The world's best-selling "Made in China" adds luster to industrial growth Promoting the steady growth of the industrial economy: Mid-year observation

Editor's note: Industry plays a "ballast stone" role in stabilizing the macroeconomic market, and a stable industry leads to a stable economy. As 2024 approaches the halfway point, various data of the industrial economy have also been released, and China Electronics News has launched a series of reports on "Promoting the Steady Growth of the Industrial Economy: Mid-year Observation", showing the huge potential of the steady growth of the mainland's industrial economy from multiple perspectives such as investment, consumption, and exports. Stay tuned.

BYD car transport ro-ro ship

In the middle of summer, in the crowded European Cup, advertisements for the Chinese brand BYD can be seen everywhere. BYD became the official mobility partner of Euro 2024, which is the first time in the history of the European Cup that it has cooperated with a Chinese car brand. According to the latest data, from January to May this year, BYD's cumulative export sales reached 176,000 units, which have entered 88 countries and regions around the world and more than 400 cities.

Foreign trade is an important engine for economic growth and an important hub for smooth domestic and international dual circulation. BYD Auto is just one of the many calling cards of the mainland's manufacturing exports. According to the latest data, in the first five months of this year, the total import and export value of the mainland's trade in goods reached 17.5 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.3%. Among them, exports were 9.95 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.1%. Despite the uncertainty of the global trade environment, the mainland's foreign trade still delivered a report card of "steady progress", and the resilience of foreign trade continued to demonstrate.

Jin Zhuanglong, Minister of Industry and Information Technology, recently published a signed article in the "Study Times" pointing out that it is necessary to stabilize and expand the export of industrial products, consolidate and develop the "new three", and create more export growth points.

Through the interview, the reporter found that from the home appliances, clothing, furniture "old three" to accelerate towards intelligent, green, high-end, glowing with new vitality, to electric manned vehicles, lithium batteries, solar cells as the representative of the "new three" with new technologies, new products to stand out, win new competitive advantages, hot sales of the world's "Made in China" is with a new model, new formats, new markets to promote the steady growth of the industrial economy to add "bright color".

The structure is "new" and accelerates towards the middle and high end of the global value chain

Walking into the LONGi Green Energy Research Institute, researchers are conducting luminescence spectrum tests on the newly prepared photovoltaic cell materials to understand the defect distribution and electronic properties of the materials. According to technical experts from LONGi Green Energy Research Institute, the brighter and more uniform the color of the test image, the better the photoelectric conversion performance of the material. Recently, certified by the European Solar Energy Testing Institute (ESTI), the crystalline silicon-perovskite tandem solar cell independently developed by LONGi Green Energy once again broke the world record for the efficiency of crystalline silicon-perovskite tandem cell, with a photoelectric conversion efficiency of 34.6%.

Solar photovoltaic products are one of the representative products of high technology, high added value and leading the green transformation in mainland China, and have become the first choice of overseas customers by virtue of their "excellent" qualities such as high efficiency, high reliability and high cost performance. According to data from the China Photovoltaic Industry Association, in the first quarter of 2024, the export volume of silicon wafers, cells and modules from the mainland was 14.4GW, 13.3GW and 62.8GW, respectively, up 13.6%, 36.3% and 22.6% year-on-year.

LONGi green energy silicon wafer manufacturing

In the view of the relevant person in charge of LONGi Green Energy, one of the reasons why mainland solar photovoltaic products have won the recognition of the global market is because of the continuous innovation of technology. "Over the past 20 years, the mainland photovoltaic industry has continued to innovate and lead the world in technological advantages, laying the foundation for seizing market opportunities. In addition, digital technology and intelligent technology have accelerated the digital transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry, greatly improving production efficiency. The person in charge said.

And this is just a microcosm of the continuous optimization of the mainland's export commodity structure through technological innovation. Nowadays, technology-intensive products represented by new energy vehicles, lithium batteries, solar cells, new displays, smart home appliances, and smart terminals have replaced labor-intensive products and become the "main force" of the mainland's industrial product exports. Data show that in the first five months of this year, mechanical and electrical products with high technical content and added value accounted for nearly 60% of exports. Among them, the export of ships, electric vehicles and household appliances increased by 100.1%, 26.3% and 17.8% respectively.

