Markets: China

Globalization forces a corporation to look beyond its own national border for finance, technology, raw materials, manufacturing, labor, and marketing. China and India used to have socialist isolationist economies that forbade or discouraged foreign... 

The massive expansion of the Chinese economy has had a profound impact on the production and use of commodity plastics in China. The first is the considerable growth in demand for polymer products which have outstripped local supply and as a consequence China is a major importer. This has had the effect of promoting large export oriented plants in other Asian countries, with large parts of their product slate destined for the Chinese market. China is now second to Japan in the amount of ethylene produced in the Far East. The Chinese nameplate capacity is almost 7 million tonnes/year. 

Along with India, China has been a favorable emerging country for the pharmaceutical industry since its access into the World Trade Organization in 2001. The clear message for the pharmaceutical industry is that companies need to have a strategy that incorporates China as both a market and a supply source. As an emerging market, China offers the following. 

India s rupee is freely floated on world currency markets. China s yuan (renminbi) is tightly controlled by the government and formerly pegged to the U.S. dollar. Recently, there has been some movement to use a variety of currencies to float the yuan, but the movement is miniscule and unpredictable. 

This will push down prices amid rising costs, resulting in increased margin pressure. Until the end of the decade, strong innovation pressure driven by competition with other chemistries will elbow smaller players out of the market. China, in particular, is likely to... 

In recent years, the characteristics of the rare earth market place have become a concern. The United States currently has 13 percent of the world s rare earth reserves and was the largest supplier of rare earth metals from about 1965 until 1985, when China, which owns 48 percent of the world reserves, entered the world market. China now supplies 97 percent of the rare earth needs worldwide. In 2010, China shook up global rare earth markets when it cut off rare earth shipments to Japan for a month because of a diplomatic dispute. The power of one nation to essentially control rare earth availabihty to all other nations is seen by many as a serious issue. 

Anonymous. 1996. A Glimpse at the p-Dichlorobenzene Market. China Chemical Reporter. October 6. Available at http //www.highbeam.com/ doc/lGl-46776079.html (accessed August 19, 2014). 

In 2002, total polycarbonate consumption in consumer product maikets amounted to 497,000 tonnes compared with 358,000 tonnes in 1999. World consumption of polycarbonate in consumer products has increased substantially in recent years, mainly due to growth in the optical data storage market. China and Western Europe have been the fastest growing maikets for optical data storage media since 1999. 

In 2000, China spent US 225 billion importing products from aircraft to food in order to meet the growing demand of its domestic market. China is one of the world s largest importers of chemicals and chemical products. Suppliers from the USA, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and countries of the European Community with saturated demand in their own countries are looking for new markets for their exports. Purchases... 

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