A growing number of industrial companies said their sales are softening in China, threatening a strong three-year run for U.S. manufacturers.
Makers of everything from bulldozers to computer chips have bet heavily on expanding their business in a country of 1.4 billion people with an increasing appetite for world-class consumer goods and infrastructure. U.S. exports to China doubled over the decade through 2017 to $130 billion a year, according to the Census Bureau.
Now that opportunity has become a potential liability for some companies as China’s economy slows to its lowest rate of growth since 1990.