{"id":43714,"date":"2013-11-01T20:18:58","date_gmt":"2013-11-02T00:18:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/forex-news\/?p=43714"},"modified":"2013-11-01T20:18:58","modified_gmt":"2013-11-02T00:18:58","slug":"this-growth-industry-is-the-place-to-be-the-chinese-car-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/2013\/11\/01\/this-growth-industry-is-the-place-to-be-the-chinese-car-market\/","title":{"rendered":"This Growth Industry is the Place to Be: The Chinese Car Market"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By <a href=\"http:\/\/www.MoneyMorning.com.au\" target=\"_blank\"><u>MoneyMorning.com.au<\/u><\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Every now  and again you get a reminder of how stupid and crazy governments are. <strong>China<\/strong> and  Japan had another spat over the disputed Senkaku\/Diaoyu islands in the East  China Sea this week.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>Take the  Japanese government, in this instance. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.moneymorning.com.au\/category\/economy\/japan-economy\" title=\"more on Japan's economy\">Japan<\/a> is into its third &#8216;lost decade&#8217;  since its bubble economy collapsed in 1990. The government has a debt burden of  over 200% of GDP in the face of a rapidly ageing population and a declining  trade balance with the rest of the world. <\/p>\n<p>The currency  has deliberately been debased to drive its value down, hurting the average  citizen, whose costs have gone up. And there is still the cost and burden of  the aftermath of the tsunami. <\/p>\n<p>One of its  few bright spots is its trade surplus with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.moneymorning.com.au\/category\/economy\/china-economy\" title=\"more on China's economy\">China<\/a>. And yet the Japanese government seems prepared to jeopardise this for the sake of these rocks. <\/p>\n<p>Perhaps it&#8217;s  all a ruse to justify the Japanese military build-up. Perhaps it&#8217;s the  lucrative fishing waters. We don&#8217;t know. <\/p>\n<p>But we do  think this dispute could alter the trade flows of a major industry and could  cost Japan and their major automakers an astonishing amount of money. <\/p>\n<p>But that  doesn&#8217;t mean investors here have to miss out on ways to play this lucrative  market&#8230;<\/p>\n<h2>Who Will Triumph in  This Market?<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re  talking about the <strong>Chinese car market<\/strong>. It&#8217;s the biggest on the planet. And the  news should have been good for Japan this week. <\/p>\n<p>Take this  from the <em>Australian:<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8216;<em>Japan&#8217;s biggest car  makers said their production in China surged from a year earlier, when  territorial disputes sparked anti-Japan protests&#8230;this month, the three <\/em>[Toyota,  Nissan, Honda] <em>posted healthy sales data  for September.<\/em>&#8216;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>That was  September. You can imagine a few Japanese auto execs with their head in their  hands if the latest showdown causes anti-Japanese sentiment to rise in China again  and starts showing up in their sales figures. They&#8217;ve spent 12 months and no  doubt millions in marketing to win Chinese consumers back over.<br \/>\n  &nbsp;<br \/>\n  Japanese  carmakers currently have a 15% market share in China. This is still actually  down from last year&#8217;s 18.5%. The competition from South Korea, Germany and  Chinese domestic brands is pretty stiff already. <\/p>\n<p>China&#8217;s a  profitable place to do business too, by the looks of it. <em>The Australian <\/em>reports<strong> Great Wall Motor<\/strong>, a large Chinese SUV maker,  is the most profitable carmaker in the world, with higher operating margins  than Ferrari. &#8216;<em>Great Wall&#8217;s Hong Kong  shares have rallied 93 per cent this year, even as the Hang Send index has  stayed flat.<\/em>&#8216;<\/p>\n<p>But the key  takeaway is this: <\/p>\n<p>&#8216;<em>China&#8217;s car industry has been a bright spot  in an otherwise lagging mainland economy.<\/em>&#8216;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>With rising  incomes, and a staggering amount of money spent upgrading its road  infrastructure over the last decade, a car and a &#8216;road trip&#8217; style holiday is  increasingly accessible to millions of Chinese citizens.&nbsp; A car is an important status symbol in  Chinese society too. <\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a  lucrative market. But there&#8217;s one problem, and it&#8217;s a major one:  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailyreckoning.com.au\/the-investment-hidden-by-layers-of-chinese-air-pollution\/2013\/10\/26\/\" title=\"The Investment Hidden By Layers of Chinese Air Pollution\">pollution<\/a>.