Battle intensifies to woo trade war’s corporate refugees

CHONBURI, Thailand: When trade war tariffs jolted Chinese tyre-maker Prinx Chengshan into speeding up foreign investment plans, the company wound up in Thailand, thanks to that country’s relentless courtship.

With an initial investment of $300 million, the company is now racing to build a factory to export tyres to the United States next year, based in a Thai industrial zone reinvigorated by the trade war.

Multiple visits to China by Thailand’s Board of Investment helped. So did two personal meetings with Thailand’s top e policymaker, said Ju Xunning, a company manager.

“This impressed our company, and this is also one of the main reasons for choosing Thailand,” Ju told. “It’s apparent that the government values doing business with us.”

With global economic growth flagging, in part because of U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, competition is growing among Asian countries to win investment from companies moving supply chains to escape higher tariffs.

Tax breaks, promises to slash red tape and trade missions are all on the table.

“Companies have thrown in the towel on the status quo,” said Rajiv Biswas, Asia Pacific chief economist for IHS Markit.

Vietnam has benefited most from the shifts in terms of the number of companies moving business, according to independent surveys. But other Asian countries are eager to bring in more business as well, including India and Indonesia.

The trade war has breathed new life into Thailand’s Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), where Prinx Chengshan is building its factory. The programme was set up under the former military junta to boost growth that has for years lagged regional peers.

Pledged investment for the zone rose nearly four-fold year-on-year to 88 billion baht ($2.9 billion) in the first half of 2019. One of the main drivers was investment from companies trying to escape tariffs.

forward rate expectations—also rose on Friday to 88 Worldscale points, from 85 on Thursday. The rates for loading Middle East crude to west coast India in the second week of October jumped 28% to 80-92.5 points after Reliance Industries Ltd booked two supertankers overnight, industry sources said. But there was also uncertainty over how widely the sanctions on the COSCO units—cosco Shipping Tanker (Dalian) Co, Ltd and its subsidiary COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalian) Seaman & Ship Management Co, Ltd—would be implemented.