Electric vehicles, photovoltaic products, and lithium batteries have become export growth points
"Three New Items" Stimulate New Momentum of Foreign Trade
Our reporter Shen Dongfang
Shanghai Waigaoqiao Port Area Haitong International Automobile Terminal, 540 Great Wall brand new energy vehicles are shipped to South Africa on roll-on wheels; Henan Fute New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., the machines on the production lines of the production workshop are running non-stop, busy making lithium Battery export orders; On the edge of the Mu Us Sandy Land, on the construction site of the National Energy Group Ningdong 2 million-kilowatt composite photovoltaic base project, more than a thousand builders installed photovoltaic brackets and modules...
In 2022, my country's foreign trade will withstand the impact of multiple unexpected factors, and the total value of imports and exports will exceed the 40 trillion yuan mark for the first time.
Among them, the export of electric vehicles, photovoltaic products, and lithium batteries increased by 131.8%, 67.8%, and 86.7% year-on-year respectively. Electricity, light, and lithium have become the "new three types" of foreign trade exports.
Products with high technology, high added value, and leading green transformation have become new growth points for exports. What are the reasons behind them?
To continue to maintain a good export trend, how do we need to improve the industrial chain and supply chain?
Reporters conducted interviews on these issues.
To stabilize foreign trade and promote the economy, the "three new products" of electricity, light and lithium have become the growth point of exports, and while actively exporting, we will accelerate the transformation of overseas landing
As an industry integrating low-carbonization and digitalization, new energy vehicles play a strong role in the national economy.
Statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers show that China's auto exports will reach 3.111 million vehicles in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 54.4%, ranking second in the world.
The main driving force for the growth of China's auto exports is new energy vehicles. Among the vehicles exported throughout the year, new energy vehicles accounted for 21.83%.
In addition to complete vehicles, supporting lithium batteries are also the highlight of exports.
According to statistics from the General Administration of Customs of China, the export value of lithium-ion batteries in my country was close to 342.656 billion yuan last year, an increase of 20.2 percentage points year-on-year.
From the perspective of exporting countries, the top five countries in domestic lithium battery exports are the United States, Germany, South Korea, the Netherlands and Vietnam, accounting for 57.6% of the total export value.
Recently, the power battery company Ningde Times officially started its factory in Arnstadt, Thuringia, Germany. After full production, the annual output will reach about 30 million battery cells, which can assemble 185,000 to 350,000 electric vehicles.
Regarding the establishment of the first overseas factory in a country with a developed automobile industry, Zeng Yuqun, chairman of CATL, said that he hopes to bring the world's leading power battery technology to Germany.
"By forming a localized power battery supply capacity in Europe, we can get closer to European customers, provide more timely and effective product solutions, and respond to customer needs better and faster."
In the "scrambling for overseas orders" that has continued since years ago, companies have been looking for orders overseas and exploring business opportunities. For Trina Solar, a leading photovoltaic company, the overseas order grabbing has never stopped.
Chen Cheng, head of Trina Energy Storage's overseas business, spends half of the time abroad every year.
"The team members are very confident and motivated." It is understood that Trina Solar's overseas "grabbing orders" returned with a full load, and won a number of major and long-term orders, and the orders are large in scale, which is expected to account for the total sales in 2023. 30%-50% of that.
As one of the "three new products" for export, the performance of photovoltaic products is also very impressive.
At the "2022 Development Review of the Photovoltaic Industry and 2023 Situation Outlook Seminar" held on February 16, Wang Bohua, honorary chairman of the China Photovoltaic Industry Association, said that the total export of photovoltaic products exceeded 50 billion US dollars, an increase of over 80% year-on-year, a record high. record high.
At the same time, he predicts that my country's newly installed photovoltaic capacity will reach 95-120GW (gigawatts, a unit of photovoltaic installed capacity) in 2023, accounting for more than 30% of the world's newly installed capacity.
Among the many photovoltaic products, which categories are more popular in overseas markets?
