China car dealers: inventory contagion

Patti Waldmeir

Patti Waldmeir is the FT's Shanghai correspondent. She was previously US Editor in Washington, Lex columnist in London, US legal columnist, South Africa bureau chief during the transition from white to black rule, and deputy features editor.

China car dealers: inventory contagion

May 18, 2012 12:49 pm by Patti Waldmeir

Share this on

Car dealers in any society are pretty much at the bottom of the pile when it comes to public trust. Ironically in China – where consumers are hyper-distrustful of all merchants at the best of times – car dealers have not been around long enough to become the particular object of public disdain they are in the west. They still have that to look forward to.

So there may not be much public sympathy for complaints from auto dealers that they are carrying too much inventory as the Chinese car market pulls out of a traditionally slow first quarter and ramps up for the usually busy spring and summer sales seasons. Continue reading »

Tags: BMW, BYD, Chery, China cars, Ford, Geely, GM, Honda, vehicles Posted in Asia, China | Permalink

Car ownership triples in Shanghai, but what about quality of life?

May 11, 2012 5:59 am by Patti Waldmeir

Share this on

We all know that China is having its Industrial Revolution on steroids: what took other countries 100 or 200 years, takes the Chinese 10 or 20. Society, the environment, human nature are all struggling to keep pace with the fact that China speed is always top speed.

But from time to time, a statistic emerges that really captures the breathtaking haste of it all. On Thursday the Shanghai statistics bureau, for example, released a survey showing that private car ownership more than tripled in central Shanghai over the past five years. Continue reading »

Tags: cars, China car market, China society, vehicles Posted in Asia, China | Permalink

Is Shanghai now a developed market?

May 4, 2012 10:33 am by Patti Waldmeir

Share this on

Beijing hopes that China will one day take its place among the world’s developed nations – but Shanghai has already got there.

Judged by everything from the city’s high prices to its low birth rate and remarkably long life expectancy – a daunting 82.5 years – Shanghai is no third-world country. Continue reading »

Tags: demographics, economy Posted in China | Permalink

Wen t-shirts land Vancl in hot water

April 27, 2012 11:37 am by Patti Waldmeir

Share this on

Spineless flattery of government officials is normally a wise strategy for those wishing to do business in China. But it seems that in these politically sensitive times, even sycophancy has its risks.

An online retailer with the (to the Chinese) unpronouceable name of Vancl may have been trying to appeal to youthful nationalism when it created a high profile T-shirt line featuring the most famous slogans of premier Wen Jiabao. But Beijing commercial officials are now claiming that the shirts may have violated Chinese advertising law, according to state-owned China Daily. Continue reading »

Tags: advertising, retail Posted in Asia, China | Permalink

Dead Brits in China: a historical perspective

April 17, 2012 3:00 am by Patti Waldmeir

Share this on

The saga of Bo Xilai, the disgraced Chinese politician, his wife and her murdered business associate reads like a 19th century novel – or for that matter, like a bit of 19th century history, says UK historian Robert Bickers, an expert on the history of the British empire’s relations with the middle kingdom.

“In many British minds, China equals poison, and China is a source of expert poisoners,” he said in a speech to foreign correspondents in Shanghai on Monday, entitled “Dead Brits in China: Poisons, Other Departures and Responses”. Continue reading »

Tags: Bo Xilai, Neil Heywood Posted in China | Permalink

China: what’s in the dumplings?

April 13, 2012 11:28 am by Patti Waldmeir

Share this on

Just another week in the life of a Chinese housewife: first it was yogurt made from old shoes, then tea tainted with pesticides and now comes news that even the sacred xiaolongbao – small steamed dumplings, the signature dish of Shanghai – may be harbouring dangerous additives. Continue reading »

Tags: China food, China food scares, food & drink Posted in Asia, China | Permalink

China: the next must-have, private jets

March 28, 2012 4:00 am by Patti Waldmeir

Share this on

It will come as no surprise that rich Chinese have developed a taste these days for private jets. It is a short step, in China, from Gucci to Gulfstream: according to a survey of China’s richest people, released by the Hurun report at the Asian Business Aviation Conference Asian Business Aviation Conference in Shanghai, 13 per cent of Chinese with personal assets over Rmb100m plan to buy a corporate jet. Continue reading »

Tags: aviation, Cessna, luxury, private jets, VistaJet Posted in Asia, China | Permalink

Diageo: the long view on baijiu

March 21, 2012 1:34 pm by Patti Waldmeir

Share this on

When it comes to selling things that take years to mature – like premium cognacs or Scotch whiskies – it pays to take the long view. Diageo is taking a very long view on the future of baijiu, otherwise known as Chinese firewater.

