China’s foreign trade ＂friends circle＂ is constantly expanding, and they are making efforts to blank new markets.

　　The east is not bright and the west is bright. There are many "friends" and many roads. Under the background of shrinking global demand, China’s foreign trade "friend circle" has been expanding, and a large number of foreign traders have also taken the initiative to attack new markets that were almost blank before.

　　Homeopathy for

　　According to customs data, in the first half of this year, the national import and export decreased by 4.7%, exports by 3.2% and imports by 6.7%. Specifically, among the 26 major countries (regions), 7 countries (regions) showed positive growth in imports and exports, and 8 countries (regions) achieved positive growth in exports.

　　Among them, the export growth rate to Russia is the fastest, reaching 78.1%, followed by Singapore, with a year-on-year increase of 37.2% and South Africa with a growth rate of 13.9%. In addition, China’s exports to ASEAN, Malaysia and Thailand increased by 1.5%, 2.5% and 0.4% respectively. Exports to Australia increased by 0.7%.

　　"Our export growth to Russia far exceeds that of other regions." Liu Mingyang, general manager of Yiwu Ouchi Import & Export Co., Ltd. told CBN that the export to Russia increased by more than 50%, while in other regions it was generally around 20%. In addition to Russia, Southeast Asia is the new market they will focus on this year.

　　Liu Mingyang is a foreign trade veteran in the field of cross-border e-commerce. Benefiting from the rising trend of cross-border e-commerce, the company’s export performance rose against the trend, and he also learned the ability to flexibly adjust the market with the help of big data. In fact, targeting the main battlefield at Southeast Asia and Russia is a strategic change he made in the second half of last year. The way is to use the digital technology of cross-border e-commerce to find markets with rapid demand growth and corresponding hot products at a lower cost, and then find matching buyers through hierarchical management to realize the so-called "finding the blue ocean in the Red Sea".

　　In his words, it is very difficult for Chinese to sell a product in a strange overseas market, because he doesn’t know the local living habits, and by using digital methods, he can quickly grasp the real and specific needs of overseas markets and help them to have a definite purpose.

　　Like Liu Mingyang, Su Wei, the general manager of Shanghai Zhongda Kangjin International Trade Co., Ltd., also belongs to the trend.

　　Su Wei told CBN that they will focus on developing the "Belt and Road" market this year. Affected by trade friction, they found a cooperative garment factory in Vietnam as early as 2017. Last year, about 20% of the production capacity was placed in Vietnam and 80% stayed in China. Vietnam’s investment stranded by the epidemic is expected to continue to expand this year, which also allows them to target the market in Vietnam and its surrounding areas.

　　Affected by the global economic downturn and the outward shift of production capacity in Southeast Asia, Su Wei said that as a OEM of European and American clothing brands, their overall export decline was more serious this year, and the sales of one international brand were halved, and the orders they received were also discounted.

　　In addition to looking for more cooperation from international brands, Su Wei saw the growing demand for localization of supply chain from brands under the downward background. On the one hand, the orders originally produced in China for export to Europe and the United States are indeed being "de-China" more and more, which urges them to continue to increase the proportion of production in Vietnam and at the same time explore the local and Southeast Asian markets; On the other hand, the production lines of international brands aimed at China’s mainland market are becoming more and more localized. "They hope that the products in China market are different from those in other countries, and they also hope that all these products will be produced in China to get a faster response.". This adjustment has also enabled them to gain more orders for the China market.

　　Yuan Xiumei, general manager of Zhejiang Zhihua Home Textile Technology Co., Ltd., has just returned from an exhibition in Australia, which is the new market they will focus on this year. She told CBN that to open up a blank market, it is necessary to understand the market through various channels, then find products that are not available in the market, and then introduce these new products to local customers in a targeted manner, "if you are interested, you will go to the local area to pursue victory."

　　Lv Daliang, spokesman of the General Administration of Customs and director of the Statistics and Analysis Department, said at the press conference of the State Council Office on July 13th that in recent years, the vast number of foreign trade enterprises in China have fully exerted their subjective initiative, actively responded to the changes in the international market, pioneered and innovated, and while stabilizing economic and trade exchanges with developed economies, they have also explored regional markets such as developing countries and ASEAN, and made positive progress in the diversification of trade markets.

　　Apart from ASEAN, in terms of RMB, China’s import and export scale to Latin America, Africa and Central Asia increased by 7%, 10.5% and 35.6% respectively in the first half of the year, both higher than the overall import and export growth rate in the same period. Since 2020, ASEAN has maintained its position as China’s largest trading partner for three consecutive years. China’s import and export to Latin America has maintained positive growth for six consecutive years, and exceeded 3 trillion yuan in 2022. The five Central Asian countries have become new growth points of China’s foreign trade. Last year, the growth rate of China’s import and export to the five Central Asian countries was higher than that of the whole import and export in the same period. At the same time, China’s import and export to countries along the Belt and Road increased by 9.8%, 7.7 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate, accounting for 34.3%, up 2.4 percentage points year-on-year; Imports and exports to other members of RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement) increased by 1.5%.

