Electronics

In the first quarter of this year, China's international trade exports improved month by month, achieving a good start. Among them, electric passenger vehicles, lithium batteries, and solar cells, known as the "new three types" of foreign trade, performed well, with a total export growth of 66.9% in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of over 100 billion yuan, driving up the overall export growth rate by 2 percentage points.

Clothing, furniture, and household appliances are commonly referred to as the "old three" in foreign trade. Nowadays, while the "old three types" are steadily advancing, the "new three types" have emerged as a vivid footnote to China's foreign trade upgrading and upgrading.

The "New Three Kinds" Became a New Driving Force for Growth

Recently, the Anji Phoenix, the largest car roll on/roll off ship under SAIC Group, carried the first batch of thousands of MG brand new cars from the exclusive roll on/roll off terminal in Ningde Port, Fujian to the port of Lazaro Cardenas in Mexico. This series of models is best-selling in nearly 20 countries and regions such as Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Thailand, and Chile.

Since the beginning of this year, the overseas order volume of multiple car companies has significantly increased. Zhang Cailiang, the sales manager of BAIC Motor Manufacturing (Qingdao) Import and Export Co., Ltd., said, "We have just received an order for 1000 new energy vehicles from Türkiye, and now the factory is operating at full capacity." According to the data of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (hereinafter referred to as the "China Association"), in the first quarter of this year, China exported 248 thousand new energy vehicles, an increase of 1.1 times year-on-year. Among them, BYD exported a total of 43000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 12.8 times. Currently, BYD's new energy passenger vehicle footprint has spread to 51 countries and regions worldwide.

Among the "new three types", the export growth rate of new energy vehicles is leading. In the first quarter, the export of electric passenger vehicles reached 64.75 billion yuan, an increase of 122.3%, accounting for 5.1 percentage points of China's automobile exports, reaching 43.9%.

The international trade and export of lithium batteries are also hot. A batch of lithium batteries from a battery company in Taizhou, Jiangsu is about to be shipped to South Africa. The person in charge of the enterprise said, "This year, the demand of overseas customers for household energy storage has further increased, and we have added a new production line of lithium batteries.

Driven by multiple factors such as strong demand in foreign electric vehicles and energy storage markets, China's international trade exports of lithium batteries in the first quarter reached 109.79 billion yuan, with a growth rate of 94.3%.

Solar cells have become a new business card for China's international trade exports. At the 133rd Canton Fair, all solar cell companies have achieved great success, welcoming a group of buyers from Europe, North America, and other regions. In the first quarter, China's solar cell exports exceeded 90 billion yuan, an increase of 23.6%

The impressive performance of the "New Three Kinds" did not start this year. In the first quarter of last year, China's exports of solar cells, lithium batteries, and automobiles achieved high growth rates, reaching 100.8%, 53.7%, and 83.4%, respectively. The "New Three Kinds" led the entire foreign trade in exports throughout 2022, with electric vehicle exports increasing by 131.8%, photovoltaic products dominated by solar cells increasing by 67.8%, and lithium batteries increasing by 86.7%.

As a new driving force for growth, the 'new three types' products reflect the effective improvement of China's export quality and reasonable growth in quantity, and have also made China's positive contribution to the global green and low-carbon transformation, "said Lv Daliang, spokesperson for the General Administration of Customs and Director of the Department of Statistics and Analysis.

Sold to over 200 countries and regions

Who is purchasing the "New Three Samples"? Customs data shows that in the first quarter of this year, China's "new three samples" had export records to more than 200 countries and regions worldwide, with exports to the top five markets of the European Union, the United States, ASEAN, South Korea, and the United Kingdom increasing by 88.7%, 88.1%, 103.5%, 121.7%, and 118.2%, respectively, accounting for 71.6% of the total export value of the "new three samples".

Why can the "New Three Kinds" become popular worldwide?

Gao Shiwang, spokesperson for the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Mechanical and Electrical Products, analyzed that the "new three types" are all mechanical and electrical products, and the high growth rate of exports is mainly due to three reasons: market opportunities brought by industrial changes, China's complete industrial chain and supply capacity, and the promoting effect of relevant policies.

With the increasing global environmental awareness and emphasis on sustainable development, the new energy industry has gradually become a global hotspot. In recent years, the Chinese government has vigorously promoted the development of the new energy industry, and products such as new energy vehicles, lithium batteries, and solar cells have gradually emerged in domestic and foreign markets. At the same time, China's policy of continuously expanding its opening-up has also laid the foundation for the rapid growth of the "new three types" of exports. At the 133rd Canton Fair, Swedish purchaser Frederick said, "Sweden and other Nordic countries have a huge demand for solar products because they value Chinese products and technology. We want to do business with China

Forging iron requires its own hard work, and behind the booming export of the "New Three Kinds" is the continuous improvement of the comprehensive strength of China's related industries. The acceptance of new energy vehicles by Chinese consumers is increasing, and the demand for new energy vehicles in the Chinese market is constantly growing, attracting more and more enterprises to invest in this field. In the fierce market competition and high research and development investment, the key technologies of electric passenger vehicles continue to progress and make breakthroughs, with continuous cost reduction and greater competitiveness. At the same time, China has a complete industrial chain supply chain system that can meet the various raw materials and components required for the production of the "new three types", promoting the rapid expansion and upgrading of these three types of industries. In the first quarter, private enterprises, foreign-invested enterprises, state-owned enterprises and other business entities achieved rapid growth in their exports of the "New Three Samples", with private enterprises accounting for 65.4% of the total export value of the "New Three Samples", which is higher than the proportion of private enterprises in the overall international trade exports.