"From the past market performance, modules have always occupied a relatively high proportion of photovoltaic product exports. Last year, the export volume of silicon wafers and cells also increased significantly. It can be said that the export of photovoltaic products has become a key factor for China to stabilize foreign trade and promote the economy. An important starting point." Shi Jingli, a researcher at the Energy Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that even though the high price of silicon materials pushed up the price of components, last year's photovoltaic overseas still maintained a strong growth momentum.
This is enough to prove that the photovoltaic products exported by China have obvious competitiveness in the world.
Products in the new energy field conform to the low-carbon trend, and international competitiveness is the comprehensive result of core technologies, market cultivation, and industrial policies
At 9:18 on February 8, a sea-rail intermodal train loaded with 120 domestic new energy vehicles departed from the Changzhou Railway Freight Yard to Ningbo Zhoushan Port. After arriving at Ningbo Zhoushan Port, the batch of new energy vehicles will be Export by sea to many European countries.
This is the first new energy vehicle export train launched by the Yangtze River Delta Railway after the year. Recently, Chongqing, Guangdong, Henan and other places have successfully launched new energy vehicle special trains for the China-Europe Railway Express, setting up a "green channel" for vehicle exports. ".
In recent years, China's export products are no longer limited to low-value-added categories such as clothing and handmade products. The increase in exports of high-value-added and high-tech products has become a highlight of the high-quality development of my country's foreign trade, and new energy and other sub-sectors are growing. Especially obvious.
"New energy products such as electric vehicles and photovoltaic products have become the growth point of exports, reflecting the transformation of my country's product exports from labor-intensive products with relatively simple technology to capital- and technology-intensive products with more complex technology." Xi Jinping, New Era China, Jiangsu Province Wu Qiang, a special researcher at the Theoretical Research Base of Nanjing University at the Center for Socialist Thought Research with Characteristics, analyzed that the manufacturing process of these new energy products is more complicated, the industrial chain is longer, and the supporting system required is larger. Gradually build a strong international competitiveness.
As a new driving force for China's foreign trade exports, the development of new energy products has not been smooth.
Among them, electric vehicles and photovoltaic products have gone through two different development paths, which are representative in the development of China's export industry.
Wu Qiang introduced to the reporter that my country's photovoltaic products developed rapidly at the beginning of this century, and the main market and raw materials were all abroad.
Affected by the international financial crisis, my country's photovoltaic industry has serious overcapacity and is in trouble.
After experiencing market competition and training, my country's photovoltaic industry has mastered the core technology in recent years and has strong global competitiveness. "So the current export of photovoltaic products has increased rapidly, which is a natural manifestation of growing from being bigger to becoming stronger." In contrast, the development history of electric vehicles in my country is shorter, and basically develops simultaneously with the world, and there is no obvious technological gap at the beginning.
In the process of competing with foreign-funded enterprises such as Tesla, a group of local enterprises with independent intellectual property rights emerged, and their products were recognized by the domestic market, and then entered the international market.
"Although the development paths of the two are different, there are common driving factors behind them." Wu Qiang said that the first is to master the core technology, starting from technology introduction and learning, and gradually mastering the core technology through independent research and development to form its own technological advantages.
The second is the model of "decisive battles at home first, and then wins abroad". The huge domestic market demand is a prerequisite for cultivating emerging industries. Only companies that stand out from the domestic competition can be competitive in the international market.
In addition to the strong endogenous driving force, the global low-carbon trend has also brought a burst of wind to the export of new energy products in my country.
On February 7, the British Minister of Commerce and the Minister of Transport announced that the British government will provide 113 million pounds (about 926 million yuan) of financial support for electric air taxis and hydrogen-powered aircraft to promote zero-carbon flight; The Minnesota State Senate passed the 100% Clean Energy Act, which requires utilities to increase renewable energy generation to 55% by 2035 and transition to 100% carbon-free energy throughout the state by 2040. So far, the United States has committed to 100% % of states using clean or renewable energy will reach 13...