In the fertile soil of innovation and creation, traditional manufacturing industries, such as home appliance manufacturing, are also extending to the high-end of the value chain through transformation and upgrading. Color TV brands continue to absorb and digest various needs in practice, and launch high-end TV products supported by original display technology. For example,Hisense leads the global laser TV field,TCL in the Mini LED TV track to support"Half the sky"; In some categories such as floor scrubbers and sweepers, Roborock, Ecovacs, Yunjing and other companies have begun to lead the global product iteration through technological innovations such as navigation, obstacle avoidance, and self-cleaning. The scale of the display industry continues to rank first in the world, and many core indicators such as the overall output value of the display industry, the output value of LCD panels, and the number of patent applications for display panels are leading the world.

"The popularity of high value-added and high-tech products overseas reflects not only the continuous optimization and upgrading of the mainland's export structure, but also the improvement of the mainland's overall product competitiveness and the formation of new competitive advantages." Zhao Fujun, director and researcher of the Comprehensive Research Office of the Foreign Economic Research Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council, pointed out that "at present, our high-tech industry aims at international high-end technology, cutting-edge technology, and high-level competition, and I believe that in the future, the competitiveness of our high-tech products will be further enhanced." ”

TCL Wuhan Intelligent Manufacturing Base Production Line

"The mainland's home appliance industry is one of the industries with the deepest international competition. After nearly 30 years of development, we have entered the core of the competition in the world home appliance industry. Zhou Nan, secretary general of the Household Appliances Branch of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products, told the reporter of China Electronics News that the next goal is to lead the development of the world's home appliance industry.

The market is "new" and the overseas market is "in full bloom"

On the beach by the sea in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, rows of dark blue photovoltaic panels sparkle in the sun. This is the first large-scale integrated seawater desalination project in Saudi Arabia to use photovoltaic power generation as a supplementary power source, and the high-efficiency photovoltaic module products used in it are provided by Trina Solar, a mainland photovoltaic company.

In the streets and alleys of Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, more and more "Chinese brand" new energy vehicles such as BYD, Geely, Chery, MG, and Great Wall shuttle through the traffic and become a beautiful scenery; In Japan and South Africa, the retail sales of Hisense TV continued to rank first......

In the context of globalization, going overseas in an all-round way has become the consensus of enterprises. In an interview with a reporter from China Electronics News, a number of business leaders said that overseas markets will continue to be their focus in 2024. From traditional markets such as ASEAN, the European Union, and the United States, to emerging markets such as South America, the Middle East, and Central Asia...... Since the beginning of this year, the navigation road of mainland industrial products has been continuously extended, and "blossomed in many places" around the world.

Great Wall Motor's intelligent production line

Latin America is becoming one of the most popular markets for new energy vehicles on the mainland. According to data from the Passenger Car Market Information Joint Branch of the China Automobile Dealers Association (hereinafter referred to as the "Passenger Car Association"), from January to May this year, the export volume of new energy vehicles in mainland China reached 870,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 29%. Brazil has become the largest exporter of new energy vehicles in the mainland, in the first five months of this year, China's new energy passenger car exports in Brazil exceeded 130,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 10 times, the main export car companies are BYD, Great Wall and JAC.

"The increase in auto exports in May is clearly the result of Chinese automakers tapping into markets such as South America. In terms of sales volume, the market share of developed markets in Europe and North America has declined recently; Relying on the recovery of the Brazilian market this year, South America's NEV exports accounted for 59% in May, far exceeding that of other regions. In addition, the Central Asian and Russian markets, as well as non-EU European countries and markets such as Brazil, Mexico, Thailand, and the Philippines, are relatively strong, and are the core regions of China's auto exports. Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the passenger association, pointed out in an analysis.

"In 2013, when we were developing the Mexican market, the Mexicans told us directly, Chinese cars should not come to Mexico, your products cannot meet the needs of the Mexican market. This is actually a very big blow to Chinese car people. Yu Yang, general manager of Jiangqi Group International Company, recalled. In order to change the stereotype of overseas consumers of Chinese automobiles as "low quality, inferior and low price", JAC Group focuses on the pain points of local users, from product strategy to marketing strategy to brand strategy, all of which focus on users and create a characteristic style oriented by user needs. Currently, JAC EV sales account for more than 60% of the Mexican EV market.

In addition, in addition to developed regional markets such as Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, and Japan, BYD has also entered Thailand, Brazil, Mexico and other markets, and has invested in overseas regions such as Brazil, Hungary and Thailand.

It is worth mentioning that the Middle East has become a "new hot spot" for Sino-foreign photovoltaic project cooperation. Trina Solar plans to build 50,000 tons of polysilicon, 30GW of crystalline silicon wafers and 5GW of cell modules in the UAE, which will be built in three phases. TCL Zhonghuan has reached a strategic cooperation with Saudi Arabia's Vision Industries (Vision Industry) and plans to establish a joint venture company to build a photovoltaic factory...... The vast desert has grown a lot of "sunflowers".

