Chinese Export Boom in Evidence at Trade Show

nytimes.com — Throngs of buyers from around the world swarmed through the world’s largest trade show at its opening Thursday, underscoring how China’s combination of a cheap currency and low wages is producing a resurgence of exports this autumn.

As wholesalers and distributors from dozens of countries began snatching brochures and exchanging business cards at booths in exhibition halls with five times the floor area of the Empire State Building, Chinese exporters said they were convinced that sales were finally rebounding.

In one of the most telling signs of the recovery, container shipping prices from China to the West have jumped 50 percent in the past two months as exporters have scrambled for space on suddenly crowded decks. Chinese factories are hiring temporary workers to cope with a last-minute surge in orders, many of them from emerging markets but some from Europe and even from the economically weakened United States.

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