As due date nears, China's borrowers face a $ 890 billion debt problem

Cash-strapped firms are facing a wall of debt due this year. That's a problem for industrial companies getting less government help

Chinese industrial borrowers are strapped for cash, as billions of dollars of debt come due this year. The ones that benefited from Beijing’s largess should be most worried.   

Issuers are on the hook for more than 6 trillion yuan 1 ($890 billion) in 2019, up 15 per cent from a year earlier. Companies in sectors including mining and materials, capital goods and real estate make up 4 trillion of the pile – and of that, industrial companies comprise about 60 percent.

For years, this sector largely depended on subsidies to do business, which hampered organic growth. These handouts often show up