Who's buying all that stuff China is making?

[pscot]

http://247wallst.com/2010/04/01/chinas-on-fire-as-factory-production-lifts-again/#more-63419

The recession and unemployment across the world must have been cured. How else could China’s factories push out more and more products every month as concerns about its economy overheating grow?

China’s purchasing managers’ index rose to 55.1 in March from 52.0 in February, the government said. Reuters reports that the ”HSBC/Markit survey rose to 57.0, the third-highest level in the six-year history of the survey, from 55.8 in February.”
Even the world’s most gifted economists cannot figure where all the manufactured goods are going. There are really only three options. The first is that the consumer buying power in China is growing at rates that are both unprecedented and unexpected. The reason that could be true is that factory production improves manufacturing employment, which in turn builds the Chinese middle class. But, since China’s manufacturing renaissance is relatively new, it is unlikely that so many people suddenly became employed in well-paid jobs.

China’s $585 billion stimulus package may have done its work in ways that were unexpected. Consumer borrowing may have lifted off even if employment did not. That means that Chinese consumer is following the American consumer down that path of leverage. The end point of that path is known all too well in the US where the rapid deceleration in consumer spending cost American at least two years of GDP growth.

China could be manufacturing goods at such a rapid rate because its trade partners are doing extraordinary well. The evidence of that is not showing in the GDPs of the US, Japan, UK, and most EU nations. U.S. GDP jumped in the fourth quarter of last year as companies restocked inventories, but that improvement is temporary.

China may be in the process of sending goods abroad which it has made at below-market prices and sold at below-market prices. That would add to concerns about the value of the yuan and may make the showdown between the US and the People’s Republic more contentious than expected.

Under almost any circumstance, Chinese growth, on fire again, cannot continue for too long.

[panader0]

1. I make a conscious effort to buy products made in the US

It's not easy. Many things just aren't made here anymore.

[M155Y_A1CH]

5. "Many things just aren't made here anymore"

You are so right about that. Frankly though, it's a huge understatement.

[pscot]

6. I've had a "don't buy Chinese" policy

since back in the early 90's when I realized almost everything at REI was MIC. About the only American goods left are groceries and cast iron frying pans.

[grasswire]

7. don't be so sure about those groceries

Virtually all commercially packed pickles are grown and packed in India these days. Much apple juice is processed and packed in China, then sent here. Better start checking your labels. A surprising amount of our groceries are now grown or processed offshore.

[pscot]

8. Funny you should mention pickles

Farman's, which used to be grown and packed locally, just cancelled its contracts with western Washington growers, effective in June. They will be buying on the world market; India was mentioned in the press release. I probably won't be issuing a press release, but there will most definitely be some pickle picking, processing and packing in the pscot household this summer.

[grasswire]

9. the rep from Nalley's...

...told me that except for niche pickle packers, there aren't any grown/produced in the U.S. anymore. Seems insane.

[blue97keet]

10. Canned mushrooms: same brand same size same price

the salted ones are product of China, the unsalted ones are product of USA. I bought the USA ones of course.

[unabelladonna]

11. it's difficult NOT to buy chinese goods

i'm always searching for "made in the USA", but it's so hard to find even in jcrew, nordstrom's or saks. i'm willing to pay the extra $, but american made goods are quite elusive. i fear for this country.

[dmallind]

2. Well one part of it could actually be good news

China manufactures much more than the things you see as "made in China" on the shelves. They dominate many converted raw material markets and primary chemical markets for example. Because these have long lead times manufacturers in other countries, including the US, have to order them months in advance of when they are used. What is then good news for China purchasing (by definition purchasing "recovers" before sales, and this is true for China too) will be good news for US and EU production a few months from now. Just because it says "manufactured goods" does not mean they are consumer goods as the article seems to assume. Steel rod is a manufactured good. Chemicals used in drug production are manufactured goods.

[rfranklin]

3. I heard that Fedex planes from China are packed to capacity...

with all the junk they are sending here.

[jody]

4. Nothing wrong with selling "below-market prices", that's competition but if it's "below cost" that's

like US subsidy of agriculture and some products.

China has learned very fast how to compete in the global economy and we should not forget that until the 15th century, China was the world's leader in so many areas.

