China's Resumption of Work and Production Injects Power into Global Economic Recovery

Zhang Yuannan, Zhang Penghui, Liu Junguo, People's Daily

China's Resumption of Work and Production Injects Power into Global Economic Recovery

Zhang Yuannan, Zhang Penghui, Liu Junguo, People's Daily

After more than 40 days of sailing on the Ocean, 8 heavy-duty cranes produced by Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. arrive at the Port of Salvador, Brazil, and are delivered successfully. "China nearly has overcome the novel coronavirus epidemic, and has resumed production rapidly, and the quality and quantity of the manufacturing and transportation tasks are fulfilled. This provides a strong guarantee for upgrading our terminal's operation capacity," said Sergio Gonsalves, a chief operating officer of the Taiken wharf.

In the context of the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on global economic activities, China has accelerated the resumption of work and production, and import and export data have significantly recovered, injecting confidence and impetus into the global economic recovery.

China's infrastructure construction shows vitality

The rapid expansion of China's resumption of production has provided a strong impetus for the global industrial chain and supply chain to restore stability. According to the survey of German Machinery Manufacturing Association, the supply chain tension of German machinery manufacturing industry is relieved somewhat due to improvement of the product supply from China. In an interview with our reporter, Zhan Feng, a representative of China at the Port of Bruges, Belgium, said that under the normal epidemic prevention and control, China has returned to work in an all-round way, European economic activities are gradually recovering, and trade between China and the EU is returning to normal.

According to the latest data released by China State Railway Group Co. Ltd., in May this year, the cumulative number of China-Europe trains exceeded 1000 for the first time in a single month, an increase of 43% year-on-year, and 93,000 TEUs of goods were delivered, an increase of 48% year-on-year. The number of trains and the goods volume of delivery reached a record high in a single month, providing strong support for the global war against the epidemic and ensuring the stable and smooth international industrial chain and supply chain.

China's economic recovery has strongly supported the supply and development of the world's raw material market. Demand for raw materials such as steel is picking up in China, and has pushed the prices higher in Asia, Japan Economic News reported recently. For example, the transaction price of hot-rolled coil widely used in automobile manufacturing and other fields in East Asia market began to rebound in May. According to the Financial Times, "China's infrastructure construction shows vitality", boosted by China's demand growth, the price of raw materials such as iron ore will increase significantly in the near future.

Marcello Spinelli, Executive Director of Brazil's mining giant Vale's Ferrous Minerals, said a number of data show that China's economic recovery is accelerating. In April this year, Brazil's iron ore export volume was close to 24 million tons, up 28% year on year. Among them, exports to China increased by 20%. In May this year, Brazil's exports of agricultural products increased by about 18% year on year, the highest in a single month. Among them, the total amount of agricultural products exported to China increased by 50.4% year on year, accounting for about 45% of the total. The Brazilian Federation of Agriculture believes that foreign demand, especially China's demand for soybeans and meat, can largely offset the impact of the epidemic on Brazilian related industries.

We have full confidence in the development prospect of China's market

Japanese cars continue to sell well in China, a Japanese article by Kyodo News Service says recently. The article points out that Toyota's new car sales in China increased by 20.1% year on year in May, surpassing the previous year's performance for two consecutive months. Nissan's car sales rose 6.7% year on year for two consecutive months too. Incomplete statistics show that in May, China sold more than 1.6 million vehicles nationwide. China's automobile enterprises speed up the resumption of production, and the demand for automobile consumption has been effectively released and replenished.

"China plays a very important role in the supply chain of the global automobile industrial chain," said Mike Hawes, CEO of the Society of British Motor Manufacturers and Traders. In addition to ensuring the supply of spare parts, the gradual recovery of China's consumer market demand has also provided strong support for European automobile exports. British auto exports fell 37.8% year-on-year in March, but exports to China rose 2.3%, according to the Society.

Based on the huge development space and potential of China's auto market, the global automobile giants have successively increased their investment in China. Toyota Motor Corporation announced in early June that it would set up a joint venture in Beijing to develop fuel cell systems, in an effort to accelerate cooperation with local companies and promote fuel cell vehicles. Nidec Corporation, electric motor manufacturer and supplier of Japan, announced that it will build a new large-scale electric drive motor R & D base in China, which is planned to be put into operation in 2021.

