A few days ago, in Xiangyang, Hubei Province, a special train of Xiang ‘ou Banlie new energy vehicles was ready to go at Liugang Freight Yard in Xiangyang Free Trade Zone, Hubei Province. Xie Yongshe (People’s Vision)
A few days ago, foreign buyers learned about China’s new energy automobile products in the newly set new energy and intelligent networked automobile exhibition area of the Canton Fair. Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Dawei photo
In the first quarter of this year, China’s foreign trade exports improved month by month, achieving a good start. Among them, electric manned vehicles, lithium batteries and solar cells, which are known as the "new three kinds" of foreign trade, performed brilliantly. In the first quarter, the total export increased by 66.9%, with a year-on-year increase of more than 100 billion yuan, which increased the overall export growth rate by 2 percentage points.
Clothing, furniture and household appliances are often called the "old three" in foreign trade. Nowadays, while the "old three kinds" are steadily and steadily, the "new three kinds" have sprung up everywhere and become a vivid footnote for China’s foreign trade upgrading.
"New Three Kinds" Become New Kinetic Energy for Growth
Recently, the ro-ro ship "Anji Phoenix", the largest carrying capacity of SAIC, carried the first batch of new cars of MG brand, and sailed from the exclusive ro-ro terminal of Ningde Port in Fujian to the port of Lazaro Cardenas in Mexico. This series of cars sell well in nearly 20 countries and regions such as Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Thailand and Chile.
Since the beginning of this year, the overseas orders of many car companies have increased significantly. Zhang Cailiang, sales manager of Beijing Automobile Factory (Qingdao) Import and Export Co., Ltd. said: "We just received an order for 1,000 new energy vehicles in Turkey, and now the factory is running at full capacity." According to the data of China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (hereinafter referred to as "China Automobile Association"), in the first quarter of this year, China exported 248,000 new energy vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 1.1 times. Among them, BYD exported a total of 43,000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 12.8 times. At present, BYD’s new energy passenger car footprint has spread all over 51 countries and regions around the world.
Among the "new three kinds", the export growth rate of new energy vehicles is leading. In the first quarter, the export of electric manned vehicles was 64.75 billion yuan, up by 122.3%, accounting for 5.1 percentage points of China’s automobile exports, reaching 43.9%.
The export of lithium batteries is also hot. A batch of lithium batteries from a battery company in Taizhou, Jiangsu Province will be sent to South Africa soon. The person in charge of the enterprise said: "This year, overseas customers’ demand for household energy storage has further increased, and we have added a production line for lithium batteries." Guangdong Aucler Group Co., Ltd. is a lithium iron phosphate battery and lead-acid battery manufacturer integrating R&D, production and sales. The relevant person in charge of the company said that the external market demand has increased significantly this year.
Driven by multiple factors, such as strong demand in foreign electric vehicles and energy storage markets, China’s lithium battery exports reached 109.79 billion yuan in the first quarter, with a growth rate of 94.3%.
Solar cells have become a new business card for China’s foreign trade export. At the 133rd Canton Fair being held, all solar cell companies are full of harvest, welcoming a batch of buyers from Europe, North America and other places. In the first quarter, China’s solar cell exports exceeded 90 billion yuan, an increase of 23.6%.
The bright performance of the "new three" did not begin this year. In the first quarter of last year, the export of solar cells, lithium batteries and automobiles in China achieved high growth, with growth rates of 100.8%, 53.7% and 83.4% respectively. The export of "New Three Samples" led the whole foreign trade in 2022. The export of electric vehicles increased by 131.8%, the photovoltaic products mainly based on solar cells increased by 67.8%, and the lithium batteries increased by 86.7%.
"As a new kinetic energy for growth, ‘ Three new samples ’ The products reflect the effective improvement of China’s export quality and reasonable growth in quantity, and also make positive contributions to the global green and low-carbon transformation in China. " Lu Daliang, spokesman of the General Administration of Customs and director of the Statistical Analysis Department, said.
Sold to more than 200 countries and regions.
Who is buying the "new three"? According to customs data, in the first quarter of this year, China’s "New Three Samples" exported to more than 200 countries and regions around the world, among which exports to the top five markets of the European Union, the United States, ASEAN, South Korea and the United Kingdom increased by 88.7%, 88.1%, 103.5%, 121.7% and 118.2% respectively, accounting for 71% of the total export value of the "New Three Samples".
Why can the "new three kinds" be popular all over the world?
Gao Shiwang, spokesman of China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Mechanical and Electrical Products, analyzed that the "new three products" are all mechanical and electrical products, and the high growth rate of exports is mainly based on three reasons: market opportunities brought by industrial changes, China’s complete industrial chain and supply capacity, and the promotion of relevant policies.
With the increasing awareness of global environmental protection and the emphasis on sustainable development, the new energy industry has gradually become a global hotspot. In recent years, the government of China has vigorously promoted the development of new energy industry, and new energy vehicles, lithium batteries and solar cells have gradually emerged in domestic and foreign markets. At the same time, China’s continuous policy of opening wider to the outside world has also laid the foundation for the rapid growth of "new three kinds" exports. At the 133rd Canton Fair, Frederic, a buyer from Sweden, said: "Sweden and other Nordic countries have great demand for solar energy products. Because we value China products and China technology, we want to do business with China."