　　The change of foreign trade "friends circle" has made the demand for cross-border transportation of China-Europe trains strong.

　　According to the data of China National Railway Group Co., Ltd., in the first half of this year, 8,641 trains were operated in China and Europe, and 936,000 TEUs were delivered, up by 16% and 30% respectively. Among them, there were 4,620 trains and 499,000 TEUs, up by 16% and 29% respectively. The return journey was 4,021 trains and 437,000 TEUs, up by 16% and 31% respectively. Up to now, China-Europe trains have accumulated more than 73,000 trains and 6.9 million TEUs over the years, reaching 216 cities in 25 European countries.

　　make one’s way up stream

　　In the battlefield of global trade, there are both wise men who follow the trend and warriors who go upstream.

　　Customs data show that in the first half of this year, China’s import and export to the EU, the second largest trading partner, decreased by 1.4% compared with last year, while exports and imports decreased by 6.6% and 1.4% respectively. Imports and exports to the United States, the third largest trading partner, fell by 14.5%, while exports and imports fell by 17.9% and 3.7% respectively.

　　For Wei Guowen, general manager of Ningbo Baolinda Import & Export Co., Ltd., even though the American market is shrinking as a whole, there are still a lot of business opportunities. This almost blank battlefield for them is in line with their original European-oriented market positioning — — They are all mid-to-high-end mature markets willing to pay for brands and personalized IP.

　　Wei Guowen told CBN that after several years of product development and customer communication, the American market has finally increased this year. "This year, the American line has grown very fast, making up for the decline in Europe and bringing about the overall growth in the first half of this year."

　　Ding Yandong, general manager of Ningbo Remankes Door and Window Fittings Co., Ltd., has visited nearly ten countries this year and plans to leave for Australia and the United States in the second half of the year. The United States is actually a land that this "trapeze artist" has never set foot on.

　　"The previous orders have been good, and they have not paid attention to the US market. To a certain extent, they are also affected by technology, equipment and personnel." Ding Yandong told CBN that with the improvement of the enterprise’s own technical iteration and market development ability in recent years, they decided to go to the United States to explore new markets this year, and at the same time, they also took samples to meet customers who had contacted but had not successfully placed orders.

　　In order to improve the success rate of taking orders, Ding Yandong had communicated with five or six customers in the United States for several rounds before leaving, "I will try to win the order when I meet you". If it goes well, it is expected that the order I can win will account for about 15% of the company’s annual orders.

　　In addition to opening up the blank market, Ding Yandong also plans to build his own factory and expand production capacity. In the face of the current grim situation, this kind of investment behavior is not brave. In his view, the company’s volume is still small, the space for decline is limited, and the space for growth is still bigger. In the period when the market lacks confidence, contrarian investment can get sufficient policy support and land and equipment at the right price. Therefore, taking advantage of the adjustment period to expand the market territory and open up more new markets will be the driving force and business opportunities for them to maintain their growth in recent years.

　　In the first half of this year, although Ding Yandong also felt obvious downward pressure from May to June, the company as a whole still maintained a growth rate of around 20%. According to his estimation, the landing of the new factory in two years will multiply the production capacity several times. He has a preliminary plan on whether the future production capacity can be saturated — — It can be co-built and shared with partners in the industrial chain. More generally speaking, it will be one of the ways for them to realize transformation and upgrading in management and operation from today’s venue tenants to future landlords.

　　"Since the beginning of this year, the external challenges faced by foreign trade have obviously increased. the State Council has timely introduced policies and measures to fully support foreign trade enterprises to explore the market. In general, in the face of a severe and complicated external environment, foreign trade withstood the pressure in the first half of the year and showed strong resilience. " Li Xinggan, director of the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce, said at the press conference on July 19th that looking forward to the second half of the year, China’s foreign trade is facing many uncertain, unstable and unpredictable factors, and the economic and non-economic factors are intertwined, so the situation is extremely severe. However, the supply chain of China’s foreign trade industry chain has strong resilience, and China’s foreign trade enterprises are tempered and grown up in the international market competition, with inherent innovation ability. The throughput of foreign trade goods and containers monitored by the transportation department is also increasing, and the actual cargo entry and exit is still relatively active. Therefore, we are optimistic about the prospects of foreign trade in the second half of the year.