Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Nov 10, 2011 (cover date)

choi

(1) Cover story:

Elizabeth Dwoskin, Why Americans Won't Do Dirty Jobs; In the wake of an immigrant exodus, Alabama has jobs. Trouble is, Americans don't want them. (slide show)
http://www.businessweek.com/maga ... channel_top+stories
(a processing plant in impoverished Uniontown, Ala has had trouble finding Americans willing to grab a knife and stand 10 or more hours a day in a cold, wet room for minimum wage and skimpy benefits--skinning, gutting, and cutting up catfish)

My comment: Please at least view the slide show. There is no need to read the text.

(2) Manuel Baigorri, Europe's Small Businesses Seek Exports—Fast; Small-to-midsize enterprises struggle with high costs and little domestic demand.
http://www.businessweek.com/maga ... +-+global+economics

Quote:

"These costs leave their largely low-tech products—including furniture, bricks, piping, and other construction equipment—ill-prepared for global competition. * * * High labor costs and low productivity are the twin evils besetting many small companies based in peripheral countries, says Gerhard Huemer, director of economic and fiscal policy at the European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises.

Pedro Fernández, chairman of Spanish construction equipment company General de Alquiler de Maquinaria, says, "In Latin America, as a whole, you think because they speak Spanish that doing business is easy, but that’s not true because they are very different from us.

(3) Bruce Einhorn, Daryl Loo and Natasha Khan, Bashing Big Pharma in China; Officials across the country are seeking to rein in drugmakers’ profits.
http://www.businessweek.com/maga ... +-+global+economics
("Western pharmaceutical companies have been building their businesses in China as sales of prescription medications have more than doubled since 2006, to $41 billion, making the mainland the world’s No. 3 drug market behind the US and Japan, according to researcher IMS Health")

Note:
(a) Zhejiang Tianyuan Bio-Pharmaceutical Co Ltd  浙江天元生物药业有限公司
www.ty-pharm.com
(b) For BMP Sunstone Corp (CEO David Gao), see Beijing Med-Pharm
http://www.medpharm.com.cn/
("北京美华美咨询有限公司（以下称'美华美'）是美国BMP太阳石公司中国的全资子公司")
(c) Yong Yu 永裕医药中国

(4) Stanley Reed and Thomas Biesheuvel, Lakshmi Mittal, the King of Steel, Trips Up; ArcelorMittal, his steel colossus, is burdened by overcapacity and debt. BusinessWeek, Nov 10, 2011
http://www.businessweek.com/maga ... 26amp%3b+industries

Quote:

"The company also has to contend with a steel glut: Chinese mills have more than doubled production since 2005 to a projected 733 million metric tons this year, according to U.K. steel consultant MEPS. ArcelorMittal has trimmed back output some 20 percent from the 116 million metric tons it produced in 2007. Its share of the global market has fallen from 9.5 percent in 2006 to 6.4 percent in 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

"An anemic economy is exposing the weak links in Mittal’s empire. The plants acquired through the merger with Arcelor are concentrated in Western Europe

On the consumption side: "Mittal can’t count on demand from the so-called BRIC countries to offset weakness in Europe and North America. * * * Nor does he see an opportunity to expand in China, where the company has two joint ventures. Chinese producers, he warns, which make about half the world’s steel, can 'export what they don’t sell [at home] at any price. They will always be a threat.'

Note:
(a) Lakshmi Mittal (born in 1950 in India; started his career working in the family's steel making business in India; the richest man in India, Asia and UK, and second in Europe and is presently the sixth richest individual in the world with a personal wealth of US$31.1 billion [according to Forbes 2011]; Residence  London; Citizenship  India)  Wikipedia

* Lakshmi is a Hindu goddess--yes, goddess.
(b) ArcelorMittal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArcelorMittal
(headquartered in Luxembourg; formed in 2006 by the merger of Arcelor and Mittal Steel; ranks 99th on the 2010 Fortune Global 500 list)

Prior to the merger, Arcelor had been world's largest st4el producer--itself the product of a 2002 merger of Arbed (Luxembourg), Aceralia (Spain) and Usinor (France).


(5) Michael Wei, In China, Barbie's Reign May Be Short-Lived; Export manufacturers make a play for kids on the mainland.
http://www.businessweek.com/maga ... 26amp%3b+industries

"At around 30 billion yuan ($4.5 billion), China’s toy market is still miniature compared with that of the US, at $21.9 billion, according to market researcher NPD Group. * * * In contrast, international demand for China-made playthings grew just 8.9 percent in the first nine months of the year, lagging the 23 percent growth in total China exports. 'Chinese toy exporters are coming to a turning point,' says Hua Zhongwei, an analyst with Huachuang Securities in Beijing.

"'Barbies aren’t cheap, but local brands are also catching up in terms of price [due to rising labor cost etc],' says the child’s mother, Yang Yuan
Note:
(a) trashy (adj): "being, resembling, or containing trash : of inferior quality"
(b) Huachuang Securities  华创证券
www.hczq.com
(c)  Euland Industrial Co Ltd (headoffice in Guangzhou, since 1999)
http://www.eulandsports.com/
(d) foosball
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foosball
(The name foosball is a loose transliteration of the German word "Fußball", which itself means simply football; first invented by [Englishman] Harold Searles Thornton in 1921)
(e)  Ningbo Shenma Group  宁波神马儿童用品有限公司 or 宁波神马集团有限公司
www.cnsm.cn
(f) China Resources Enterprise Ltd  華潤創業有限公司
www.cre.com.hk
(g) Nextage Department Store  上海第一八佰伴
(h) The report mentions "Guangzhou-based Star-Moon Toys." But the company indicates it is Hong Kong-based:

Star-Moon Toys (HK) Co Ltd  星月玩具(香港)有限公司