According to the latest data released by the Ministry of Commerce, from January to July this year, the total value of China’s goods trade exports reached 11.66 trillion yuan, a record high in the same period, an increase of 24.5% year-on-year, the highest growth rate in 10 years.

Song Xiangqing, deputy director of the Institute of Government Management and director of the Industrial Economy Research Center at Beijing Normal University, told China Economic Times: “Although China’s manufacturing industry has also been impacted and affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, it has not been damaged. This is mainly because China’s manufacturing industry has a solid foundation, great resilience and strong impact resistance.”

Under the impact of the epidemic, China’s manufacturing industry has recovered rapidly

Recently, many companies such as Apple have seen orders return to China. As a rising star in the manufacturing industry, Vietnam has had to temporarily shut down some factories or even “shut down” due to the impact of the new coronavirus epidemic. Affected by this, many companies, including Apple, shifted their orders to China.

Germany’s official “July 2021 Global Machinery and equipment report” shows that in 2020, China for the first time in the machinery and equipment manufacturing industry to catch up with Germany, the world’s first sales crown. In addition, data from the Ministry of Commerce show that from January to July this year, China’s exports to traditional markets such as the United States, the European Union and Japan increased by 22.6%. Trade cooperation with emerging markets continued to deepen, and exports to emerging markets such as ASEAN, Latin America and Africa increased by 26.5% in total, pushing up the overall export growth rate by 13 percentage points.

The DTZ Global Manufacturing Index 2021 study scores countries based on 20 variables and three weights of operating conditions, manufacturing costs and risk. Data sources included in the report include the World Bank, the United Nations, the Economic Forum and Moody’s Analytics. According to the study, China ranks first in key assessment categories such as economic rebound ability, baseline situation, operating costs and geopolitical risk.

“I think China’s manufacturing industry has indeed been hurt in the impact of the epidemic, but on the whole, the epidemic has not hurt the vitality of China’s manufacturing industry.” Song Xiangqing said, therefore, the damage is short-term, the loss is controllable, and the recovery is relatively easy.

China’s manufacturing sector is expected to contribute more than 40% of the world’s total

Why was China’s manufacturing sector able to recover so quickly under the impact of the epidemic? Dominic Br own, head of insight and analysis for Asia Pacific at DTZ, said: “With the COVID-19 pandemic under control and strong development of manufacturing hubs, China is able to fill the gap left by shutdowns of US and European manufacturers, capturing a greater share of global exports, from about 13% in 2019 to 15% in 2020. In addition, in the first quarter of 2021, Chinese exports were about 27% higher than in the second quarter of 2019, reaching $150 billion.”

Song Xiangqing analysis pointed out that the reason why China’s manufacturing industry can recover rapidly under the impact of the epidemic is from the policy guarantee system, technological innovation system, and industrial chain and supply chain advantages built by China’s manufacturing industry for more than 40 years.

In addition, China’s manufacturing industry has formed a robust technological innovation system, and based on technological innovation to form six market advantages, namely, a complete industrial system, a strong industrial talent team, a huge manufacturing capacity, a complete industrial chain supply chain, a large middle class to support the domestic market, international investment and trade network system.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly accelerated changes in supply chains that were already in place before the outbreak. There are two clear trends on the mainland. First, with massive investments in robotics, artificial intelligence, and blockchain technology, manufacturers are moving up the value chain. Secondly, the manufacturing of low-cost goods is moving abroad, mainly to Southeast Asian countries. The relevant person in charge of DTZ told this reporter.

Song Xiangqing predicted that China’s contribution to the global manufacturing industry is expected to reach or even exceed 40% after the end of the epidemic. “Most of the world’s manufacturing industry clusters are still in China, and global manufacturing brands will be more from China.” With the continuous growth of China’s domestic market, the future of the global manufacturing industry to look at China is still the consensus of the world.” Song Xiangqing said.