BizChina

General Motors Co's China sales rose to a record in March, surpassing its US deliveries for a third straight month and cementing the country's importance as the world's largest auto market.

GM, the biggest foreign automaker in China, boosted sales 68 percent to 230,048 vehicles last month, it said in a statement on Friday. That compares with a 33 percent gain for Japan's Toyota Motor Corp and a 47 percent jump by South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co. GM raised US sales 21 percent in March to 188,546.

Detroit-based GM aims to increase its China sales to 2 million vehicles this year from 1.83 million in 2009, when government subsidies helped boost the nation's auto demand 46 percent from a year earlier, surpassing the US for the first time. Industrywide sales growth in China is forecast to slow this year, even as carmakers raise production capacity.

In 2006, things were going well for Dustin Price. The then 27-year-old American had a steady job with a construction company, a wife, a home and a Ford F250 truck.

Then one day he stumbled across a website offering a teaching job in China, a position he admits he had never even considered before.

He decided to sell his house, his truck, and leave his job to come work in China.

"I wanted to experience another culture, to see another place. It wasn't necessarily in my life plan, but I decided to go for it," Price said. "All of our friends thought we were crazy."

The decision, though made for non-financial reasons, allowed Price to narrowly escape unemployment. Shortly after his departure the financial crisis struck the United States and soon all his former colleagues were out of jobs.

Staying more than a year wasn't part of the original plan, but Price and his wife have been happily working here for almost three years now.

After working as an English professor for two years in Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui autonomous region, Price decided to apply for a position at Renmin University, and secured the job. He said part of the reason he's made the decision to stay working in China is because he has been able to advance so quickly in his career.

He recognizes that there are many English teaching jobs available to expatriates who are not qualified, but says few allow for the type of advancement he has experienced.

Sugar output would drop by 530,000 tonnes to 1.7 million tonnes in Yunnan, China's second largest sugar producing area, said Deng Yi, president of the provincial sugar industry association.

The forecasted slump had pushed sugar prices to 5,200 yuan (761.8 U.S. dollars) per tonne, the highest in years, Jia said.

The rocketing prices would lead to excessive fluctuations in cane and sugar production, which was harmful to the long-term sustainable development of the industry, said Nong Guang, president of Guangxi's sugar industry association.

Zhejiang Furun Co. Ltd, a silk spinning and weaving company based in east China's Zhejiang Province, said Tuesday its 2009 profit jumped over 900 percent on a used army uniform recycling project and a machinery upgrade.

Total profit in 2009 soared 909.1 percent year on year to hit 68 million yuan (10 million U.S. dollars), according to a statement filed at the Shanghai Stock Exchange.