"The reason why China's new energy vehicles can occupy a certain position in the global market is very important because of 'product power'. The future global development of the automobile industry will also depend on the growth of the industry, the layout of each regional market in the world, the acceptance of Chinese brands in each regional market, etc." Gao Yuan, Director of Overseas Business Department of Lantu Automobile, said.
"We have eight strategies in Foton Motor, including the overseas business strategy. The ultimate goal of our 'going out' and 'going in' is to localize, invest and conduct in-depth manufacturing locally to bring our customers higher-quality products while providing complete marketing service solutions." Xu Chengxin, vice president of business of Foton's overseas division, said.
In 2023, China's auto exports totaled 5.221 million units, up 57.4% year-on-year, officially becoming the world's top auto exporter. 2024 in the first two months of China's exports of 831,000 vehicles, an increase of 22.1% year-on-year, exports are still maintained at a medium-high rate of growth, to achieve the "open door". At the 2024 China Automotive Import and Export Summit Forum held in Tianjin from March 25 to 26, guests discussed how to enhance the linkage effect of resources in the domestic and international markets of the automotive industry and optimize the production capacity structure.
"As an important source of incremental volume of China's automobile industry, the automobile export business should actively explore diversified markets, and consciously become the main force to promote the quality and quantity stability of foreign trade." Wu Yi, deputy general manager of General Technology Group International Holding Company Limited, said that the automobile industry has become a leader in industrial integration and upgrading, consumption promotion, export stabilization and other socio-economic fields, and it needs to realize high-quality development of the industry through innovation drive, add bricks and mortar to the construction of modernized industrial system with more new advantages and new vitality, and inject abundant " Automobile kinetic energy".
China Automobile Circulation Association President Shen Jinjun said, along with the rapid rise of China's auto industry, China's auto exports have achieved remarkable results, has developed into China's foreign trade exports of new kinetic energy on behalf of the "new three" show new advantages. China's auto exports into the fast lane, not only become an important force driving the growth of automobile production and sales, China's auto export growth rate is also far more than the overall average growth rate of domestic trade in goods, becoming a major bright spot in macroeconomic development.
At present, the global automobile market is gradually recovering, China's auto export opportunities. According to authoritative organizations, it is expected that by 2025 and 2030, global light vehicle sales will reach 83.4 million and 88.3 million respectively. According to the International Energy Agency, if all the countries that have announced net-zero emissions fulfill their commitments on time, the global sales of new energy vehicles will reach 45 million in 2030, which will provide a broader track for the development of global new energy vehicle enterprises.
The China Automobile Import and Export Industry Development Report released at the forum shows that China's auto exports will further enhance its market control ability on the basis of consolidating the existing achievements, and the annual vehicle exports are expected to reach the scale of 6 million units in 2024, with a year-on-year growth of 20%. It is expected that new energy vehicles will still become the main driving force of automobile exports, and the penetration rate is expected to increase to more than 35%.
At the same time, with the changes in the global political and economic situation, China's automobile exports external challenges are also increasing, many countries and regions have introduced policies to support the industrial development of local enterprises, increasing the difficulty of Chinese car companies to enter the local market. For example, the EU has not only introduced the Battery Law and implemented the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which constitutes a new trade barrier; in addition, the EU is conducting a countervailing investigation into Chinese electric vehicles.
According to Tian Shu, national associate managing partner of Deloitte's Indirect Tax Practice, automobile exporters need to handle the three major relationships with governments, business peers, and consumers well to break through these barriers, work closely with government departments, industry associations, and think tanks, and accurately and comprehensively judge the changes in the market of export destinations.
In addition, the risks in specific trading behaviors should also be highly valued. Zheng Dian, senior underwriter of trade insurance of China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation (CECIC), introduced that from 2002 to now, China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation (CECIC) has underwritten the whole automobile enterprises amounting to US$278.5 billion, received nearly US$4 billion of reported losses, handled more than 2,000 claims, paid nearly US$1.6 billion of claims, and the net claim rate is 97%.
"In this segment of the automotive industry, we underwrite at a loss. This can be explained from two dimensions, on the one hand, compared to other industries, the automotive export market in the past 20 years is mainly the Asian, African and Latin American markets, and the overall risk fundamentals are higher than those of other industries; on the other hand, it also shows that we have fulfilled our mission of insuring and paying out as much as possible, and helped enterprises grow in the midst of risks." Zheng Dian analysis said that the export trade needs to pay special attention to the risks brought by three types of buyers: transportation service providers, engineering project contractors, and automobile leasing business. These three types of buyers have a common feature, the general demand for a longer billing period, the overall repayment comes from future operating income. She suggests that auto exporters need to gradually liberalize payment methods when signing contracts, pay regular attention to buyer purchase and sales inventory data, and further extend their risk-control tentacles to the downstream. If risks have already occurred, they need to report losses in a timely manner.
Automobile exports have achieved such hard-won results today. Participants hope that the industry and enterprises will cherish the current rapid development trend, continue to improve their technical level and product quality, compete fairly and orderly in the overseas market, do a good job in after-sales service, build a good brand and realize sustainable development.
