High-end products rely on imports. The international competitiveness of low-voltage electrical appliances still needs to be strengthened.

In the past ten years, the import and export of low-voltage electrical products in China has been relatively stable. According to customs data, China’s exports of low-voltage electrical appliances reached US$16.077 billion in 2018, up 7.4% year-on-year, marking a record high for the second consecutive year. The annual trade deficit decreased from the $566 million in 2017 to $251 million, continuing the narrowing trend. Wang Jiaxiu, director of the Low-voltage Electrical Appliances Branch of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Mechanical and Electrical Products, predicts that China's low-voltage electrical appliances exports will maintain a steady upward trend in 2019, the trade deficit will gradually shrink, and the increase in export value is expected to be around 10%.



Low-voltage electrical appliances are widely used in power distribution systems and power grid supporting facilities in industrial, commercial and civil buildings, and are the basic industries of the national economy. In the past 30 years, China's low-voltage electrical appliance industry has grown and developed from learning to innovation. The industry has more than 2,000 manufacturing enterprises with an annual output value of more than 98 billion yuan.



The major multinational companies in the global low-voltage electrical production sector include Schneider, Legrand, Siemens and ABB. "At present, the above-mentioned enterprises have a global market share of over 30%, and the concentration in Europe and North America is relatively high. The concentration of emerging markets such as Asia is more dispersed." Wang Jiaxiu said that the low-voltage electrical industry is an international competition and marketization. In the high industry, local private enterprises and state-owned enterprises have achieved breakthroughs in many aspects such as products, technologies and brands, and they are in a three-pronged situation with foreign-funded enterprises.



"At present, the domestic market of medium and low-end products of domestic low-voltage electrical appliances accounts for a large proportion, but most domestic high-end products market is still occupied by foreign enterprise products." Wang Jiaxiu said that the main products of China's low-voltage electrical appliances exports in 2018 are still connected. Plug-in (voltage ≤ 36V), export value of about 4.48 billion US dollars, accounting for 27.9% of total exports. In addition, the import price of most products is higher than the export price. The unit price of optical fiber connectors is 404.14 US dollars, while the export price of such products in China is only 21.51 US dollars. The international competitiveness of China's high-end products still needs to be improved.



In terms of imports, Japan, South Korea, and Germany accounted for the top, and imports from the European market accounted for 17.7%. In terms of exports, exports from Europe and North America accounted for 16.4% and 16.1% respectively, up 8.6% and 10.9% respectively. Asia's major exporting countries and regions accounted for 27% of Hong Kong, 5.8% of Japan, 3.7% of Taiwan, and 3.1% of South Korea; Europe's major exporters accounted for 4.5% of Germany and 2.3% of the United Kingdom; North America's major exporting countries accounted for the United States 15.3%.



"Hong Kong, the United States and Japan account for nearly half of the total exports of low-voltage electrical appliances in the Mainland. This aspect reflects the strong international trade status and trade divergence function of Hong Kong and other regions. On the other hand, it also reflects China's foreign trade. The channel is through intermediaries and fails to form direct transactions with the actual customers to obtain more product profits." Wang Jiaxiu said that in 2018, India's rapid economic development has increased demand, and China's low-voltage electrical products exports to India have grown sharply year-on-year. 36.3%.



It is worth noting that in 2018, China's low-voltage electrical appliance companies have achieved remarkable results in developing traditional and emerging markets. Among them, exports to Vietnam and Singapore increased by 6.6% and 2.4% respectively.



In the import trade of low-voltage electrical appliances in China in 2018, general trade accounted for 41.6%, an increase of 11.6% over the same period of last year, a slight increase over the same period of 2017; processing trade accounted for 40.9%. China's low-voltage electrical industry is dominated by feed processing trade, accounting for 37.9% of all imports.



The general trade of low-voltage electrical appliances exports accounted for 51%, up 11.1% year-on-year; processing trade exports accounted for 38.9%, up 5.3% year-on-year, of which feed processing trade exports accounted for 37.7%. It can be seen that the manufacturing level of China's low-voltage electrical appliances and the speed of international competitiveness are accelerating. (Reporter Liu Yelin)



Transfer from: International Business Daily