More Anecdotes From China on Plastics, Metalworking, Unused Roads, Vacant Housing

Reader Steve responded to Chinese Architect Comments on "Dark Apartments", Vacancies, Residential Malinvestment with anecdotes of his own on Plastics, Metalworking, Unused Roads, Vacant Housing.

Steve writes .....

Hello Mish

I was in Shanghai for a couple of days last month. This was my first trip to China so I don’t have any history to compare it to.

One day we took the high speed train to Nanjing. It was amazing all of the completely new, pristine roads everywhere between Shanghai and Nanjing. And none of them had a single car on them!

Sometime a road would just stop dead in its tracks and start up a few miles later. Sometimes the train would pass close enough to apartment buildings that you could tell no one was living in them. You could see straight through out the window on the other side.

No clothes drying on a line outside and no air conditioner provided two additional clues the dwellings were vacant.

We publish magazines for discrete parts manufacturing in the U.S. We make money from advertising equipment suppliers. This business is very strong right now in the U.S., but for how long is anyone’s guess.

However, everyone we talked to in China, Korea, and Taiwan said the Chinese market for capital equipment (our focus is metalworking and plastics molding equipment) was slowing down noticeably and they were looking to the U.S. to pick up the slack.

Steve

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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