Across The Border | Measuring the long-term costs of the ‘G20 blue’ plan
Paper, chemical materials, and medicine makers have enjoyed a bounce in their share prices — but clearing the skies above Hangzhou for September’s G20 summit is also expected to have wider economic effects
As preparations continue to make the skies above the G20 summit in Hangzhou in early September as blue and smog-free as possible, manufacturers involved in industries with heavy emission levels have ironically been enjoying a bounce in their share prices.
Zhejiang officials announced in May they were requiring industrial factories within a 300-kilometer radius of the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Expo Center to suspend production for 20 days until September 6, according to a notice issued by the Department of Housing.
Many paper, chemical materials, and medicine manufacturers in cities including Hangzhou, Ningbo and Jiaxing will be affected.
Analysts have observed that vitamin pills makers, for example, have outperformed A-share benchmarks in the past fortnight.
Industry leader Zhejiang NHU Co saw its shares gain 16.5 per cent to 22.83 yuan in Shenzhen in the past two weeks, while Zhejiang Medicine Co rose 8 per cent to 13.58 yuan.
Cui Jieming, an analyst at Northeast Securities, expects the vitamin sector to continue to see an “independent rally” in the next two weeks, despite any loss or gain in the mainland benchmark.