Chinese manufacturers pursue overseas footholds to cultivate new growth points
Selling products abroad used to be simple for Chinese exporters two or three decades ago.
They would receive orders from foreign trade agencies, long-term foreign clients and new customers they had met at trade events, such as the China Import and Export Fair, also known as the Canton Fair, and the China-ASEAN Expo.
Then they would manufacture and ship the goods to other parts of the world. Many business owners then had more time to play golf and sip tea with friends.
Today, however, such a management and business mode is no longer tenable for those hoping to remain competitive.
Due to disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, softening global demand, geoeconomic shocks and fierce competition from countries such as Vietnam and India over the past three years, Chinese manufacturers, especially those in coastal provinces such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong, have boosted their presence at international exhibitions. They also have expanded their market channels in emerging markets to drive growth this year.
For instance, East China's Jiangsu province plans to support its exporters' participation in 206 overseas business exhibitions this year, including the International Sourcing Expo Australia in Sydney in July and Manufacturing World Osaka in Japan in October.
While assisting companies in the province in the new energy vehicle and battery industries to expand their sales channels in overseas markets, Jiangsu's provincial government will bolster export activities of used cars in Nanjing and Suzhou, in order to cultivate new growth points this year.
Furthermore, to help companies get more overseas orders, the government of Wenzhou, an export hub in East China's Zhejiang province, offers subsidies to encourage companies in the city to take part in overseas trade fairs this year. It set a goal to assist the participation of more than 300 exporters in more than 50 exhibitions abroad in the first quarter.
After participating in the MIDO Eyewear Show, an annual international event of the optics, optometry, ophthalmology and eyewear industry, in Milan in early February, Pan Aimei, general manager of Wenzhou Tangfeng Songrain Industrial Co, along with three employees, sealed $600,000 worth of business orders at their booth in Milan. The eyewear manufacturer also plans to send representatives to Brazil, Singapore, France and other countries to participate in various optical exhibitions later this year to gain more orders.
"Geopolitical tensions have pushed many European clients to place a small number of orders. So we have altered our market strategy," said Pan. "We have already booked booths at optical shows to be held in Rio de Janeiro and Singapore later this year to establish our market presence in nontraditional markets, like some economies in South America and Southeast Asia."
Yu Baocai, a sales manager at Shuangtong Daily Necessities Co, a plastic product manufacturer based in Yiwu, Zhejiang, said that applying for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Travel Card, confirming meeting schedules with overseas clients and developing a travel itinerary for the coming months have become priorities after he secured a number of orders at the company's booth at Ambiente 2023, a major consumer goods trade fair held in Frankfurt, Germany, in early February.
An APEC Business Travel Card is issued to business travelers who are citizens of economies that participate in APEC. It eliminates the need for a visa when visiting other APEC economies, according to China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Apart from introducing its latest environmentally friendly straw products to European customers, Yu said the company will explore emerging markets, especially in North Africa and the Middle East, as well as in countries that have signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership pact, to further diversify its sales channels in the years ahead.
Given the increasing risks of a global recession and a notable slowdown in external demand, Li Xingqian, director-general of the department of foreign trade at the Ministry of Commerce, said that the government will optimize existing trade policies and introduce new measures this year.
This will help businesses cut operational costs and raise their efficiency while stabilizing and improving the structure of the country's foreign trade.
Attracted by Wenzhou's well-developed transportation infrastructure and geographical advantages, 34 twenty-foot equivalent container units loaded with various exported goods, such as lamps, suitcases and car parts, were shipped by train from Nanchang, the capital of inland Jiangxi province, to Wenzhou on Feb 18 as part of the Wenzhou-Nanchang sea-rail express service.
The cargo will be shipped to ports in the United States, Thailand and Vietnam via various shipping companies through the port of Wenzhou. The shipment also marks the gradual normalization of the operation of the Wenzhou-Nanchang sea-rail service, according to Wenzhou's bureau of commerce.
Yue Chen, general manager of the Jiangxi branch of Ningbo Port Rail-way Co, the service's railroad operator, said his company will intensify efforts to boost the cargo volume of the intermodal express service. It aims to ensure that the service can operate at least once per week.
Wenzhou had opened direct cargo flights to 11 countries, including Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and Russia, by the end of 2022, while its near-sea shipping network covered a number of major ports in member economies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Eager to promote its products in the ASEAN market, Quanzhou, Fujian province, established a textile and garment exhibition and sales center in Bangkok, Thailand, in mid-February.
The city plans to leverage its export-oriented industry structure and organize more than 19 overseas business trips by delegations in the first quarter, in order to seek opportunities and expand global market share. Quanzhou government officials have said that more than 330 people from 230 local companies are expected to participate in these events.
Even though the global economic downturn and uncertainties have created challenges for many countries in maintaining stable foreign trade and investment, China has responded by upgrading its industrial structure and further deepening its reform and opening-up policies, said Chen Jianqi, a professor at the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (National Academy of Governance).
In addition to resuming offline exhibits at trade fairs like the Canton Fair and stabilizing economic and trade cooperation with all parties, China has sought to join high-standard economic and trade agreements such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement, said Zhang Jianping, head of the center for regional economic cooperation at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.
These efforts support foreign trade and investment and have contributed to securing the global supply chain, said Zhang.
Yang Fan, spokeswoman for the Beijing-based China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said that as China's economy continues to recover and cross-border exchanges gradually return to normal, the council will host and participate in hundreds of trade and economic activities, such as exhibitions, forums and mutual visits of delegations this year.
She said the council also will organize high-level economic and trade delegations to visit the US, Europe, Australia, Russia, South Korea, India, Saudi Arabia, Brazil and other countries and regions this year. By late February, the agency had received 519 applications for exhibitions in 47 countries from 50 domestic exhibition organizers.
Contact the writers at zhongnan@chinadaily.com.cn