In recent years, in order to better expand overseas markets, relevant Chinese enterprises have successively laid out their industrial chains overseas, further driving the export of related industries. Taking new energy vehicles as an example, SAIC Group has established a full value chain for the automotive industry overseas, including innovation research and development centers, production bases, marketing centers, supply chain centers, and financial companies. Its products and services have entered more than 90 countries and regions worldwide. After BYD's first overseas passenger car production base is put into operation in Thailand, vehicles in the Thai market will no longer have to go through lengthy export sea freight and customs clearance procedures from placing an order to delivery, and delivery efficiency will be greatly improved. According to the analysis of China Automobile Association, building factories overseas can also effectively reduce transportation costs and avoid the impact of exchange rates.

The demand for the 'new three types' in the international market is constantly increasing, and China can provide competitive high-quality products. At the same time, China has maintained its position as the largest country in goods trade for six consecutive years, and is one of the world's largest production and export countries, naturally becoming a major supplier to many countries. "said Hong Yong, associate researcher at the E-commerce Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce Research Institute.

The forward-looking and sustained policies of the country have supported the development of various enterprises in the export of the 'new three samples', playing an important guiding role, "said Liu Chun, Vice President of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Mechanical and Electrical Products.

Expand diversified export markets

The "New Three Kinds", which are high-tech, high value-added, and leading green transformation products, have become new growth points for exports, reflecting the effective improvement of China's export quality and reasonable growth in quantity. They are an important manifestation of China's high-quality development of foreign trade.

Hong Yong analyzed that in terms of increasing the quality of foreign trade, the export growth of the "New Three Kinds" indicates that China's new energy vehicles and other industries have gained international competitiveness and can compete with products from other countries in the international market. China's foreign trade is upgrading from low-end processing to high-end manufacturing.

In terms of achieving high-quality development, the export of the "New Three Kinds" indicates that China's related industries have been able to occupy a place in the global market and have strong competitiveness and innovation capabilities. This also indicates that China is accelerating the transformation of its economic development mode from traditional low-end processing and manufacturing to high-end manufacturing and service industries, achieving high-quality development.

Looking towards the future, the environment faced by China's foreign trade is still severe and complex, and the penetration rate of the "new three types" in major national markets is still low. How will China continue to maintain a good trend of "new three types" exports?

Improving Overseas Operation Capability - Recently, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting Stable Scale and Optimal Structure of Foreign Trade", proposing that local governments and business associations organize direct customer docking between automobile enterprises and shipping enterprises, and guide automobile enterprises to sign medium and long-term agreements with shipping enterprises. Encourage Chinese banks and their overseas institutions to innovate financial products and services under the premise of legal compliance and controllable risks, and provide financial support for automotive enterprises overseas. All regions further support automobile enterprises to establish and improve the International marketing service system, and enhance their ability to carry out brand publicity, display sales, and after-sales service overseas.

Actively Expanding Diversified Markets - Hong Yong suggests that in order to enhance the recognition of China's "New Three Kinds" products in the international market, relevant enterprises should actively participate in international technical exchanges, project cooperation, and other activities, strengthen cooperation with other countries in the field of new energy, improve the brand image of Chinese enterprises, and thereby expand market share. It is understood that in order to diversify the supply chain and export destination layout, China's "new three types" exports to emerging countries and regions have also been growing rapidly since last year. In March of this year, BYD entered the Jordanian new energy passenger vehicle market; The launch of the star model "BYD ATTO 3" in Thailand sparked a midnight rush by local users and became the new energy vehicle sales champion in Thailand in the first quarter of this year. The model has been the single model sales champion in Israel for five consecutive months.

Hong Yong stated that the "new three types" export enterprises need to continuously expand into new markets, reduce their dependence on a single market, and reduce risks. At the same time, we must also break away from the past pure price war and internal friction competition, with the core goal of building sustained industrial competitiveness and increasing international market share, and continuously improve the quality and reputation of our products.

According to expert analysis, the "new three samples" belong to the industry of "thick snow on Changpo". With the continuous innovation of related technologies and the continuous improvement of product quality, it is expected that the export volume of the "new three samples" will continue to maintain a good momentum of rapid growth in the future.