China's high-end manufacturing industry will continue to accelerate its overseas layout

"After the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China's manufacturing industry has made considerable progress, and is moving forward from the middle and low end of the traditional value chain to the middle and high end. The manufacturing industry has also undergone a major change from the traditional price advantage competition to the quality and performance advantage competition." Zhu Minghao, executive director of the China High-end Manufacturing Research Center of Beijing Jiaotong University, said in an interview with the reporter of China Trade News that with the development of high-speed rail, power transmission and transformation, new energy vehicles Photovoltaic and other fields are among the world's leading and advanced industries. It has become an inevitable choice for China's high-end manufacturing industry to participate in international competition and strive for the global consumer market.

The White Paper 2022 of Listed Companies in China's High-end Manufacturing Industry (hereinafter referred to as the White Paper) released by the China Association of Listed Companies recently showed that as of December 10, 2022, the number of listed companies in China's high-end manufacturing industry reached 2121, accounting for 65% of the listed companies in the manufacturing industry, an increase of 69.7% compared with 1250 at the end of 2017. The White Paper pointed out that the development of high-end manufacturing listed companies has many characteristics, one of which is the gradual acceleration of overseas distribution in the past few years.

In this regard, Zhu Minghao believes that under the increasingly complex international situation, the layout of high-end manufacturing enterprises in overseas countries is conducive to better attract international talents, carry out international technical cooperation, and realize the global coordinated development of the industrial chain and supply chain "I have you in me, I have you in me". In addition, in recent years, the increasing global demand for minerals and energy has driven the expansion of construction machinery capacity, and China's construction machinery enterprises are seizing this opportunity to seize the international market.

In his view, the overseas layout and development of China's high-end manufacturing industry presents three characteristics: first, in Europe and the United States, R&D and technical cooperation are the main tasks. Enterprises generally acquire internationally advanced product technology and grasp the changes in international market demand by establishing branch cooperation institutions and conducting technical cooperation; The second is to drive the equipment manufacturing industry to sea, such as high-speed railway equipment, hydropower equipment, etc; Third, enterprises should make reasonable use of the characteristics of international tariffs, transportation and labor force to coordinate the layout of production capacity at home and abroad to form complementary advantages.

According to the White Paper, by 2021, 23% of the operating revenue of China's high-end manufacturing industry was contributed by overseas business, and the proportion of overseas business revenue continued to rise rapidly, and the growth rate was significantly higher than that of China's GDP growth and export amount. Zhu Minghao said that this first benefited from the development of China's manufacturing industry in all sectors and all sectors. China is the world's largest producer of manufacturing products. The manufacturing industry has strong resilience, rapid recovery and high capacity, which can meet the rapid growth demand of overseas markets. Secondly, the gradual smoothness of the internal circulation has led to the smoothness of the external circulation, and the advantages of the benign development pattern of the two types of circulation are emerging. Most of China's industrial chains have become independent from raw materials to parts, equipment, operations and services, and their international competitiveness is significantly better than that of many countries.

"China's' the Belt and Road 'construction is also injecting new impetus into the world economy. The high-end manufacturing industry is going out along the' the Belt and Road 'to accelerate market business expansion and industrial landing." Zhu Minghao said.

As a major manufacturing country, manufacturing is the lifeblood of our national economy, the foundation of our country and the foundation of a powerful country. The high-end manufacturing industry is the advanced stage of industrial development, which is of great significance to maintain the vitality of the real economy and realize the optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure. Jin Zhuanglong, Minister of Industry and Information Technology, said in an interview with the media recently that "support manufacturing enterprises to increase investment in high-end, intelligent and green development". It can be seen that the transformation of manufacturing industry from low-end to high-end has become a fixed trend, and "Made in China" is striding towards "Made in China".

This change is also reflected in the process of manufacturing going to sea. The White Paper shows that China's export product structure is gradually changing from labor-intensive products to advanced manufacturing products with high added value. "While maintaining the price advantage, the quality of products made in China has also been greatly improved, and the real realization of good quality and low price has been achieved," said Zhu Minghao, "From the perspective of product export structure, China's photovoltaic, power batteries, new energy vehicles, electric equipment, and engineering machinery are becoming strong competitors for export products, and light industrial products are also transforming into high-value-added products such as smart home furniture, brand clothing, and digital new products have become China's characteristic advantages."

Looking forward to the future, overseas development opportunities and challenges of high-end manufacturing coexist. Zhu Minghao believes that, on the one hand, with the continuous popularization and application of digital and green technologies in China's manufacturing industry, Chinese brands will better meet the needs of overseas users and gain a larger overseas market under the guidance of high-end digital products. At the same time, with the increasing global demand for Chinese products, China's supply chain is in a historical window period. The global economy is also recovering from the impact of the epidemic, and achieving economic growth is still the common pursuit of all sectors, and the market demand will be further expanded. On the other hand, challenges such as industrial localization, international patent competition and technical trade barriers also have many adverse factors for high-end manufacturing industry to go to sea.

"In general, the overseas development of high-end manufacturing enterprises in China tends to be good. For example, high-speed rail equipment, led by the general contractor of Yawan High-speed Railway, has realized the overseas landing of the whole system, the whole factor and the whole industrial chain, and has accelerated its occupation of the Southeast Asian market with excellent operation basis." Zhu Minghao said that in the new year, high-end manufacturing industry will further accelerate its overseas development, and the growth rate and proportion of overseas revenue of enterprises' high-value-added products will continue to increase. In addition, overseas patent layout will become an inevitable choice for manufacturing enterprises, and the global low-carbon goal will also bring continuous benefits to the export of photovoltaic and new energy automobile industries.