Factories slash output and jobs around world

January 6th, 2009 at 08:54am Bob Trojan

YeGads!

The news seems to be getting grimmer.  Even in the past few days, I’ve heard of local manufacturers who supply CAT and Deere seeing their 1st quarter orders cancelled and virtually drying up.  Some operations of these two companies are working 8 days in Feb, MAYBE 10 days in March!  Today, Toyota announced production stoppages in their home country.   Here is another snippet….

“BEIJING (Reuters) – Factories in China and India joined much of Europe in slashing output and jobs at a record pace in December, another sign the biggest emerging markets were wilting under the recession gripping industrialized nations.

Factory activity surveys in the United States were also expected to show a steeper contraction in December, as demand collapses in the Western countries that developing nations rely on as export markets.

Economists and policymakers had seen China, Russia, India and Brazil, with their vast markets and rising wealth, as the engines of growth that could save the world from recession. Those hopes are fading fast and forecasts are getting gloomier.

From job losses at Chinese factories to the biggest drop in South Korean house prices in five years, there were signs the export slowdown was rippling through domestic economies in emerging markets.

“What is worrying is that the weakness has spread rapidly from the externally-oriented sectors to domestically oriented sectors too,” analysts at OCBC Bank in Singapore said in a note after the country announced gross domestic product data.”

It looks like it’s time to really buckle down and search for those new markets!

Entry Filed under: Economy