China's Factory Production, Exports Surged in July
Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) -- China's industrial production rose by about a sixth in July, as companies such as Kia Motors Corp. and Siemens AG make more cars and cell phones to meet surging demand at home and abroad.
Production, which accounts for about a third of the nation's gross domestic product, rose 16.5 percent from a year earlier to 341 billion yuan ($41.2 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement in Beijing.
Rising production is helping drive growth in the world's sixth-largest economy and creating jobs for some of the eight million Chinese who join the nation's workforce each year. China's economy grew 8.2 percent in the first half of this year, the fastest pace in North Asia.
``Every car maker is expanding in China as the car market grows at an average of 50 percent every month,'' said Gu Qun, who tracks carmakers at Automotive Resources Asia Ltd., an industry consultant, in Shanghai. ``It makes sense for Kia to expand because its existing plant in Yancheng is approaching full capacity.''
South Korea's Kia Motors, an affiliate of Hyundai Motor Co., will invest $600 million with two Chinese companies to build a second car assembly plant in eastern China, said an executive of one of the partners. Kia wants a factory that can produce as many as 400,000 passenger cars a year, said Huang Shi, sales and marketing manager of Dongfeng Yueda Kia Motors Co.
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