I’m going to be traveling for the next couple of days, and unlikely to post again before the end of the week. So, in parting, allow me to leave you with a curiosity. Recently I’ve found that Shanghai’s pirate CD industry is beginning to favor boxes made from fiberboard laminated with a fine wood grain…
All posts in Business and Trade
SAFE to Invest in BP?
Today we learn that a “Chinese entity” has purchased a roughly 1% equity stake in BP (worth US$2 billion) in BP, one of the world’s largest energy companies (concentrated in oil, of course). On one hand, this isn’t much of a surprise: last September, China launched a US$200 billion investment fund (CIC) in hope of…
Tiny Bubbles
Let my contribution to the expanding body of “Chinese Economic Bubble” literature/postings be the following observation: commercial rents on Shanghai’s Hengshan Road have – over the last twelve weeks – quadrupled and even quintupled in value, forcing vacancies that are unlikely to be filled at the new prices. For those who don’t know it (most…
Price Fix … Or Face the Consequences!
Over the last couple of years I’ve had countless conversations with foreigners who do business with Chinese state-owned monopolies, and – during most of those conversations – we’ve eventually reached a point where the foreigner says something like this: “They’re still better party hacks than businessmen.” I’ve been inclined to believe that, generally, but my…
Trade Show Babylon
One highly reflective refrigerator door; two faces of a Shanghai trade show. A special thanks to the good folks at Enodis China who opened their Hotelex Shanghai booth to me. [And a promise to my readers, that I will have a more substantive (penitent?) post within the next 24 hours.]
The night the lights went out in Shanghai.
Posting has been light – thin, even – and will continue to be so for the next couple of days while I finish a reporting trip up north. But briefly, I thought it worth mentioning that the city of Shanghai is running out of diesel. Or, to put it more accurately, the Shanghai Economic Commission…
So long to the market.
It’s hard to claim that the foreign media in China is overlooking important stories when there’s political unrest out West, so I’ll forgo the finger-pointing and merely suggest that – at some later date – it’s worth looking into the momentous importance of two pieces of somewhat related steel-related news from the last week. Both…
PetroChina to China: Drop Dead.
Yesterday, I heard from a friend that gas stations just outside of Shanghai were rationing diesel, again. I haven’t been out there to see for myself, but I have no reason to disbelieve this person (looks like Reuters has picked up on the story, tool). This is nothing new, either: price-induced fuel rationing has been…
Recycling Money and the Peddler King.
Shanghaiist makes an interesting proposal for supporting Shanghai’s poorest: Put a small bill in an empty water or pop bottle. Throw it in a public bin. The people who will find the cash are the folk that make a living trawling through garbage- and we bet that even a 5RMB note will make a big…
Scrap Made In China
Of China’s many critical environmental issues, I believe the one that receives the least attention is the one most tangible to the average Chinese: namely, how to throw away and/or recycle all the worn out and broken stuff that Chinese businesses and consumers have been acquiring for the last thirty years. For much of the…