Nantou Town Dragon Boat Race

September 25th, 2010

Just attended the Nantou Town, Zhonghshan City annual Dragon Boat Festival as a guest of our local party secretary and what a fantastic sight it was.

Over 130 dragon boats set off in what is a mad dash for the first bend. Countless capsize in the melee and one or two of the more practised teams begin to pull away. The course is around 3 miles long and circles an island on one of the tributaries to the Pearl River delta. The race is 3 hours long. After the first lap 3 teams are beginning to pull away with boat number 98, which is crewed by a local team headed by the builder who actually built my factory, coming past in second. After the next lap 98 is leading the way and maintains this position right through to the end. To see the strength, stamina and sheer determination of the leading competitors was literally awe inspiring, especially as this was in 38’C heat.

The winners were rewarded with a large red pocket and all competitors enjoyed an all you can eat hog roast. Over 85,000 people attended the event and from what I could see enjoyed the day. The local government are the organiser and overall sponsor of the event but local business’s provide support sponsorship and exhibit the products in a commercial area where guests are invited to sample some of the local produce.

A good get together, a good atmosphere and a good result for all involved. Well Done.

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The Chinese Yuan will weaken.

November 7th, 2008


The Chinese Yuan has strengthened against almost every Worldwide currency over the last 12 Months. Much of this increase is tied to the strengthening of the US Dollar and the fact that the RMB is loosely linked to it, but also the increase is due to the past and expected future growth of the Chinese economy.

There have been huge inflows of investment and cash into China and its economy over the last year to such an extent that the government had to put in place almost emergency measures to curb and control this inflow. Well the tide has now turned whilst no-one would describe the situation as an exodus there most certainly is an air of apprehension over current investments which I feel is likely to escalate.

Over recent years the Chinese have not suffered any loss of confidence in their economy and with double digit growth everyone has enjoyed a fairly profitable period. However, what will be interesting is how the Chinese react to the current situation, to reduced growth , massive redundancies and a general weakening of previously strong indicators. Chinese are very superstitious and extremely susceptible to emotion and as soon as they began to experience a drop in confidence we may see a run like nothing we have experienced in the West. We may well see an exodus.

My money is on a weakening Yuan over the next 12 months.

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The Impact of the Massive drop in China Shipping Rates.

November 5th, 2008


The shipping freight rate from China on most routes into the West have at least halved over the last few weeks. Will it last and if so for how long?

The reason for the drop is threefold.

Primarily, the amount of goods being shipped from China has dropped dramatically over recent months and as with any supply and demand relationship the less demand the lower the price. This demand is not likely to increase for quite some time and may in fact reduce yet more.

Secondly, the impact of the supply and demand effect has to some degree being reduced in the past by the ‘cartel’ or ‘conference’ of freight providers who agreed, controlled and set prices. This cartel has now broken up and now as in almost every other business in the world people are fighting for the work. Again this is not likely to change any time soon.

Finally and fairly obviously, Oil prices have halved and the beneficial impact on shipping costs is huge. It is not suggested by pundits that the price of oil will return to the dizzying heights of a few months ago therefore once again no change likely here.

In summary, I see no reason why shipping rates will change significantly any time soon.

This is extremely good news for anyone importing bulky products from China and will go some way towards alleviating the damaging currency conditions. The Chinese Government have also acted swiftly to increase tax rebates from 5% to 13% on some household furniture items. Suddenly, products that may not have being economically viable to import due to their bulk in the past are viable now.

Expect to see lots of Chinese manufactured cheap, bulky, household furniture products in the shops any time soon.

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