We have set a growth rate of about 8 percent for 2009. I think we have the conditions, the possibility and the confidence to deliver that. Despite the downward pressure on the Chinese economy [...]
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It seldom gets any media attention over here, but China has been suffering from one of its worst droughts in history. This article in the International Herald Tribune explains how dire the food situation is becoming.
Water supplies have been drying up for decades, the result of pervasive overuse and waste. Underground aquifers have been so [...]
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This doesn’t have anything directly to do with Asia — except that Americans will have less credit to buy cars, electronics, toys, clothes, TVs, and shoes — but I thought it was a very important data point about the U.S. economy.
American Express (AXP: 40.93 -0.21 -0.51%) is offering $300 cash to its cardholders that pay [...]
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Japan is a very export dependent country. That is why my jaw dropped when I read that its exports fell by 46% in January on a year-over-year basis.
The biggest drop was in autos, which plunged by 69%. Don’t expect any good profit news from Honda (HMC: 30.57 +0.11 +0.36%) and Toyota (TM: 76.97 -0.54 -0.70%) [...]
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The Chinese residential real estate market has been tough but the commercial real estate market is even worse. Here is a quote from a Los Angeles Times article about Beijing.
500 million square feet of commercial real estate has been developed in Beijing since 2006, more than all the office space in Manhattan. And that doesn’t [...]
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The good news about falling commodity prices is that it is getting cheaper to eat out in China.
McDonalds (MCD: 63.97 +0.56 +0.88%) is cutting the prices on some of its menu items by as much as 32%. McDonalds’ Everyday Super Value Meal has been reduced to 16.5 Chinese yuan or $2.41.
McDonalds plan on opening 175 additional [...]
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The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture estimates that 15.3% of the 130 million workers who migrated from the rural interior to the metropolitan coastal areas have returned to the countryside because of rising unemployment. That works out to about 20 million displaced workers.
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