Surpassing Germany for the first time, China has become the global machinery export champion

Germany's Le Monde reported on the 7th that a report released on the same day by the German Federation of machinery and equipment manufacturers (VDMA) said that affected by the epidemic, the global machinery trade volume in 2020 was about 1.05 trillion euros, and the sales volume decreased by nearly 10% compared with a year ago. China surpassed Germany for the first time and became the world champion of machinery export.

Le Monde: Germany, the new export champion, has lost its dominant position in the field of machinery manufacturing

The report shows that China exported about 165 billion euros of machinery and system products last year, accounting for 15.8% of the global market share. Germany's export volume is 162 billion euros, with a global market share of 15.5%. In 2019, German exports were about 1.4 percentage points ahead of China. The report also shows that the United States ranks third with a market share of 9.1%, followed by Japan and Italy.

For China to surpass Germany as the "world champion of machinery export", Ackerman, foreign trade director of VDMA, said that this change is not surprising“ China has been the world's largest machinery manufacturer for many years, "he said. Last year, the total sales of China's machinery products was 924 billion euros, almost as high as the combined income of the next four countries (the United States, Germany, Japan and Italy). It is only a matter of time before China becomes the leader in foreign machinery trade.

The report believes that the epidemic has provided a strong driving force for the rise of China's machinery products, while Germany and other European and American countries have suffered serious setbacks. China's exports of machinery products no longer only flow to emerging market countries such as Africa and Asia. Even in Germany, China is now the largest foreign supplier. The report said that China has made significant progress in many fields and become a strong competitor of "made in Germany". In addition, China has now become the maker of international standardization, creating conditions for machinery export. However, the report also believes that China still lags behind international competitors such as Germany in "industry 4.0" and other fields.

"Nevertheless, Germany and the EU should not adopt protectionism, but should respond to the challenges of Chinese products through market-based measures," Ackerman said. "We must improve our competitiveness.". The report also shows that German machinery enterprises are optimistic about the Chinese market. In the first quarter of 2021, German enterprises exported nearly 5 billion euros of machinery to China, an increase of 20% over the same period last year.