(Reuters) – United States Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has said U.S. companies have raised concerns that China has become “uninvestible”, pointing to fines, raids and other actions that have made it too risky to do business in the world’s second-largest economy.
Major global firms ranging from banks to chipmakers are taking a largely cautious stance on their China business amid a frail recovery of the country’s economy from a pandemic slowdown.
Following are comments from some of the top firms on their China business during the latest reporting season:
ABB The engineering firm witnessed fewer new orders
from China in the quarter and said some customers
were shifting investments to other parts of Asia
due to geopolitical tensions.
3M Co The industrial conglomerate flagged continued
weak appetite for consumer electronics demand in
China.
AbbVie Inc The Botox maker said it has seen rates for
aesthetics treatments in China fully recover to
pre-COVID levels and continues to anticipate
strong growth through the rest of the year in the
country.
Anglo The global miner said it has been surprised by
American how slow the reopening of China has been but
believed a recovery was underway.
Apple The company said its iPhone sales in China grew
by “double digits” and that sales were also high
in other segments.
BHP Group The world’s biggest miner saw strong steel demand
from some sectors in China, but said it was too
early to assess the impact of Beijing’s policy
measures on the housing market.
Citigroup The lender called it the “biggest disappointment”
as growth decelerated after an initial
post-reopening pop.
Coca-Cola The company saw strong demand for some juice
business in China but also flagged destocking
activity in the second quarter.
Dow Inc The chemical maker said the anticipated rebound
following the end of pandemic curbs has yet to
fully materialize.
Estee Lauder The luxury firm forecast a weak annual profit,
owing to a slower-than-expected rebound in Asia
travel retail business.
Haleon The Sensodyne maker said sales from Fenbid pain
reliever gel doubled in China in the first half.
The company
Hormel Foods said
sales remained soft in China as
consumer demand slowed considerably and the
commodity environment is expected to remain
unfavorable due to higher inventories.
HP Inc “We don’t see it (demand recovery in China)
happening anywhere near anytime soon. And at this
point, we’re not building that recovery in any of
our plans,” CEO Enrique Lores said.
Intel “The China market, I think, has been well
reported, hasn’t come back as strongly as people
would have expected overall,” chipmaker Intel CEO
Pat Gelsinger said.
L’Oreal The Chinese market is “really picking up,”
although “not at the speed everybody had hoped
for,” L’Oreal CEO Nicolas Hieronimus told
Reuters.
LG Energy The company warned it faces weaker EV demand in
Solution China than previously expected.
LVMH The French luxury giant logged a strong rebound
in China during the second quarter.
Marriott The U.S. hotel operator said rebounding demand in
International China boosted its earnings.
Mastercard Inbound cross-border travel to China stood at
nearly 50% of 2019 levels, while outbound travel
was nearly 70%, the company said.
Merck & Co The drugmaker said use of Gardasil in China was
the biggest growth driver for the human
papillomavirus vaccine.
Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida said China sales outlook for
the automaker was now falling far below
production capacity.
NXP The chipmaker said China’s export curbs on
Semiconductor certain gallium and germanium products did not
s impact the company.
Panasonic The battery supplier said it saw no sign of a
full-fledged recovery in the factory automation
sector in China, and that it would take more time
for areas such as servers, data centres and ICT
to recover overall.
Procter & The Tide detergent maker reported a 1% drop in
Gamble its fourth-quarter volumes, mainly due to weaker
demand in the Greater China region.
Rio Tinto The world’s biggest iron ore producer struck a
cautiously optimistic tone on China as the
government has pledged more policies to boost
growth.
Royal Bank of Canada’s largest bank forecast slowing growth,
Canada partly due to a slowdown in China and elevated
climate and geopolitical risks.
Starbucks The coffeehouse chain saw a sharp recovery in
China, with third-quarter comparable sales
surging 46%.
Tapestry Coach handbags maker said it expects to benefit
from a recovery in demand from the “highly
profitable region” of China this fiscal year.
Thermo Fisher The company witnessed significantly slower
Scientific economic activity in China during the second
quarter. “We think it’s appropriate to assume
that this condition remains in place for the
remainder of the year,” said CFO Stephen
Williamson.
Toyota The automaker said foreign exchange rate
fluctuations and its response to price cuts in
China hurt its results there.
Visa “Looking at Mainland China specifically,
cross-border travel continued to improve but
remains well below 2019 levels,” CFO Vasant
Prabhu said.
Volkswagen The German carmaker cut its full-year sales
target after sales dipped in China, its top
market.
(Compiled by Savyata Mishra, Arunima Kumar, Niket Nishant, Granth Vanaik, Aditya Soni, Bhanvi Satija, Jaspreet Singh and Nathan Gomes; Edited by Shinjini Ganguli, Krishna Chandra Eluri and Shounak Dasgupta)