As a purveyor of Scottish firewater – also known as Johnnie Walker – Paul Walsh, Diageo’s CEO, says he can foresee a day when Chinese white spirit will have as broad a global footprint as Scotch whisky. To prepare for that day, Diageo said on Tuesday it would shortly launch a mandatory tender offer to spend as much as $1bn buying all remaining shares of Sichuan Shuijingfang, the baijiu company it took control of last year. Continue reading »

Tags: baijiu, Diageo, food & drink Posted in Asia, China | Permalink

China: the saviour of French luxury?

March 16, 2012 1:25 pm by Patti Waldmeir

Share this on

Stanislas de Quercize thinks the world is having a crisis of confidence in its assets – and he is not thinking stock and bonds, but brooches and bracelets. So the company that he heads, the ultra-chic Van Cleef & Arpels of Place Vendome in Paris, is taking 370 pieces from its collection to Shanghai to see whether the Chinese can help out with the problem. Continue reading »

Tags: China-EU, luxury Posted in Asia, China | Permalink

China car sales: down, perhaps

March 9, 2012 11:07 am by Patti Waldmeir

Share this on

Predicting the growth of the Chinese car market is hard at the best of times, even for companies whose corporate lives depend upon it. Car market watchers either underestimate or overestimate sales: so it is always best to take the automotive crystal ball for what it is – a tool of divination more than science. Continue reading »

Tags: China slowdown, vehicles Posted in Asia, China | Permalink

Shanghai netizens to expats: don’t mention the French Concession

February 29, 2012 6:30 am by Patti Waldmeir

Share this on

Scratch any netizen in China and you will find a patriot with an inferiority complex. The chip on China’s shoulder is never hard to find but one recent tale from Shanghai demonstrates the speed at which offence is taken in China – and the ever-present danger of stirring up old anger at China’s colonial humiliation. Continue reading »

Tags: culture, food & drink Posted in Asia, China | Permalink

Step away from the Merc, minister: China to ban foreign cars for official use

February 27, 2012 11:24 am by Patti Waldmeir

Share this on

From the biggest cities to the poorest villages in China, it is never hard to recognise the government official: he is the one in the big black car, swilling Chinese baijiu – sometimes simultaneously. And at the top levels of government, Mercedes seems to be the vehicle of choice for state visits.

But government officials throughout China are feeling pressure to limit what they spend on both driving and drinking: a Shanghai legislator recently proposed a ban on moutai, the most expensive Chinese spirit, at official banquets. And now Beijing has proposed banning the purchase of any car that is foreign, big or extravagant, for official vehicle fleets. Continue reading »

Tags: China politics, vehicles Posted in Asia, China | Permalink

China: wine fans start to go for white

February 16, 2012 3:38 pm by Patti Waldmeir

Share this on

Within three years, greater China will spend more money on still wines than the UK, and become the world’s second biggest wine consumer by value, after the US.

And along the way, the traditional preference for red in China will be accompanied by a growing taste for white wine.

So says Vinexpo, the global wine and spirits exhibition group, which on Thursday in Shanghai spelt out its views of the fast-developing Chinese wine market. Continue reading »

Tags: food & drink Posted in China | Permalink

China: all you need is love – and cash

February 14, 2012 10:04 am by Patti Waldmeir

Share this on

Young urban Chinese are profligate at the best of times, often spending beyond their means in a way that challenges traditional notions of Asian frugality. But when it comes to Valentine’s Day – perhaps the mainland’s most popular Western holiday – they take extravagance to heights worthy of the most debt-laden Westerner. Continue reading »

Tags: consumption Posted in Asia, China | Permalink

The underbelly of Chinese New Year

February 3, 2012 2:31 pm by Patti Waldmeir

Share this on

It will come as no surprise that last week’s Chinese New Year holiday was a good one for luxury goods retailers worldwide, with Chinese spending $7.2bn overseas on their much-loved luxe (up 28.6 per cent from the holiday week in 2011, according to Chinese newspapers). Within China, retail sales were up 16 per cent from last year, to Rmb470bn.

But the Chinese press, which spent much of the past week dissecting various behaviours relating to the lunar new year holiday, found that all was not bling in the spring festival sales: this year there was a tendency to rent rather than buy cars; to travel rather than buy property – and, for that matter, to travel rather than buy a refrigerator. Continue reading »

Tags: food & drink, health, luxury Posted in Asia, China | Permalink

Older entries

beyondbrics

Patti Waldmeir