China

[pipme]

Enter the Dragon ---

....... steel exports nearly quintupling in the first two months of this year compared with a year ago.....
....Chinese exports rose by 42 percent to Britain, 44 percent to Germany, 59 percent to Canada and Italy and 75 percent to Spain and Indonesia....
.... So much freight is leaving Chinese ports that exporters struggle to find ships and steel containers to carry it all.
"Container rates are going through the roof, and you can't find containers these days," said Harry Banga, the vice chairman of the Noble Group, a Hong Kong-based shipping and commodities company. ....
.....Over all, China remained a net importer of steel, but by a shrinking margin. Steel imports fell 11.3 percent, to $3.82 billion, while exports rose 389 percent, to $2.62 billion
[/b]

The problems arise when the inevitable happens :-

...China's currency policies have increasingly angered Washington, where the Senate is considering a bill to impose a 27.5 percent tariff on Chinese goods unless China revalues the yuan, currently pegged at 8.28 to the dollar, within six months. While the bill is not expected to become law - the Bush administration is strongly opposed - consideration of the proposal shows growing attention in Congress to the trade relationship. ...

One may consider this a warning shot across yer junk

 

[Sparky Jim]

I notice the Yanks don't like such trade gaps when it benefits someone else, yet they are happy to exploit them when it benefits them, hypocrits.

 

[jasy]

Vote Labour and inrease their exports!!

 

[david and julie]

Can't see why you are all concerned about China. As we have been told, countless times over the last few weeks on here,we are members of the EU, we will be a superpower and China won't matter. We will be the worlds No 1 economy and power, so can tell them what to do anyway.
The far east, the US or even the rest of the world, mean nothing when you have the power of the EU, so stop worrying about nothing.

 

[pipme]

Yeah right !! Upmteen EU nations all pulling in different directions with the usual few wanting to be leaders of the disUnited States of Europe .. whilst lining their pockets ... taking on a far eastern nation of repressed traders, ready to graft / go for it !!
just look around your area, see many Chinese wasters 'hanging out man' ? I think not, more likely grafting at the restaurant, takeaway, local Mercedes dealer and finally the casino .... We can see what we'll be up against ... They are inveterate business people..
P

 

[Big_Spark]

Can't see why you are all concerned about China. As we have been told, countless times over the last few weeks on here,we are members of the EU, we will be a superpower and China won't matter. We will be the worlds No 1 economy and power, so can tell them what to do anyway.
The far east, the US or even the rest of the world, mean nothing when you have the power of the EU, so stop worrying about nothing.

Do see a hint of Sarcasm there

If the EU worked as it could, then to a limited degree I would agree, but is doesn't at the moment.

The Americans are always trying to screw people, so it is no surprise that they are trying it on with the Chinese, will they succeed? probably not in the way they are trying, I dare say that some compromise solution will be agreed by both sides so the Bush Admin can look good to the American people abd his big business backers, but the Chinese are'nt ****ed off to the point where relations between the two deteriotate further

 

[pipme]

Int Herald Tribune

..While China has run trade surpluses with the United States for years, it ran a $10.9 billion trade surplus with the entire world in the first two months of this year, compared with a $7.9 billion deficit a year ago...
..Copper prices hit a record $1.785 per pound on Thursday in Shanghai on signs of shortages in China, but those shortages have not prevented Chinese companies like Ningbo Jiekelong Valves Manufacturing from rapidly stepping up exports of copper bathroom pipes. David Chen, the company's export manager, said that he planned to travel next month to the United States to drum up even more business, saying that his company was still able to undercut American rivals.
Germany, which has benefited for years by selling heavy machinery and manufacturing equipment to China, saw a trade surplus of $1.24 billion with China in January and February of last year turn into a deficit of $316 million in the first two months of this year. Italy ran a $181 million trade deficit with China in January and February of 2003 that widened to $256 million in the first two months of last year and to $812 million in January and February of this year.
Computers, clothing and office furniture are now flowing from China to Germany and Italy in ever growing quantities. So are Chinese exports of synthetic dyes to the Netherlands and railroad locomotive parts to Canada, both of which have more than doubled. "January and February were pretty busy," said Li Na, who works in the international sales department at Landbond Furniture, a large furniture company based in Guangdong Province that ships mainly to Europe and the United States. "The exports for those months increased between 20 and 30 percent."
But economists say this is not just the effect of the weaker dollar. Much of the export growth, they say, is actually coming from multinational corporations that have set up manufacturing operating along the east coast of China.
"A lot of this is the cumulative effect of foreign multinationals building up their Chinese production facilities," said Stephen Roach, the chief economist at Morgan Stanley. "After years of investment, it's all coming together big time."
See more of the world that matters - click here for home delivery of the International Herald Tribune.
If the trend of the first two months of the year continues, China could run a trade surplus with not only the United States, which it has for many years. It could also turn its deficit with the rest of the world into a surplus. This could lead some of China's important trading partners in Europe to join the United States in stronger calls for trade restrictions on China.
While toys, clothing, furniture and television sets from China have dominated the shelves of American retailers for years, these and newer products like portable electric lamps and even radio navigation equipment are now being shipped in growing quantities to countries ranging from Britain and Spain to Brazil and Indonesia, according to recently released trade data.
At the same time, China is entering global markets in which it previously played a small role. It is becoming a large exporter of industrial commodities like steel and chemicals, with steel exports nearly quintupling in the first two months of this year compared with a year ago. China is also importing fewer cars and less heavy machinery as Chinese companies and multinationals manufacture more of these in China, and make plans to export more cars and machinery.

Better start sorting out our prospective caves --

 

[Freddie]

Well i will give you some facts and something to think about.

Europe EU countries except for Britain is very poor in natural resources, one reason why France has loads of nucleur power stations.

America and Canada and also the South Americas are abundant in natural resources, infact America produces almost all of its own oil needs regardless of the myth about oil.

China has its own natural resoures but drastically needs more oil and fuel, infact they are drilling everywhere but as yet nothing worth mentioning.

So there is a scramble for oil and China and its booming cheap economy can pay for it pushing the price up, who suffers the tired worn out old EU countries who are forced to pay more for something which is the fuel of their economy.

America doesnt suffer, neither really does the rest of the world, but the over populated car dependant old EU lumbers along.

The recent greenhouse emissions agreement so much championed by the EU as a flagship way of saving the planet is totally redundant but they haven realised it yet, because of China who is about to be joint or the biggest producer of greenhouse gass's.

All in all China has showed that the EU is a lumbering out of date dinosaur in chronic trouble and as China grows the EU is in danger of being extinct because its unable to keep up.