General

On August 29, a survey data released by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade showed that the vast majority of European multinational companies are full of confidence in the prospects of the Chinese market. In the first half of 2022, 19% of European companies in China said they had expanded the scale of their existing production operations, 65% said they had maintained the scale of their production operations, and 15% said they had reduced the scale of their production operations. Less than 1% of European companies in China said Indicates the closure of existing production operations.

Sun Xiao, spokesperson of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and Secretary-General of the China Chamber of International Commerce, said that European multinational companies continue to be optimistic about the Chinese market, and the resilience of China's economic development and the large domestic market remain attractive to multinational companies.

In addition, a recent survey conducted by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade on more than 500 companies showed that the main difficulties faced by international trade companies are slow logistics, high costs and few orders. 56% of companies said that raw material prices and logistics costs are high. 62.5% of the companies indicated that orders were unstable, with more short orders and small orders, and fewer long orders and large orders.

However, Sun Xiao also introduced that in the past three months, with the effective control of the domestic epidemic, especially the accelerated implementation of the national economic stabilization package, business expectations and confidence are gradually improving.

In the first seven months of this year, my country's export growth rate exceeded expectations. However, the order pressure of international trade companies has gradually emerged recently, and there are even reports that foreign trade companies have taken the initiative to reduce prices to stabilize orders. According to Sun Xiao, the demands of enterprises mainly focus on maintaining the stability and smooth flow of international and domestic logistics, implementing bailout and assistance policies, and facilitating cross-border personnel exchanges. Some companies are looking forward to resuming domestic exhibitions and opening overseas exhibitions to obtain more orders.

The executive meeting of the State Council held on August 24 deployed a series of policy measures to stabilize the economy, which mentioned that it would facilitate the entry and exit of business people.

Huo Jianguo, vice president of the China World Trade Organization Research Association and former director of the Ministry of Commerce Research Institute, said that it is recommended to shorten the isolation time of entry and exit personnel.

Zhang Yansheng, chief researcher of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said yesterday at the 155th "Economic Monthly Talk" held by the National Economic Center that the shrinking external demand brought about by the interest rate hikes and various tightening policies adopted by the world's major economies has affected my country's foreign trade enterprises. The business impact is huge. At the same time, judging from the practice in the first half of the year, the repeated epidemics also had a greater impact on China's foreign trade supply chain. In addition, since foreign trade enterprises currently at the middle and low end of the supply chain still account for a large proportion of my country's foreign trade enterprises, there is a lot of pressure on enterprises to transform.

"The impact of the AI revolution on the international trade supply chain is different from the impact brought by the IT revolution." Zhang Yansheng said that the foreign trade supply chain of the digital technology revolution is more short-chained to meet the needs of individuality, small batches and diversity , bringing the development of cross-border e-commerce trade, digital trade and offshore trade.

As for how to consolidate the growth of foreign trade in the second half of the year, Zhang Yansheng believes that the first thing to do is to ensure the safety of primary products and supply chains. At the same time, government departments, industry associations and enterprises should form a joint force, including establishing a coordination mechanism for exports and imports, and guaranteeing orders, logistics, and foreign trade supply chains. Stabilize the expectations of market players and make full use of policy dividends. In the next step, there will be a trend of the global economic center of gravity moving eastward, including demand eastward, supply eastward, innovation eastward, etc. Foreign trade enterprises need to actively promote the combination of manufacturing and services, and the in-depth integration of digital and industry to promote the transformation of the foreign trade industry chain upgrade. At the macro level, relevant departments should further optimize the business environment, including further promoting the reform of "delegating power, delegating power and improving services", and promoting a high level of institutional opening up.

Sun Xiao said that according to the company's report, the freight rates of some popular routes have dropped, and the container shipping market is no longer "hard to find". In the next step, China Council for the Promotion of International Trade will closely track and judge the new trends of international trade enterprises, help enterprises to implement new results of the relief policy, and vigorously support foreign trade enterprises to obtain orders and stabilize the market.