German automakers BMW, Volkswagen, etc. have also strengthened cooperation with their Chinese partners, especially in the new energy market in China. The strong support from the Chinese market has mitigated the impact of the epidemic on the group's business, said Herbert Dease, CEO of Volkswagen Group. "We are confident in the future of the Chinese market." Ferdinand Dudenheffer, director of the Automotive Research Center of Duisburg-Essen University in Germany, said that China has the largest auto market in the world and still has huge growth potential. "For German companies, consolidating their market position in China is crucial."

The production resumption of Chinese enterprises is of great significance to the recovery of global industrial chain and supply chain

China has advanced epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development as a whole, made significant strategic achievements in the fight against epidemic outbreak, and orderly promoted the resumption of work and production, which not only provides valuable experience for the global anti-epidemic efforts, but also lays an important foundation for the world economic recovery.

Novel coronavirus outbreak will inevitably generate a severe recession for the global economy, but China's economy will continue to maintain growing momentum, the World Bank said in its recently released Global Economic Outlook Report. Michael Spencer, chief economist at Deutsche Bank and head of Asia Pacific Research, was quoted by American CNBC as saying that China's economic recovery "will be very impressive.". With the significant strategic achievements of China's epidemic prevention and control, the continuous promotion of resumption of work and production has not only enhanced the domestic economic vitality, but also greatly boosted the world market and injected power into the global economic recovery.

Mark Goichman, an analyst at EUROLINK, said: "China currently occupies an important position in the global industrial chain and supply chain. The supply chain, service chain and value chain system formed around the industrial chain are the most complete in the world, thus forming a strong enterprise ecosystem, which can provide complete programs for business activities. This is the strongest magnetism and adhesives to attract multinational companies. "

"China has a complete manufacturing system, which is an important link of the global industrial chain. It is of great significance of Chinese enterprises to return to work and resume production on the recovery of global industrial chain and supply chain, " Xia Huasheng, director of the International Financial Management Research Center of the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Brazil, told our reporter, "under the premise of doing well in epidemic prevention and control, Chinese enterprises in Brazil returned to production and increased local production capacity. Brazil's current employment market is under great pressure, and the good state of Chinese enterprises has a positive impact locally.

On April 7, construction workers stepped up construction at the expansion site of Shanxi Yuncheng airport terminal. Recently, with the continuous improvement of epidemic prevention and control situation, enterprises all over the country are preparing for resuming production.

, chief representative of the Shanghai Office, JETRO, told our reporter that China is speeding up the resumption of work and production, and the world is full of expectations for China to promote the recovery of world economic growth. In response to the epidemic, China has actively explored new business and new models in business, life and other aspects. It is crucial for all countries to work with China to seize these new opportunities. In addition, the new infrastructure that China is promoting has also attracted wide attention. "We expect enterprises from all countries to participate in it, which will strongly boost confidence in the recovery of the world economy."

China's resumption of work experience will become a world model

According to an article published by the Financial Times recently, China's return to work experience may become a world sample. The article said that an urgent global issue is how to turn on the "business wheel" again without triggering a second wave of COVID-19 outbreaks. China's gradual recovery of commerce also provides a sample for the recovery of economic activities around the world. The Financial Times commented that if China can revive its domestic economy, which can help the global economic recovery.

The U.S. CNN believes that multinational enterprises are actually learning from the multinationals experience of returning to work in China. CNN reported that the response measures of multinational enterprises in China have become the focus of attention of Wall Street analysts in recent days. Over the past few days, Nike, Starbucks, Disney, Volkswagen and other multinational enterprises have shared their experiences in China. For example, when Volkswagen reopened its large factory in Wolfsburg, Germany, it referred to the experience of its 32 factories returning to production in China.

Italy's ANSA praised China's vigorous efforts to help foreign trade enterprises resume production in the context of further curbing the epidemic. The Italian national business newspaper Milano Finanza weekly said that with the gradual recovery of China's economy, the worst is in the past … At present, the number of newly confirmed cases of the virus is decreasing in many countries, and the medical situation continues to improve, so the removal of quarantine has become an important issue. The reopening of economy has also begun at the same time. In this regard, China is in a leading position, and China's relevant measures for the recovery of economy can serve as a model for other countries to learn from.

