And the report, by Kevin Wang, display analyst at iSuppli, reckons that manufacturing will grow by 20% this year.

If the figures are correct, and they won't be far off, that means China makes nearly half the LCD and CRT PC monitors in the world.

Nevertheless, these units are funded by South Korean and Taiwanese companies, which are using economies of scale - that is to say labour at a low cost - to make the units.

The Taiwanese manufacturers include AOC, Benq (pronounced Bank), EMC, Quanto, Lite On, Compal and others.

By 2005, Wang reckons, China will make 80 per cent of monitors although high end, high margin units will still be produced in Taiwan.