Close look into China’s export rebound
China’s strong industrial supply chains ensure growth, supply global markets
If you never visit Dongguan, a city located in South China’s Guangdong Province where many factories that manufacture high high- value- added products are based, it’s probably hard for you to understand un that why, under the impact of global COVID- 19 pandemic, China would be the only l major power in the world, as forecast by the IMF, to record posi positive economic growth.
It could be even harder to understand that why, as many factories in other countries have to suspend operations due to the pandemic, d Chinese factories can be first in the world to resume business, or why the export data could see a more than 20 percent increase year- on- year in November.
With these questions in mind, I paid a visit to Dongguan, which is well- known in the world by its nickname – the world’s factory. And after talking to more than 10 manufacturers from various industries including toys, daily consumer goods and electronic parts, the answers gradually emerged.
Of course, there are many factors behind these answers. China’s successful control of the coronavirus has played a vital role as it allowed safe people movement which guaranteed the business and production activities resumption.
But more importantly, China’s highly integrated industrial supply chains that ensure factories’ access to raw materials, and guaranteed the smooth connection between upper streams to down streams, is a major reason behind all of the questions.
When I first entered the campus of DeRUCCI, a mattress manufacturer in Houjie town where many furniture factories are located, first things could be seen were many trucks outside warehouse waiting for loading; inside the company’s workshop, workers were busy making mattresses on the production lines. Other than the masks that workers were wearing, everything in the factory looked normal, as if the global pandemic never r happened.
A manager of the company told me that their OEM orders have seen a dramatic increase this year as many of their clients ts could not find factories in other counties to produce.