Faster volume growth may for a while be partly offset by narrower profit margins.
Facebook tumbled 11.7 percent after reporting slower sales growth and narrower profit margins.
Because many Chinese industries suffer from overcapacity, companies often find it hard to pass along their rising costs to consumers, accepting narrower profit margins instead.
And with narrower profit margins, AT&T will have a tougher time tailoring its service to meet the needs of bigger, more lucrative and more demanding customers.
The most vocal bloc consists of exporters and their allies in the commerce ministry, who worry that an ever more valuable yuan will result in narrower profit margins.
Since the late 1980s, regulatory changes and increased competition, coupled with narrower profit margins, have left many community banks vulnerable to acquisition.
But some experts predict that while the gambling industry here will continue to grow briskly, it may not expand as quickly as new casinos and hotels are set to open, resulting in narrower profit margins for the big American operators coming to Macao and for local companies as well.
Automation has already transformed industries in which complexity and performance demands must meet the challenges of scarcer resources, narrower profit margins, and expanding product volumes.
The PC industry has been his proving ground; over the past three decades, he has watched numerous PC makers that have built their products around Intel's microprocessors wind up in fierce battles for narrower and narrower profit margins.
Apple Computer's aapl status as a niche player turned out to be a great advantage last quarter, even as other PC makers struggled with weaker sales and narrower profit margins.
But for the beleaguered electronics retailer, it means narrower profit margins.