"The Middle East is blessed with a unique resource endowment, and the region has long sunshine hours. In addition, there is the intrinsic power demand for energy transition and the ability to support strong capital. Liu Yong, Secretary-General of the Energy Storage Application Branch of the China Chemical and Physical Power Industry Association, said.

Trina Solar's AL Dhafra PV plant project in Abu Dhabi with high-efficiency modules

According to Li Xiande, chairman of JinkoSolar, the Middle East market is a high-end market, and in order to gain a foothold in this market, it must first have global brand influence, and secondly, it must have leading technology and first-class quality. According to reports, JinkoSolar has a market share of nearly 45% in the Middle East, and its products cover almost half of the countries in the Middle East, and they plan to further deepen the layout of the Middle East market this year.

The model is "integrated" into the "new" whole industry chain

GCL Technology, a leading photovoltaic company, officially announced the first overseas FBR granular silicon project of a mainland photovoltaic company, filling the gap in the high-end equipment manufacturing industry of solar photovoltaic in the United Arab Emirates, and the first silicon wafer project of CHINT New Energy Thailand Base was officially put into operation; Lithium battery materials companies Rongbai Technology and GEM plan to build a new ternary cathode production capacity in South Korea; The second phase of BOE's smart terminal project in Vietnam's Ba Ria - Vung Tau province has started, and Innolux is advancing the construction of an 8th generation TFT-LCD panel factory in India with Vedanta Group......

Since the beginning of this year, the mode of "going out" of mainland enterprises has become more and more diversified, and in addition to the export of a single product, overseas investment and construction of factories has also become a strategic choice for many enterprises. Not only are downstream terminal manufacturers busy going to sea to grab the beach, but upstream equipment and raw material companies are also speeding up their overseas layout at a speed that matches the former, and the coordinated "going to sea" of the whole industry chain has become the general trend.

"The mainland photovoltaic industry has entered a new stage of globalization. At this stage, the photovoltaic industry is no longer the final end of the products and production lines going to sea, but the whole industry chain is 'integrated'. Not only in Southeast Asia, but also in the United States and Europe in the future, it may also start from a certain link, gradually extend upstream and downstream, and form its own industrial chain layout in the local market. Zhang Sen, Secretary-General of the Photovoltaic Branch of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Machinery, told the reporter of China Electronics News.

Lan Tianshi, co-CEO of GCL Technology, also believes that enterprises should "go out" and "integrate in", and bloom their advanced technology advantages overseas.

"The criterion of 'world-class enterprise' is technological innovation ability and global competitiveness. For the manufacturing industry, global competitiveness means to carry out a global industrial layout and compete with multinational giants on a global scale. Li Dongsheng, founder and chairman of TCL, said frankly.

Skyworth German factory

Zhu Gongshan, chairman of GCL Group, predicts: "In the next 3~5 years, China's photovoltaic industry will complete the first phase of the whole industry chain going overseas. Facing the United States, Europe, Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, North Africa, South America and other key regions in the world, establish new advantages in global operations. ”

Through interviews, the reporter found that under the trend of integration of the industrial chain and the global market, mastering the commanding heights of technology is the "diamond" of enterprises "going out". Liu Jincheng, chairman of EVE, said that the company will launch a new business model mainly for the European and American markets - CLS global cooperative business model. According to reports, CLS is the English abbreviation of three cooperation models: Cooperation, Licence and Service. EVE will cooperate with Daimler Trucks, Paccar and Cummins to build a battery cell factory in the United States. The joint venture plant will obtain a license from EVE to manufacture and sell battery cell products, and pay the license fee as agreed, and the battery cells produced by it will be mainly sold to the joint venture partner in North America.

"China's lithium battery companies must adapt to the changes that have taken place in globalization and achieve a win-win attitude to go to sea." Liu Jincheng said that cooperative R&D is an important part of the CLS model, and enterprises can undertake R&D projects of European and American battery companies and charge corresponding fees to reduce the R&D costs of each other.

Industry experts said that the emergence of the technical cooperation model shows that the mainland is not only a simple automobile market, but also a source of automotive technology innovation. In the next two years, the mainland will not only maintain a leading position in sales, but also in terms of technology and the definition of rules: the internationalization of new energy vehicles will become a major highlight, and more international companies will carry out similar cooperation with mainland enterprises.

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Author丨Zhang WeijiaEditor丨Zhao ChenmeiEditor丨Maria Producer丨Lian Xiaodong