"From the perspective of the international market, the emphasis on new energy and low-carbon aspects has increased significantly, which is also one of the important reasons why the above-mentioned new energy products have performed well in exports." Zhang Liqun, a researcher at the Macroeconomic Research Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council, analyzed, To achieve rapid and healthy economic growth without harming the environment, low-carbon economy has become the future development trend of all countries in the world.
This global trend will promote technological innovation of Chinese enterprises, improve the technological level of their own products, actively respond to carbon tariff barriers, increase the technological content of China's export products, and promote the upgrading of industrial structure.
Facing the complex international economic situation, a sound supply chain and industrial chain are the stabilizers of export growth, and "winning with quality" is the kingly way for long-term development
The transport vehicles loaded with materials come and go, one product after another is assembled on the assembly line, and the production line is fully powered... Walking into the Galanz factory area, a scene of busy production in full swing comes into view.
As one of the first Chinese manufacturing enterprises to "go global", Galanz's products and services are exported to more than 170 countries and regions, and its brands are registered in more than 150 countries and regions.
A relevant person in charge of Galanz said, “Among them, countries under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) are Galanz’s key markets, mainly exporting products such as microwave ovens, ovens, refrigerators, and washing machines.” For example, the tariffs on products exported to ASEAN and other countries and regions have been reduced from 10% to 5%, which has greatly improved product competitiveness.
As the world's largest free trade agreement, RCEP has been in force for more than a year, and trade in goods such as agricultural products and automobiles, as well as trade in services such as logistics and cross-border e-commerce, has flourished within the region, allowing the layout of related industries to more flexibly follow the principle of efficiency and promote Reasonable layout of industrial and supply chains among member states.
The first anniversary of RCEP's formal entry into force and the tenth anniversary of the "One Belt, One Road" initiative... While enjoying policy dividends, my country's foreign trade enterprises are also facing complex international economic situations.
"In the past three years, my country's relatively complete supply chain and industrial chain, coupled with my country's achievements in epidemic response, have supported my country's exports to maintain a relatively high growth rate. However, with high inflation, the long-term conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the With the accelerated restructuring of the global industrial chain, major economies such as the United States and Europe are facing the risk of recession, and overall the pressure on exports this year will further increase.” Zhang Liqun said, how to play positive factors and stabilize Export growth is one of the major tasks we are currently facing.
The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to "accelerate the construction of a strong trading country", and emphasized "promoting the optimization and upgrading of trade in goods", "innovating the development mechanism of trade in services", and "developing digital trade".
The Central Economic Work Conference held at the end of 2022 proposed to promote high-level opening up and improve the quality and level of trade and investment cooperation.
In Zhang Liqun's view, "winning by quality" is the kingly way.
"When we pay attention to the growth of exports, we should not only see dark horse industries such as 'New Three Samples', but also pay special attention to old industries such as traditional manufacturing." The quality and comprehensive cost performance have opened up the market in the international market, and at the same time, it has steadily occupied the market share in the continuous upgrading.
Taking Galanz as an example, from the production of down jackets to the production of microwave ovens, and now to the production and development of a full range of smart home appliances, from manual workshops to automated production lines, and now to today's intelligent unmanned workshops, the stable and high-quality products continue to make important contributions to exports .
"Considering that my country's import and export scale has already taken the lead in the world, what should be expected is the sustainable natural growth based on my country's industrial transformation and upgrading and the gradual enhancement of competitiveness." Looking forward to the future, Wu Qiang suggested strengthening the opening up of markets beyond commodities and factors , the focus is to expand institutional opening-up in terms of rules, regulations, management, and standards. This is a key point in China's new round of high-level opening-up, and it is also a common institutional foundation and equal basis for building a new dual-cycle development pattern. institutional standards.
At the same time, my country must actively promote and participate in various bilateral and regional free trade agreements, and build a larger and more open regional market.
(China Discipline Inspection and Supervision News)