via yuantalks:
Evergrande Group, one of China’s largest property developers, is trying hard to drive home sales after the company’s contracted homes sales tumbled in January as the housing market in the world’s second largest economy continues a cooling trend in the new year.
OH: Chinese Auto Market Not As Hot As Everyone Thought.
Despite amassing a network of factories that could theoretically outproduce the rest of the world, the Asian country’s automotive sector only operates at about half its total capacity. That’s disconcerting. Even Europe, site of some serious industrial headwinds of its own, manages to operate around 70 percent capacity.
While the reasons for China’s woes are ludicrously complicated, one of the most pressing issues is that its economy is slowing much earlier than anticipated. Automakers, both foreign and domestic, almost universally believed that The People’s Republic would surpass the United States as the world’s largest automotive market — and they were right. But investments kept pouring in, factories were built, and the market started to cool prematurely. The situation only grew worse as incentives dried up and people began buying fewer cars; now, 2019 is shaping up to be a very bad year for the nation’s automotive sector.
Voters in free countries get a chance to throw the bastards out during a downturn. I wonder how the Chinese will vent their frustrations.