Chinese seafood market boss goes on the run from creditors

A corporate credit crunch has hit 600 booth owners in a major Chinese seafood market, who are now out of pocket following the disappearance of the manager of the Jin Yang Aquatic Products Market in Nanning, a southern Chinese city near the Vietnamese border. Nanning is a major hub for overland trade in seafood from Vietnam into mainland China.

The manager, as yet unnamed, disappeared with deposits and earnings owed to the booth owners. Following his disappearance, the booth owners showed up en masse outside a local police station to demand action.

The incident reflects a wider debt malaise in China where companies are struggling to pay a mountain of debt while yields on Chinese bonds are going up.

Non-financial Chinese firms have to repay an unprecedented CNY 2.2 trillion (USD 341 billion, EUR 295 billion) of debt, according to a major local ratings agency. Some CNY 43 billion (USD 6.6 billion, EUR 5.8 billion) of bonds issued by Chinese companies are rated “junk” by China Lianhe Credit Rating Co., resulting in local bond yields hitting a three-year high.

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