Having recently been to two different tool and equipment events over the past three weeks, China was the topic of discussion for many manufacturers. We are all seeing the effects on our costs as China continues to develop. These are just a few notes from today's China Today. The magnitude of the country is difficult to comprehend for those of us who have not actually traveled to China to see first hand the tremendous changes occurring daily.
-In 2007, 101,480 people died in workplace and transportation accidents.
-China has nearly 160 million vehicles on their roads (as of January, 2008) That little car you see at the top of this entry? It's the Geely Beauty Leopard and sells for about $15,000 in China.
-Chinese consumer inflation was at 7.7% through May, 2008
-Their GDP was up 10.6% through the end of the first quarter, 2008. This is down slightly from their 11% growth of the previous quarter.
And in today's news, for anyone headed to Beijing for the Olympics:
On July 1, Beijing banned more than 250,000 high-emission vehicles from its roads in their continued efforts to curb pollution. That's just 10% of the total vehicle population in Beijing, but they say these vehicles account for 50% of the pollution. They will not be allowed back on the streets until 9/20/08 - after the Olympics end. I guess it's good for foreigners to breathe less-polluted air, but their own people don't need clean air to breathe....
Beginning July 20th, Beijing will start alternate driving days for privately-owned vehicles. They will also remove 1/2 of the government fleet from the roads.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment