Manufacturing

China this week is marking a milestone along the road to its remarkable economic rise: the creation of a special economic zone in the city of Shenzhen 30 years ago. From a small backwater just across the border from Hong Kong, it has become a city of more than 10 million people, a home to many of China’s richest people, and a headquarters for many of the country’s most successful foreign and non-state-owned businesses.

Recently, however, the city has been in the news in connection with a spate of suicides at Taiwan electronics manufacturer Hon Hai Precision, a company better known by its trade name, Foxconn. Reports say the big supplier to companies such as Apple and Nokia has decided to move some manufacturing to other parts of China and reduce its workforce in Shenzhen.

For the nine or 10 people besides me that follow China’s commercial aerospace sector, Reinhardt Krause posted an excellent summary on how China’s plan to build its first big passenger plane promises to reshape its fast-growing aviation market and what’s at stake for suppliers. Here’s my take on how it impacts Boeing and Airbus.

China's State Food and Drug Administration (SDA) has released a set of draft regulations banning the use of food additives in fresh juices.

According to the regulations on the management of fresh juice in catering establishments, which were published on the SDA's website seeking public opinion, fresh juices refer to directly edible beverages that are made of fresh fruits, vegetables, cereals or beans in accordance with food safety requirements.

Further, beverages made from concentrated pulp, vegetables or fruit powders should not be labeled as fresh juices, according to the rules.

Banning the use of recycled food as ingredients, the rules also specify that rotten or musty vegetables and fruits, or those with wormholes, may not be used in the manufacturing of fresh juice.

China's annual production and sales of new autos will both surpass 15 million vehicles this year, Dong Yang, secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufactures, said Wednesday.

Auto sales in China continued to rise in July, though at a slower pace than in previous months. The growth rate slowed from 124 percent in January to 40 percent in April, to 17.18 percent in July.

Rapid growth in auto sales during the first several months of 2010 was due to last year's low comparison base and it was not representative of the true picture in the industry, Dong said at a press conference.