New trade measures help firms diversify global sales channels, says ministry

Exports of China's private sector surged 44.9 percent year-on-year in the first 11 months of this year, compared with just 7.3 percent in 2001, Ministry of Commerce officials said on Monday.

Though the ministry did not reveal the total value of exports, this was the first time that private sector exports were higher than the exports of foreign firms.

Zhou Liujun, director-general of the department of outward investment and economic cooperation at the ministry, said new trade measures such as cross-border e-commerce, multi-modal logistics services and government procurement trade have helped private companies diversify their global sales channels during the past five years.

Wison Offshore and Marine Ltd delivered its first batch of modules for the key modularized components construction of Petroleos De Venezuela SA's RPLC refinery project in October. There are altogether 94 modules, which are to be delivered in nine batches. The first batch of modules totaling 2,600 metric tons is used in the refinery's interconnection units and vacuum distillation units.

Its sister company, Wison Engineering Services Ltd, China's largest private petrochemical engineering, procurement and construction contractor and equipment supplier, recorded its revenue of oil refinery business mostly from overseas markets, amounting to 944.6 million yuan ($145.7 million) during the first six months of the year. It represented a notable year-on-year increase of 9,252 percent.

"By adhering to the core strategy of internationalization, we were able to boost our global sales network, overseas project engineering and execution capabilities," said Liu Haijun, President of Wison Engineering.

Zheng Yuewen, chairman of the China-Africa Business Council, said unlike State-owned enterprises, whose African sales are based on contracts for big-ticket infrastructure projects, private firms are involved in several sectors such as selling shoes and automobiles, as well as processing local products like cotton and leather into manufactured goods such as garments and shoes.

The council represents the interests of more than 550 Chinese companies from private sector such as the Chongqing-based automobile producer Chongqing Lifan Holdings Co Ltd and Guangdong-based shoemaker Huajian Group in Africa.

Official data show that China's set equipment exports such as rail equipment, ship and numerical control machines rose 30 percent, 15 percent and 28 percent on a year-on-year basis between January and November this year, respectively. In the meantime, exports to emerging markets accounted for 46 percent of the country's foreign trade.

Zhi Luxun, deputy director-general of the department of foreign trade at the ministry, said China is increasingly becoming a victim of trade protectionism with trade remedy measures against Chinese products rising significantly between January and November.

As many as 73 trade dispute cases were filed against Chinese companies between January and November, including 58 anti-dumping cases, despite an overall slowdown in the number and value of trade friction cases.

Twenty-one countries and regions, mostly G20 members, initiated investigations against Chinese products, down 24 percent year-on-year.

"Chinese manufacturers from both the State-owned and private sectors are not only confronting cumbersome issues such as the appreciation of the yuan, rising financing costs, fierce competition with emerging countries in low-end product market, but also have to tackle various cases generated by trade protectionism," said Zhi.