China's faltering luxury-goods market hits local businesses hard

CHEN BINQI grows and sells abalone, a delicious kind of mollusc, in Dongshan, a seaside resort in the southern province of Fujian. He says that from 2010 to 2012 the price never dropped below 50 yuan ($7.78) for 500 grams on tomb-sweeping day, a public holiday and one of the busiest days for tourists. In 2013 it fell to 40 yuan, which meant most breeders were selling below cost. 'Now it's down to 30-something, which is unbearable.'In the neighbouring province of Guangdong, Lin Gongxi has been carving jade for 50 years in Jieyang, China's jade capital. When business was good, he told Southern Metropolis Daily, he used to go to bed at 2am and get up at 6am. Now he often has no work for eight days out of ten. Half the shops at Jieyang's jade-trading centre are empty. Rents have fallen by three-quarters.In Beijing's Panjiayuan market, Wang Lin sells copies of Ming and Qing dynasty carved furniture. Same story. Businesspeople used to order ten-piece suites of office furniture; he sold them as fast as his carpenters could make them, sometimes faster (there was a waiting list). Now, prices have halved and he 'can shift...Continue reading
Click here to read full news..