ISLAMABAD: Foreign trade picked up in the third quarter, with orders for some veteran companies in Ningbo, the foreign trade hub in East China’s Zhejiang Province, backed up to December, a sign of possible resilient foreign trade for the rest of the year.
Christmas goods, solar panels and furnishings have been the driving forces for growth, with booming markets such as South America compensating for continued softness in the US and Europe, industry sources told the Global Times. New-energy product export orders are showing continuous momentum.
At a plant in Ningbo, located in the Yangtze River Delta, China’s major manufacturing and trade hub, workers are making shutter parts for American and European markets where more orders are coming in at this time of year. The busy scene reflects the vigorous business of this company.
“Our foreign trade business this year is pretty good, stronger than last year. Orders are now scheduled until late December, mainly to new booming markets such as Central and South American countries and Europe,” Ding Yandong, general manager of Rollmax Shutter Component Co, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
Europe is affected by inflation, so demand is still weak and order volumes have not fully returned to pre-pandemic levels. Ding’s company is paying attention to new export opportunities, such as solar-power shutters, where he sees an opportunity that will drive growth.
Exports of new-energy products have become a new focal point, as the Global Times learned from an official of the Ningbo Municipal Bureau of Commerce on Wednesday.
In 2022, exports of electric vehicles, lithium batteries, solar panels and other corresponding commodities stood at 28.5 billion yuan ($3.9 billion), accounting for 3.5 percent of Ningbo’s total exports. In the first eight months of 2023, the share edged up to 3.7 percent, according to data from the bureau.
A Ningbo-based new-energy product company told the Global Times on Sunday that orders for solar and battery-related products are backed up until the end of December.
In addition to traditional markets such as the US and Europe, the company is developing new markets in Southeast Asian countries and some parts of Africa where demand is rising.
“Chinese solar panels offer value for money and are more accessible for developing markets in terms of price and quality,” a manager with the company said.
The manager said that full-year exports will definitely exceed those of 2022 and get closer to the pre-epidemic level.
Export orders for goods such as commodities related to the Christmas season have continued to rise, the Global Times learned from the bureau.
Consumer goods such as household appliances and furniture have grown quickly, with furniture showing the biggest jump of 42 percent year-on-year in August, according to the Ningbo bureau. Preliminary analysis suggests that the significant month-to-month increase in property sales in the US in August boosted such exports, an official of the bureau said.
While the demand from the US and Europe is generally weak compared with pre-pandemic levels, the restocking phase for inventories in the US market is coming, with supplies of products such as textiles, furniture, wood products and plastic products relatively low, the official said.
