Recent indicators suggest that the inventory adjustment process may have largely run its course in the motor vehicle sector, but remaining imbalances in some other industries may continue to impose some restraint on industrial production for a time.
Lord Mandelson may have shown his concern for the motor industry, but those in the sector fear that his modest help will arrive too late to save any but JLR.
It includes a private-sector bank, China Minsheng (now No. 107), an auto giant, SAIC Motor (now No. 167) and a property developer, China Vanke (now No. 314).
Manufacturing lost 16, 000 jobs (Nomura expected it to remain flat) and motor vehicles and parts employment slid by 3, 000 (strong sales in the sector over the last couple of months).