Chinese firms aim for domestic market
Print Edition
Caught in an uncertain trade environment where tariff-hike threats are yet to be defused, Chinese firms have started to fine-tune their business plans for more predictable growth.
Guangzhou Seagull Kitchen and Bath Products, a manufacturer of high-end and customized bathroom facilities in southern China’s Guangdong Province, expected the proportion of its exports to total sales volume down to 60 percent this year from 69 percent in 2018.
The shift is not due to the decline in export orders but rapid growth in the local market, said Joe Chen, vice president of the company. “China’s rising middle class has created strong purchasing power that will support our domestic sales,” said Chen.
The United States has been the company’s biggest overseas market, accounting for almost half of its exports, but Chen said the trade frictions would have limited impact on the company in the short run.
“It’s not realistic for our clients to shift to other countries’ suppliers as the process takes at least three years because of the complex supply chain,” Chen said.
In the long term, the company will strive to provide more advanced products to the domestic market to meet increasingly sophisticated consumers demands, Chen said.
To cope with the rising domestic demand, the company has planned to quadruple its production capacity of prefabricated bathroom and kitchen, a key product in the domestic market, and establish new sites by the end of the year.
From 2016 to 2018, the company saw its exports to the US rise by 12.5 percent, while sales in the Chinese market nearly doubled.
Such a change reflects the decreasing reliance of the US as China’s export market. In early June, China’s Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen said the US tariff hike will have some impact on China’s foreign trade but is generally controllable. Official statistics from China showed that the US share of China’s total exports shrank from 22 percent in 1999 to 16 percent now.
Analysts said that the tariff tension provoked by the US, if not defused, might further diminish the appeal of the US market to Chinese manufacturers and sour Sino-US business collaboration along industrial chains. Local firms said the trade tensions had highlighted the significance of research and innovation and to be technically competitive.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