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<h2>China&#8217;s Big Problem<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p>  According to  Tom Miller in his book <em>China&#8217;s Urban  Billion<\/em>, &#8216;<em>Fewer than 20% of China&#8217;s  cities meet World Health Organization standards for sulphur dioxide and  nitrogen dioxide levels, and almost none for particulate matter&#8230; China is  already the world&#8217;s biggest greenhouse gas emitter, and emissions will continue  to grow as the country urbanizes.<\/em>&#8216; <\/p>\n<p>And the  Chinese know it. Miller points out that Chinese cities are willing to spend  millions investing in mass transit systems, both subways and above ground to  ease congestion and improve air quality.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>If the  automakers want to hang on to this market, they need to get the emissions down  and their cars as &#8216;green&#8217; as can be. It&#8217;s good news for all of us, actually.  Pollution doesn&#8217;t stop at the border. <\/p>\n<p>As ever,  where you find problems, you find entrepreneurs working on solutions. It can be  a happy hunting ground for investors too. <\/p>\n<p>It sounds  odd, but this is where it becomes a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.moneymorning.com.au\/category\/commodities\/resources-and-mining\" title=\"more on resources\">resource<\/a> story. There&#8217;s more than one way  to play this idea too. Our colleague Byron King over in the US thinks the  demand for platinum and palladium will soar once China mandates that its  millions of diesel engines, which belch out toxic exhaust, be fitted with  catalytic converters.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>You might  member, too, that we reported a few weeks ago how the editors over at <em>Revolutionary Tech Investor <\/em>had  discovered a company <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/pro1.portphillippublishing.com.au\/160135\/\">developing a unique material<\/a> to  bring the weight of cars down, and hence the emissions. <\/p>\n<p>But that  idea hasn&#8217;t made it to the final production line (yet). <\/p>\n<p>But what  about right now? This is where it gets intriguing. Over at <em><a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/pro1.portphillippublishing.com.au\/160151\/\">Australian Small Cap Investigator<\/a><\/em>, Kris Sayce has discovered an innovation  in car manufacturing being used as we speak. He reckons it&#8217;s going to spur a  resurgence for a very specific commodity in Australia. He calls it the &#8216;Wonder  Weld&#8217; and he&#8217;ll show you why later this afternoon. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Callum Newman<a href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/u\/7\/113805451050351871502\/about\">+<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\n    <strong>Editor, <em>Money Weekend <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Special  Report: <a href=\"http:\/\/pro1.portphillippublishing.com.au\/160133\/\">Read This or Retire Poor<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/106516983215198267222\/about\" title=\"Join Money Morning on Google Plus -- and read about the things we can't always fit into our regular essays\"><u>Join Money Morning on Google+ <\/u><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/MoneyMorningAustralia?a=K8_b4pM54OM:gt8F68EGD9Q:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/MoneyMorningAustralia?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/MoneyMorningAustralia?a=K8_b4pM54OM:gt8F68EGD9Q:V_sGLiPBpWU\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/MoneyMorningAustralia?i=K8_b4pM54OM:gt8F68EGD9Q:V_sGLiPBpWU\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/MoneyMorningAustralia?a=K8_b4pM54OM:gt8F68EGD9Q:gIN9vFwOqvQ\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/MoneyMorningAustralia?i=K8_b4pM54OM:gt8F68EGD9Q:gIN9vFwOqvQ\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/MoneyMorningAustralia\/~4\/K8_b4pM54OM\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By MoneyMorning.com.au Every now and again you get a reminder of how stupid and crazy governments are. China and Japan had another spat over the disputed Senkaku\/Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea this week.&nbsp; Take the Japanese government, in this instance. Japan is into its third &#8216;lost decade&#8217; since its bubble economy collapsed in &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/2013\/11\/01\/this-growth-industry-is-the-place-to-be-the-chinese-car-market\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;This Growth Industry is the Place to Be: The Chinese Car Market&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}