Factory growth at 7-month low
THE steady ratcheting-up of monetary tightening had combined with the Lunar New Year holidays to weigh on China s factories in February, even as inflation had continued to accelerate, a survey showed yesterday.
The HSBC flash manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI), making its debut, hit 51.5 in February, down from a final reading of 54.5 a month earlier. The flash PMI, designed to provide an early indication of the final data, which is due a week later, suggested that China s industrial sector was expanding at its slowest pace in seven months.
The sub-indexes measuring input prices and output prices were both on track to accelerate to three-month highs in February, as manufacturers facing rising global commodity costs tried to charge consumers more to recoup their spending.
Foxconn to expand employee-run stores
FOXCONN Technology Group, which manufactures Apple Inc. s iPad, plans to increase staffing at its employee-owned retail outlets by more than 60 percent over the next two months as it expands in China s smaller cities.
Wan Ma Ben Teng, the retailer whose stores are owned and operated by Foxconn employees, seeks to hire more than 400 people, taking the total to about 1,000, Louis Woo, chairman of Taipei-based Foxconn s retail division, said in a phone interview yesterday. Foxconn, which also makes Hewlett-Packard Co. computers, offers training, loans and subsidies for employees to open their own electronics stores. Founder and chairman Terry Gou is looking to Wan Ma Ben Teng, or WMBT, to provide an incentive to workers on its manufacturing line and help clients sell products in China s smaller cities.
China gold demand skyrockets
GOLD is making headway in China as rising inflation and currency appreciation risks make the metal a more attractive alternative for investors, placing the country in a position to challenge India as the world s top gold consumer.
Chinese gold demand nearly tripled in the past 10 years to around 600 tons, a senior World Gold Council official said over the weekend.
