Best China Companies To Watch For 2014

Suddenly, China is a mess.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange Index is down 14% this year, and down by more than a third over the last three years. It trades lower today than it did in early 2009, when the global economy was nearing collapse.

Manufacturing, long China's engine of growth, is now contracting. Imports are down. Economists around the world are cutting their forecasts of the country's economic growth.

China's banking system is straining, too. Interest rates tied to interbank lending surged to more than 20% last week as a credit crunch emerges after years of binging on debt.

How will this end?

We really have no idea. China's economy is heavily controlled by its government, and -- importantly -- much of its banking system is state-owned. Financial crises are usually triggered by a lack of confidence among investors. But if your main investor is a government agency indifferent to losses, the playbook is very different.

Best China Companies To Watch For 2014: sthree ord gbp0(STHR.L)

SThree plc provides recruitment services in the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, and internationally. It offers permanent and contract staffing services under the brand names of Computer Futures, Huxley Associates, Progressive, and Real Staffing Group. The company provides its services primarily for the information and communications technology, engineering and energy, banking, accountancy and finance, pharmaceuticals, and job board sectors. It also offers management services. The company was founded in 1986 and is based in London, the United Kingdom.

Best China Companies To Watch For 2014: Amarc Resources Ltd. (AHR.V)

Amarc Resources Ltd. engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of mineral properties in Canada. The company explores for gold, silver, and copper deposits. It holds 100% interests in the Newton property located to the southwest of the City of Williams Lake, British Columbia; and the Silver Vista project located in west central British Columbia. The company also owns 100% interests in Galileo, Hubble, Franklin, and Darwin properties covering approximately 1,300 square kilometers located within the Blackwater district. In addition, it holds interests in the Tulox property covering 54 square kilometers in the Cariboo region; and the Blackwater South property that covers an area of 49 square kilometers located in the Omineca Mining Division, British Columbia. The company was formerly known as Patriot Resources Ltd. and changed its name to Amarc Resources Ltd. in January 1994. Amarc Resources Ltd. was incorporated in 1993 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada .

Best Stocks To Watch Right Now: Amtech Systems Inc.(ASYS)

Amtech Systems, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the design, assembly, sale, and installation of capital equipment and related consumables used in the manufacture of wafers, primarily for the solar and semiconductor industries. The company produces and sells horizontal diffusion furnaces used for various steps in the solar and semiconductor manufacturing processes, including diffusion, phosphorus tetrachloride doping, boron tribromide, low-pressure chemical vapor deposition, oxidation, and annealing; solar automation equipment, including mass wafer transfer systems, sorters, long-boat transfer systems, load station elevators, buffers, and conveyers; phosphorus silicate glass dry etch process equipment; plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition products, which applies an anti-reflective coating to solar wafers; semiconductor automation products; and small batch vertical furnaces. It also offers thermal processing systems, including related automation, parts, and s ervices to the solar/photovoltaic, semiconductor, silicon wafer, and microelectromechanical industries. In addition, the company manufactures and supplies polishing supplies that comprise wafer carriers, polishing templates, and double-sided polishing and lapping machines to the fabricators of light emitting diodes, optics, quartz, ceramics, and metal parts, as well as to manufacturers of medical equipment components and computer hard disks under the PR Hoffman brand name. Amtech Systems, Inc. markets its products primarily through sales personnel, as well as through a network of domestic and international independent sales representatives and distributors primarily in China, Taiwan, the United States, and Europe. The company was formerly known as Quartz Engineering & Materials, Inc. and changed its name to Amtech Systems, Inc. in 1987. Amtech Systems, Inc. was founded in 1981 and is based in Tempe, Arizona.