Tag: Factories and Manufacturing

China’s Export Boom Rolls On Despite Trade Backlash

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Another month, another trade surplus of more than $100 billion for China. Even as countries around the world move to curb the flood of Chinese goods, China’s export machine continues to steam ahead. The country posted a trade surplus of $112.5 billion in July, according to data released Friday by the General Administration of Customs. It was the third straight month in which China’s exports exceeded its imports by more than $100 billion — a staggering sum that puts the country on pace to surpass last year’s record $1.19 trillion…

The German Auto Industry, a Pillar of the National Psyche, Is Trembling

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The centerpiece of Mercedes-Benz’s 140th birthday party in January was a patent application filed in 1886 by an engineer named Carl Benz for a “vehicle with gas engine.” The way Mercedes executives spoke of the handwritten document, which at one point was projected on a large wall on the company campus in Stuttgart, Germany, it might have been a sacred parchment. It not only certifies that Germany is the birthplace of the automobile but also helps explain why the woes of the country’s automakers — Volkswagen, Mercedes and BMW —…

China, Its Economy Stumbling, Signals Only Cautious Support

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Faced with weak consumer spending, persistently high youth unemployment and a tumbling stock market, China’s ruling Politburo signaled the need for stronger fiscal support and directed authorities to do more to tackle joblessness. In a broadly worded statement issued on Thursday after its annual midyear review of the economy, China’s Communist Party leadership urged the government to pursue “more proactive” tax and spending policies, and increase employment support. Politburo statements rarely detail specific policy measures, instead setting the broad direction for government action. Even by those standards, however, the statement…

‘They Don’t Need People’: The Workers Left Behind by China’s Robot Drive

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The park was in the center of China’s richest county. Willow trees clustered around a well-manicured pond. Joggers in performance gear circled shiny new playgrounds filled with children. But in a quieter part of the park, Hu Xinbing was resting after another day of trying, unsuccessfully, to win his share of the local prosperity. After failing to find a job that morning, Mr. Hu, 31, lay behind some bushes, using a windbreaker as a pillow, and waited until he could try again the next day. Around him, about a dozen…

How Volkswagen’s Troubles Were Made in China

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Volkswagen has problems around the world, spurring it to announce on Thursday that it would slash the number of models it offers by as much as half, but many of its troubles can be traced to China. The German auto giant, the world’s second-largest carmaker after Toyota, led the pack in China, the world’s largest car market, for four decades. For many years, the company’s joint ventures and factories in China provided half or more of the company’s worldwide profits, which helped Volkswagen afford high salaries and generous benefits for…

As Chinese Tech Pulls Ahead, U.S. Fears It Will Become Dependent

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At a factory in southeastern China, robot arms spin balletically, winding long strips of metal into rolls and shaping them into bricks that are destined to become batteries. As workers in white coveralls watch, the nascent batteries are packaged into aluminum cases and, as workers put it, “given life” — endowed with an electrical charge that will eventually power cars and data centers across the world. The site, owned by Contemporary Amperex Technology Company Ltd., or CATL, is the world’s largest cluster of battery factories, and the most advanced. Inside…

Why It’s Nearly Impossible to Build a Robot Without China

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Japan led the world in robotics for decades. More than 50 years ago, Japanese researchers captured imaginations with the first robot capable of grasping objects and walking on two legs. In 1984, a team in Japan built one that could read sheet music and play the piano. When Honda unveiled its first humanoid in 2000, it seemed to cement the country’s lead. But now, just as tech investors, start-up founders and government officials around the world are betting that artificial intelligence will spur growth for robots, that lead no longer…

Videos Show Chinese Businesses Hawking North Korean Labor

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Quick deliveries of large orders for stuffed toys, fake eyelashes and crocheted bags that are made with cheap labor, including some workers who are on the job for 16 hours straight. This is the pitch some Chinese businesses are making on social media to potential customers. But the products they are selling are made in North Korea, like in this video of a wig factory. In the posts, which have proliferated in recent years, some Chinese entrepreneurs say that they own factories in North Korea and openly share contact information,…

Europe Is Edging Closer to a Trade War With China. Here’s Why.

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Kaja Kallas, the top European Union diplomat, recently suggested that ending the continent’s dependence on China was like trying to cure a disease. “Chemotherapy” might be needed, she said, and it was likely to be painful. The comments were an example of the tone Europe is increasingly taking on China, the second-largest goods trading partner for the 27-nation European Union, after the United States. As Beijing adopts more aggressive trade policies and as imports from China into Europe soar, European leaders and companies are fretting over their reliance on Chinese…

In Hungary, Voters Exposed the Limits of China’s Ties to Orban

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The gigantic Chinese lithium battery factory under construction for three years on the edge of Hungary’s second biggest city hasn’t started production yet. But it has already contributed to a political earthquake. As the biggest Chinese investment in Europe, the $8.5 billion project in the eastern city of Debrecen had been hailed by Hungary’s outgoing prime minister, Viktor Orban, as proof of the economic benefits of his close relations with China. Instead, the factory helped bring about his downfall. In the April 12 election, Mr. Orban’s Fidesz party lost all…