Makers count on advent of Chinese leisure class

By Scott Malone

NEW YORK (Reuters) - When U.S. manufacturing executives talk about China, they typically emphasize the country's industrious work force.

But makers of big-ticket recreation items, like boats and golf carts, are also betting that country's fast-growing economy will produce a leisure class with money to burn.

"There is a growing middle class who can afford our products," said Dustan McCoy, chairman and chief executive officer of pleasure-boat maker Brunswick Corp. (BC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which recently opened a plant along China's Pearl River that makes aluminum and fiberglass boats.

Today, many of those boats are exported to markets including Australia and New Zealand, though McCoy said he expects local demand to develop as well.

China's rapid economic growth -- its gross domestic product is forecast to rise 9.6 percent this year -- and huge population of 1.3 billion people have attracted the attention of many consumer-products makers.

But Brunswick is pushing upstream in trying to create demand for private pleasure boats, even investing in a marina for pleasure boaters, McCoy said at the Reuters Manufacturing and Transportation Summit in New York.

"While boating is not a significant recreational activity in China today, it will become so," McCoy said. "Because boating is so popular around the world, we believe that having the product and the infrastructure there will put us in a position that boating will sell itself."

Diversified manufacturer Ingersoll-Rand Ltd. (IR.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), sees China as a key market for its golf carts, making up for slack demand in the United States, company Chairman, President and CEO Herbert Henkel told the summit.

"The biggest growth market for golf carts is China and they are building a lot of resorts and golf courses," Henkel said, citing plans for 100 new courses in China this year.

"There are a lot of avid golfers in Japan who find it less expensive to go to China to play golf than where they used to go, to Maui or Hawaii," he said.

However, in China, golf carts face competition fanned by the country's low-cost labor base.

"In China, except for the very, very Western-type golf course, caddies are the preferred way to go," Henkel said.