A visitor takes a photo of an Audi Q3 40 car with a Turbo Fuel Stratified Injection engine at Auto China 2012 in Beijing last week.
A visitor takes a photo of an Audi Q3 40 car with a Turbo Fuel Stratified Injection engine at Auto China 2012 in Beijing last week.

Chinese love fancy cars, but most can't afford one



BEIJING // Anyone who doubts China has become the centre of the global car industry should visit this year's motor show in Beijing.

The crush of visitors, evident even on the new subway line leading to the China International Exhibition Centre in Beijing, seems to demonstrate the country is caught up in a frenzy for motoring never seen before.

China overtook the United States to be the world's largest market for vehicle sales in 2009, when 13.5 million cars and trucks rolled off the country's dealership forecourts.

Last year the number was a record 18.5 million and analysts expect the 2012 figure to be about 10 per cent higher.

The crowds at the 2012 China Auto Show, who pack the aisles and click cameras with 30cm-long lenses, displayed particular enthusiasm for luxurious German brands like Audi and Mercedes that have seen sales in China rocket on the back of heavy economic growth.

Audi had one of the most dramatic displays at the show, which continues until Wednesday, offering a catwalk parade of young models who strut up and down beside the cars amid pounding techno music.

Yet many among the hordes enjoying the spectacle have an enthusiasm for things four-wheeled that exceeds their prospects for owning a car of their own.

China may be the world's largest car market, but on a per-capita basis sales continue to trail those in developed countries.

Just one person out of 93 in China bought a new car last year. In the US, the figure was about one in 24.

For the average young graduate, a car is simply too expensive. The average annual starting salary for graduates in top-paying industries such as finance is 30,240 yuan (Dh17,620), about one-tenth the figure for the US, $48,661 (Dh178,727).

Zhou Yau, 28, from north-east China, works in the car industry as an engineer, but he does not expect to be able to afford a car - new or used - for another five years.

"I would like to have a car, but as a young man, the first plan is a house ... later I will buy a car," he said at the show.

"But even if I don't have a car I enjoy seeing the cars."

Although a car remains out of reach for many, the industry has nonetheless "exploded" in China, said Yingjie Li, 32, another engineer at the event.

"Many people are rich, so they want to buy a new car," said Mr Yingjie, who lives in Beijing. "I think more and more people want a car of their own because their relatives have bought a car.

"They have a certain kind of thinking that if you don't have a car you will lose face."

China's own luxury car makers are also showing off their models at the event, targeting the country's nouveau riche, although their selection demonstrates an inequality that mirrors that seen in China as a whole.

The FAW-Hongqi CA7600, a modified version of which carried the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, during the October 2009 celebrations to mark 60 years of Communist Party rule, was displayed in all its 5 million yuan glory, spinning on a platform and adorned with male and female models. It might suit one of China's billionaires, numbers of whom doubled in just 12 months, reaching 271 in 2010, according to the Hurun rich list.

Next door, First Automobile Works has its more modest V5 saloon displayed for 59,900 yuan, less than 1.2 per cent the price of Mr Hu's motoring behemoth.

While the CA7600 is comfortably out of his reach, Song Dan, 30, who lives in Beijing and works in finance, is visiting the motor show to find a car that will let him upgrade from his four-year-old Toyota and five-year-old Honda. He admits peer pressure is partly behind his decision to buy a new car.

"I just got my bonus at the beginning of the year. For myself, I think I don't need to change my car, but my friends and colleagues they [have] changed their car already, so maybe it's the time."

However, societal expectations, perhaps fortunately, also put a limit on how much he is likely to spend.

"If you get a very expensive car it means you're very successful ... but if my boss gets a car like a Mercedes or BMW, I can't buy a car that's more expensive," he said.

MATCH INFO

Uefa Champions League quarter-final, second leg (first-leg score):

Manchester City (0) v Tottenham Hotspur (1), Wednesday, 11pm UAE

Match is on BeIN Sports

'THE WORST THING YOU CAN EAT'

Trans fat is typically found in fried and baked goods, but you may be consuming more than you think.

Powdered coffee creamer, microwave popcorn and virtually anything processed with a crust is likely to contain it, as this guide from Mayo Clinic outlines: 

Baked goods - Most cakes, cookies, pie crusts and crackers contain shortening, which is usually made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Ready-made frosting is another source of trans fat.

Snacks - Potato, corn and tortilla chips often contain trans fat. And while popcorn can be a healthy snack, many types of packaged or microwave popcorn use trans fat to help cook or flavour the popcorn.

Fried food - Foods that require deep frying — french fries, doughnuts and fried chicken — can contain trans fat from the oil used in the cooking process.

Refrigerator dough - Products such as canned biscuits and cinnamon rolls often contain trans fat, as do frozen pizza crusts.

Creamer and margarine - Nondairy coffee creamer and stick margarines also may contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The biog

Name: Mohammed Imtiaz

From: Gujranwala, Pakistan

Arrived in the UAE: 1976

Favourite clothes to make: Suit

Cost of a hand-made suit: From Dh550

 

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MATCH INFO

Fixture: Ukraine v Portugal, Monday, 10.45pm (UAE)

TV: BeIN Sports

Real estate tokenisation project

Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.

The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.

Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.

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The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple. 
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

  • An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
  • A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
  • A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

The White Lotus: Season three

Creator: Mike White

Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell

Rating: 4.5/5

In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe

Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010

Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille

Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm

Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year

Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”

Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners

TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013 

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The National's picks

4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young

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