[upi402]

12. USA must re-establish tariffs and undo NAFTA and GATT

Or we will not slowly move toward financial health. But we would need an opposition party to do that. And we would first need a balanced media to get that.

It's not looking good.

[DeschutesRiver]

13. With few exceptions, I don't buy food that comes from China

and I am about to jettison the few exceptions. I'd rather have a more limited menu at my home than buy from China. They freaking do not care about any safety issue with regards to the ingredients they are willing to substitute and put in a processed product; they don't care if kids or pets or people get sick or die from tainted goods; eating their food products is like playing russian roulette.

Yeah, there are problems with foods from other countries. Yeah, we have corporations here that suck eggs and sellers that don't give a crap, ie the bastard who sold all the moldy tomato paste to the big companies, so that he could pocket profits while that moldy paste went into thousands of products. But at least I can keep a better eye on quality control here in the US, esp. since I try to grow or raise as much of what I eat as possible. At least we can protest this and spread the word when it happens here. Remember the melamine in the milk that poisoned all those Chinese children? The father of a poisoned child started a website in China, to publicize the melamine issue to the world when no one else would (and saved lives doing so) - and he is freaking on trial now, could serve 5 hard years in prison. Over a website.

March 30 (Telegraph) -- A Chinese man who set up a website
to publicise the symptoms of melamine poisoning after 300,000
infants were sickened by toxic milk in 2008 has been put on
trial.
Zhao Lianhai, 38, whose own five-year-old son fell sick
during the crisis, was charged with "making a public disturbance"
by a court in the Beijing suburb of Daxing. If found guilty, Mr
Zhao faces up to five years in prison.
At least six children died and more than 300,000 fell ill
after drinking baby formula and other milk that contained
melamine, an industrial plastic. Melamine was used to "bulk up"
watered-down milk but causes kidney stones to form in children.
In response, Mr Zhao set up a website to spread information
about the symptoms of melamine poisoning to other parents. He
also quickly became the leading face of a movement by parents to
claim compensation for medical bills.
Mr Zhao, who was arrested last November and has not seen his
family since, pleaded not guilty to the charge. He was not
allowed to call witnesses, but he was permitted to read a short
statement. "We should be firm with our principles and beliefs,
otherwise it will affect all our souls, in which case we will
really be guilty," he said.
Li Fanping, his lawyer, said Mr Zhao had not caused a public
disturbance, but had merely defended his rights and those of
other parents. "Causing a disturbance is part of the crime of
hooliganism," said Mr Li. "But Mr Zhao only talked about the
issue in private, in a room, or in the street when he was
interviewed by journalists, or when he was outside the courthouse
the melamine crisis]."
Li Xuemei, Mr Zhao's wife, said she had "prepared for the
worst case scenario, a five-year sentence". She added: "I brought
our son to court. He has not seen his father for months. He
misses him a lot. We have no idea what has happened inside the
court."
Around 30 to 40 of Mr Zhao's supporters also attended,
standing outside the court in the rain and protesting his
innocence.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/7537822/China-puts-father-of-toxic-milk-child-on-trial.html

Well, screw that kind of attitude too. That is crazy, and I am not spending a cent to support a country where this is the norm. The Chinese gov. pulled a similar stunt with parents of children who had lead poisoning, and were seeking treatment. Thinking they were showing up to "protest", the .gov arrested all of them, until they est. that it really just was a request for treatment and not a real "protest" against the government. And I am supposed to believe that if they would try to suppress their own people when they seek justice for lead poisoning, that the Chinese gov. gives a crap about whether our children or people are poisoned by lead in the toxic stuff they sell to us to either wear or consume? I think not.

We have enough damned problems right here at home to work through, and that is where my time and money are better spent.

I started making the effort to not buy Chinese after they poisoned my pet food. Fuck them. I won't knowingly contribute to corruption and taint that is so institutionalized over there that no product from there is ever 100% safe to eat.

[Art_from_Ark]

15. "...eating their food products is like playing russian roulette"

That reminds me of some Chinese blueberry jam that I bought (in Japan) a while back. One day, as I was taking a bite of some blueberry jam toast, I nearly broke a molar. There was some hard black thing in the freaking jam! Maybe a rock, but it could have been something else. Blech.

[TroubleMan]

14. I know who's buying it.

These people:

http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/

[Name removed]

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