While the iron is hot, it needs to be hard by itself. Behind the booming export of "new three kinds" is the continuous improvement of the comprehensive strength of related industries in China. Consumers in China are increasingly accepting new energy vehicles, and the demand for new energy vehicles in China is growing, attracting more and more enterprises to join in this field. Under the fierce market competition and high R&D investment, the key technologies of electric manned vehicles have been continuously improved and made breakthroughs, and the cost has been continuously reduced and more competitive. At the same time, China has a complete industrial chain and supply chain system, which can meet all kinds of raw materials and parts needed for the production of "New Three Kinds" and promote these three industries to scale and level quickly. In the first quarter, private enterprises, foreign-invested enterprises, state-owned enterprises and other business entities all achieved rapid growth in exports of the "New Three Kinds", among which private enterprises accounted for 65.4% of the total export value of the "New Three Kinds", which was higher than the proportion of private enterprises in the total export.
In recent years, in order to better expand overseas markets, related China enterprises have laid out their industrial chains overseas, which further promoted the export of related industries. Taking new energy vehicles as an example, SAIC has built a full value chain of the automobile industry including innovative R&D centers, production bases, marketing centers, supply chain centers and financial companies overseas, and its products and services have entered more than 90 countries and regions around the world. After BYD’s first overseas passenger car production base is put into production in Thailand, the vehicles in the Thai market will not have to go through long export shipping and customs clearance procedures from placing orders to delivery, and the delivery efficiency will be greatly improved. According to the analysis of China Automobile Association, building a factory in the sea can also effectively reduce the cost of transportation and avoid the impact of exchange rate.
"The international market for ‘ Three new samples ’ The demand is growing, and China can provide competitive high-quality products. At the same time, China has maintained its position as the largest country in goods trade for six consecutive years and is one of the largest producers and exporters in the world, naturally becoming a major supplier in many countries. " Hong Yong, an associate researcher at the Institute of Electronic Commerce of the Ministry of Commerce, said.
"The country’s forward-looking and sustainable policies have supported all kinds of enterprises in ‘ Three new samples ’ The development of exports has played an important guiding role. " Liu Chun, vice president of China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Mechanical and Electrical Products, said.
Open up diversified export markets
Products with high technology, high added value and leading green transformation, such as "New Three Samples", have become new export growth points, reflecting the effective improvement of China’s export quality and reasonable growth in quantity, which is an important embodiment of the high-quality development of China’s foreign trade.
Hong Yong analyzed that the export growth of "New Three Kinds" shows that China’s new energy vehicles and other industries have already possessed international competitiveness and can compete with other countries’ products in the international market. China’s foreign trade is upgrading from low-end processing to high-end manufacturing.
In terms of achieving high-quality development, the export of "new three kinds" shows that China’s related industries have been able to occupy a place in the global market and have strong competitiveness and innovation ability. This also shows that China is accelerating the transformation of economic development mode, from traditional low-end processing and manufacturing to high-end manufacturing and service industries, and has achieved high-quality development.
Looking to the future, the environment facing China’s foreign trade is still severe and complicated, and the penetration rate of "New Three Samples" in major national markets is still low. How will China continue to maintain the good trend of "new three kinds" exports?
Enhance overseas operation capability — — Recently, the General Office of the State Council issued "Opinions on Promoting the Stable Scale and Optimal Structure of Foreign Trade", suggesting that local and business associations should organize direct passenger docking between automobile enterprises and shipping enterprises, and guide automobile enterprises to sign medium-and long-term agreements with shipping enterprises. Encourage Chinese banks and their overseas institutions to innovate financial products and services and provide financial support for auto companies overseas under the premise of legal compliance and controllable risks. All localities further support automobile enterprises to establish and improve the international marketing service system, and enhance their ability to carry out brand promotion, display sales and after-sales service overseas.
Actively expand diversified markets — — Hong Yong suggested that in order to enhance the recognition of China’s "new three products" in the international market, relevant enterprises should actively participate in international technical exchanges, project cooperation and other activities, strengthen cooperation with other countries in the field of new energy, improve the brand image of China enterprises, and then expand market share. It is understood that in order to make the supply chain and export destination layout more diversified, since last year, China’s "new three kinds" exports to emerging countries and regions are also growing rapidly. In March this year, BYD entered Jordan’s new energy passenger car market; The listing of the star model "BYD ATTO 3" in Thailand triggered local users to snap up in the middle of the night, and became the champion of new energy vehicle sales in Thailand in the first quarter of this year. This model won the single-model sales champion in Israel for five consecutive months.
Hong Yong said that the "new three" export enterprises need to constantly expand new markets and reduce their dependence on a single market to reduce risks. At the same time, we should also get rid of the internal friction competition such as simple price war in the past, and take building sustainable industrial competitiveness and increasing international market share as the core goal to continuously improve the quality and reputation of products.
According to expert analysis, the "new three kinds" belong to the industry of "long slope and thick snow". With the continuous innovation of related technologies and the continuous improvement of product quality, it is expected that the export volume of "new three kinds" will continue to maintain a good momentum of rapid growth in the future.
