Word: glutting
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COVER: THE CHINA GLUT A6 Are the country's white-hot factories producing too many goods? How will that affect the rest of the world...
...recipe for glut that could reverberate around the globe, and not just in cars. From microwaves to T shirts to sheet steel, China is building up excess capacity at a breakneck pace. The country's economy grew 9.1% last year and attracted $53 billion in foreign investment, second only to the U.S. economy. The emerging middle class pushed retail sales up 9% in 2003, but industrial output shot up 17%. Economists warn of a crash waiting to happen: if too many factories make too many goods chasing too few buyers, the results are likely to be deflation, widespread business failures...
...point of view, it's paradise, but it's a total disaster for manufacturers," says Peter Schmidt, publisher of an auto insiders' newsletter. He says a list of rebates and discounts now being offered would "be as long as your arm." Compounding the automaker's woes is a glut of new models set to be launched this year, including a four-seater Smart and a new BMW 1 Series. One early victim: Michael J. Burns, 51, the head of GM's loss-making European operations, who quit last week to take a job at a partsmaker...
...cruise business has been experiencing choppy waters over the past few years. U.S. cruise lines have launched 50 new ships since 2000, with 12 more scheduled to be completed this year. The resulting glut in a time of recession has forced operators to slash prices to fill berths. Add in the facts that the QM2 is making her maiden voyage at a time when terrorists can punch a hole in a U.S. destroyer with a rubber raft full of explosives (as they did to the U.S.S. Cole in 2000), Americans are still skittish about foreign travel, and a traveler...
That lone dairy cow that fell ill now puts those gains at risk. Wholesale prices have already fallen 15% owing to fears that the decimated export market--about 10% of beef sales--will lead to a glut. But even as a third herd in Washington State was quarantined last week for possible mad-cow disease, beef emporiums like McDonald's and Morton's said sales were holding...