Forklift News - SPECIAL FEATURE (part 2) -- CHINA: MARKET SEES HUGE GROWTH

BEIJING, People's Republic of China -- Latest economic indicators show a boom in China's container handling and transport industries, with the industrial sector posting a pre-tax profit of 85.41 billion yuan (USD10.3 billion) for the first quarter, a 46 per cent increase on the first quarter of 2000.

China's National Bureau of Statistics figures, released on Tuesday, show total sales in the industrial sector, which includes containers handling and transport, rose 16 per cent to 1,925.58 billion yuan (USD232 billion) in January-March, reports the Xinhua News Agency.
China's economy is predicted to grow by 7.3 per cent in 2001 and 7.5 per cent next year, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Tang Min, ADB chief economist, said strong growth in the United States economy had boosted exports from China by 27.8 per cent to USD249 billion in 2000, but this was expected to drop to about 10 to 15 per cent in 2001-2002, as the global economy slowed.

China's industrial exports will gain from the surprise interest rate cut announced this month by the United States Federal Reserve.
"If the US economy can be stimulated by the Federal Government's move, it will benefit Chinese exporters in the long run," Zhang Youwen, an economist at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said.

Chinese material handling corporations are gearing up as container traffic grows. The Chinese Government has approved a 15.6 billion yuan (USD1.9 billion) expansion for the Port of Shenzhen, near Hong Kong.
The program will boost Shenzhen's container handling capacity to 6.5 million TEUs by 2005, and 10 million TEUs by 2010.

Volume at Shenzhen last year reached 3.99 million TEUs, ranking it 10th in the world's container ports, but traffic levels were close to saturation, with facilities operating at 97% capacity.
Meanwhile, Dutch contractors have started work on the expansion of China's busiest port, Shanghai, forecast to cost USD18 million.

The deep-sea project involves a harbour and ancillary facilities built on Big and Little Yangshan Islands, about 35km off the coast, capable of handling the latest generation of container vessels, and with an annual capacity of 20 million TEUs, The Economist said.

The Shanghai Port Authority hopes to complete phase one by 2005, with five berths offering total capacity of 2 million TEUs a year.
Shanghai is China's busiest port, handling a record 200 million tonnes in 2000, including 5 million TEUs, but its berths on the Huangpu and Yangtze Rivers are too shallow for the latest ships.
The seaports of Qinhuangdao, Tianjin and Dalian each handled more than 90 million tonnes of cargo in 2000, says the China Ministry of Communications. If the ports’ capacity continues to increase, each is expected to handle more than 100 million tonnes this year.
Should that occur, China would have six ports capable of handling 100 million tonnes of cargo per year.

Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) says it is steadily increasing its share of the Chinese market. Last year, Hyundai's Heavy Equipment Division increased to 18 per cent of market share.

A Hyundai spokesman said the company aims for 20 per cent by the end of this year. Hyundai entered the market in 1995 through a joint venture, forming the Changzhou-Hyundai Construction & Machinery Company. In its first year, sales reached 1 billion Korean (USD765,697) and, in 1999, sales topped 60 billion Korean (USD45.94 million).
HHI is ranked fourth in China for heavy equipment market share, trailing Japan's Hitachi and Komatsu.

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