'Worker shortage not powering computer hikes'

Escalating prices for computer hardware in Zhongguancun are not down to a shortage of workers, despite the fact that the slow return of migrant workers to the production lines had been blamed.

Memory chips and computer monitors are among the fastest rising items.

Kingston, the company that supplies more than half of the memory chip market, now sells its products for twice what they cost a short time ago. A two-gigabyte chip costs at least 300 yuan now while it sold for 130 yuan this time last year.