China helps restart the global economy with responsibility and a long-term vision

In an exclusive interview with Juan Lea Casas, Spain's former ambassador to China, Nouvelles D’Europe, the influential daily in Chinese, talked about China's important role in the global economic recovery. Juan L. Casas said: "President Xi Jinping repeatedly calls for support for globalization and multilateralism, which is encouraging in the current epidemic outbreak and socio-economic crisis. In this situation, it is important to restart the global economy and make up for some of the imbalances. As the second largest economy in the world, China plays an important role in economic recovery. In the face of major challenges such as overcoming the epidemic and restarting the global economy, China plays its role responsibly with a long-term vision."

COMEX do Brasil, an information gathering website for Brazil's foreign trade industry, notes that China is pushing for the resumption of work and production, "which gives impetus to the global economy.". The article also mentions that many foreign manufacturers, such as Airbus and Honeywell, have arranged to resume work and production according to their own conditions. The pandemic outbreak does not affect their confidence in investing and operating in China. It is smart and insightful to maintain the determination and confidence to develop in and with China.

The article predicts that the restart of "world factory" and "world market" will activate the global industrial chain and relieve the pressure of the world economy. The resilience of China's economy will be slowly proved, which is a good sign of global economic growth. The article also urges the international community to work together to support the growth of international trade and economic stability while fighting against the novel coronavirus epidemic.

China’s resumption of production benefits significantly many industries in the regions hit by epidemic outbreak

Some foreign mainstream media also report on the pushing role of China's orderly resumption of production to specific industries such as tourism, aviation and auto-making. According to an article on Russian Sputnik News network on May 9, with the promotion of China's resumption of work and production, China's domestic tourism market is gradually recovering and people's willingness to travel is increasing. Russian media believe that China has provided a successful example for the recovery of Russian post-epidemic tourism industry. The UK Reuters article on May 6 also noted that tourism is one of the industries most affected by the epidemic outbreak, while China's tourism industry shows encouraging signs of recovery during the May 1 holiday. Germany's NTV analyzes the rapid increase of accommodation orders from China and believes that the recovery of China's tourism industry is being closely watched by the world, which will provide an example for other countries' tourism restart.

China's domestic flights are "regaining ground" as internal travel restrictions are relaxed and workplaces are reopened, the UK Economist said in an article on May 7. The article believes that if the strong recovery of China's domestic market coincides with the continued deterioration of the situation of the world's old airlines, China's aviation giants will get a larger share of international routes.

On April 7, workers selected chestnut kernels in a chestnut processing workshop in Zunhua City, Tangshan, Hebei Province. The local government actively helps small and medium-sized enterprises to attract local farmers to enter the factory and return to the factory to work, so as to promote the employment and income increase of farmers at home. Recently, with the continuous improvement of the epidemic prevention and control situation, enterprises and engineering construction projects around the country have been doing a good job in epidemic prevention and control, returning to work and production in an orderly manner, and stepping up production and construction. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Liu Mancang)

According to an article "Toyota's new car sales in China rose from a drop in April" by Kyodo News, the production and sales in the whole Chinese market pushed forward the resumption of production. Sales of new cars in China rose 0.2% year-on-year in April, three months later turning to growth, Toyota said on 8 May. Honda revealed that the plant in Wuhan, Hubei Province, had returned to normal operation by the end of April. Mazda also reported a 1.0% increase in April.

Kyodo News in another article "China's economic indicators improved to drive the Nikkei index up 0.28%" said that the Tokyo stock market on the 7th ushered in the first trading day after the golden week, and the Nikkei index rebounded. In addition to the rise in technology stocks, some improvement in China's economic indicators is also good for market formation. China's trade statistics released on the 7th showed an improvement in exports, injecting confidence into the market. The article also said that the U.S. rhetoric blaming China for the novel coronavirus outbreak is also a destabilizing factor in the market.

(Edited excerpts of the article in the People’s Daily, 16 June 2020)