Factbox-What are global companies saying about China’s economy?

(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)

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