(Yicai Global) Dec. 5 -- Many manufacturers based in the Chinese city of Ningbo, a major foreign-trade hub on the eastern coast, are participating in more international exhibitions to try and open up foreign markets and secure more export orders as competition stiffens amid a cooling global economy.

More than 40 manufacturers based in Ningbo, southeastern Zhejiang province, will be attending the China (Saudi Arabia) Intelligent Manufacturing Exhibition from Dec. 14 to 16, Yicai Global has learned. For many, including Ningbo Quality Electronic, a solar panel maker, and Ningbo Jiwei Melt Mold Casting, a producer of low alloy and high wear-resistant materials, it will be their first overseas exhibition since the start of the pandemic.

"Businesses are keen to expand their footprint in emerging markets, as orders from the US and EU are falling,” said Chi Qiaoyu, secretary general of Ningbo Enterprises Association for Foreign Economics and Trade. Ningbo’s exports to the US have plunged more than 10 percent each month for the past three months. And Ningbo exporters’ existing and newly-signed orders have been contracting for the last six weeks.

"We have to go abroad no matter what," Lin Chengna, assistant to the general manager of Quality Electronic, told Yicai Global. During the pandemic, the firm mainly used online channels and local representatives to explore the market. “However, meeting people in person is so much more efficient,” she said.

“Orders slowed down in the second half, from the first half,” Lin said. But Quality Electronic is not too concerned as the orders this year are already double that of last year. However, it needs to find orders for next year.

During the two-day trip, the sales team will meet with old clients and some potential clients who have contacted them online, but have not yet made a purchase, she said.

Ningbo Jiwei, whose main market is the US, is trying to open up access to the Middle East, a company insider told Yicai Global. Although export orders this year are almost the same as last year, next year might be different. It's easier to communicate with new customers in person at trade fairs, he added.

Later in the month, some 1,047 Chinese firms, including 105 from Ningbo, will be attending the 2022 China (United Arab Emirates) Trade Fair in Dubai from Dec. 19 to 21. Their biggest motivation is to secure new orders and find new customers, Wang Bingwen, general manager of one of the expo’s organizers, Ningbo Meo Commerce and Exhibition, told Yicai Global.

Ningbo Qiangsheng Electric Motor, a manufacturer of electric motors for portable tools, is going to the fair to drum up more business in the Middle East, Tong Zhuowei, a company manager, said. Although orders have been stable this year, they are slowing. The company has invited a number of local clients to the fair.

Government-Led Trips

The Ningbo municipal government has been organizing a series of overseas trade delegations to enable local businesses to meet industry players in other countries and to participate in overseas exhibitions, so as to help more of them go global and offset the drop in demand.

Since the beginning of the year, the local government has organized two batches of eight overseas trade trips, securing USD2 billion in orders. As of the end of November, over 850 people from Ningbo companies had travelled to the US, Germany, as well as Central and Eastern Europe and other places this year on business trips.

Tomorrow, another trade delegation, led by Fei Jianming, Ningbo Vice Mayor Li Guanding, will set out for the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia and Japan，Fei Jianming, director of the foreign trade promotion division at the Ningbo Municipal Bureau of Commerce, told Yicai Global.

Government-led business trips abroad help boost companies’ confidence, meet the urgent demand to expand their markets, bring in much-needed orders, protect main market entities and promote projects, Fei said.

It is almost three years now that most of Ningbo’s manufacturers that rely on exports have not been able to go abroad to take part in exhibitions, meet foreign clients in person nor carry out normal trade exchanges.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor