Employees work on a production line of export-bound electronic devices in Suqian, Jiangsu province, on Feb 7. XU CHANGLIANG/FOR CHINA DAILY
Exhibitions, face-to-face meetings help Chinese enterprises better understand foreign demand, close deals
After returning from the Spring Fair Birmingham 2023, Zeng Wei stands in front of a sofa prototype, ordered by a British client, in a workshop owned by Henglin Home Furnishings Co Ltd in Huzhou, East China's Zhejiang province. Zeng, head of the company's sales department, is busy with several designers and workers discussing the details of the sofa's new functions.
The fair in Birmingham, England, is a major wholesale home and gifts trade exhibition held in early February. The grand event attracted Chinese exporters from Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Hunan and Guangdong provinces to set up booths to promote sales and build new business relationships.
"Big orders must be gained from face-to-face talks. We specially prepared more than 10 new products for the UK exhibition this time and plan to visit key clients in Germany, France and Italy in the first half of 2023," said Zeng, adding that the company, with more than 4,500 employees, has set a goal of raising its annual export value to the European markets by 20 percent on a yearly basis this year.
After 270 entrepreneurs from Guangdong province brought back $1 billion worth of intended orders after participating in the 13th China HomeLife Dubai 2022 expo in the United Arab Emirates in December, companies from Jiangsu province secured 20 billion yuan ($2.92 billion) of foreign trade orders via participating in various overseas trade fairs between January and early February, according to these provinces' departments of commerce.
To further ease pressure caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the disruption of global supply chains, boosting their presence at international exhibitions, such as the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show in the United States and the 72nd edition of the Nuremberg International Toy Fair in Germany, and expanding market channels in emerging markets will be priorities for China's export-oriented companies to drive growth this year, said Wei Jianguo, vice-chairman of the Beijing-based China Center for International Economic Exchanges.
"Many Chinese exporters are eager to retrieve orders lost in the past three years. Expos help to better understand foreign countries' latest demand and growth potential, as well as find new channels for foreign trade," said Wei.
Similar views were shared by Xie Weihong, dean of the School of Economics at the Guangdong University of Technology. "Companies are acutely aware that without orders, there is no revenue. They will not be able to invest in research and development, and this situation could lead their businesses to a dead end."
Therefore, exporters must have face-to-face interactions with foreign clients, particularly for firms whose business is clothing, foodstuffs and industrial parts. Not all export deals can be sealed via cross-border e-commerce channels, he said.
Given China's swift policy shift in COVID-19 management, Luo Junjie, executive vice-president of the Beijing-based China Machinery Industry Federation, said rather than waiting for foreign trade orders to flow in, the majority of Chinese manufacturers from sectors, including new energy vehicles, electrical appliances, petrochemical equipment and construction machinery, have been rushing to book booths in overseas business exhibitions this year, before and after the Chinese New Year holiday in late January.
Against external headwinds like softer overseas demand, China has introduced a number of policy measures to help companies, especially micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and individual businesses, to promote investment, consumption and foreign trade, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
By participating in the MIDO Eyewear Show 2023, an annual international event of the optics, optometry, ophthalmology and eyewear industry, in Milan, Italy, in early February, over 400 exhibitors from 170 companies in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, China's eyewear industry hub, secured $300 million worth of intended orders, said Wenzhou Bureau of Commerce.
The show, held from Feb 4 to 6, is the largest international event dedicated to the global eyewear industry, with companies from Wenzhou occupying more than 8,000 square meters of booth space during the exhibition.
To restore earning strength for its companies, the Wenzhou city government began to offer financial support to local companies to take part in overseas business exhibitions this year and has set a goal to assist more than 300 exporters to participate in more than 50 exhibitions abroad in the first quarter.
Huizhou Macc Electronics Co Ltd, an electronic component manufacturer in Guangdong province, has sent a sales team to visit clients to obtain business orders in the Middle East, Europe, the US and the Republic of Korea.
"We are confident and highly motivated. We hope to get our business off to an adequate start in the first quarter and strive to increase our production value by 10 percent this year," said Zhang Qian, the company's general manager.
In addition to registering their company names for global business expos, such as the International Food and Drink Event in the UK in March, New York International Auto Show in the US in April, and the International Tools and Hardware Expo in Japan in October, many Chinese companies have been actively exploring emerging markets, specifically signatory countries of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement, said Sun Jianjiang, director of the Suzhou (Jiangsu province) Bureau of Commerce.
"As the recovery pace of China's exhibition industry is accelerating, it will generate growth momentum for foreign trade, investment, consumption, tourism, catering and other service-related businesses this year," said Chu Shijia, director of the China Foreign Trade Center in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province.
China's goods trade surged 7.7 percent year-on-year to a record 42.07 trillion yuan in 2022, making the country the world's largest trader of goods for the sixth successive year, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.
