China's Industrial Economy Begins Year Of The Tiger With Vigor - Industry News - News

With motors rotating and machines roaring, China's industrial firms started the first week after the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday full of vim and vigor.

Facing multiple challenges in 2022, Rong Juchuan, founder of the Beyond Group, a textile company headquartered in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province, said the company "can't just wait, but should take the initiative."

In 2022 zal het bedrijf prioriteit geven aan het verbeteren van zijn digitale mogelijkheden en het benutten van nieuwe verkoopkanalen zoals live-streamingplatforms om de bedrijfskosten te verlagen en in te spelen op de potentiële vraag, aldus Rong.

Recent economic data has echoed such enthusiasm for business. The purchasing managers' index (PMI) for China's manufacturing sector, a key economic barometer, came in at 50.1 in January, staying in the expansion territory for three months in a row.

In particular, manufacturing companies' confidence was on the rise, with the sub-index for production and operation activity expectations at 57.5, up 3.2 percentage points from a month earlier.

China's economic performance in the first quarter is expected to beat market expectations, said Li Chao, chief economist of Zheshang Securities, citing a PMI remaining above the boom-bust line for three consecutive months and steady credit growth.

The resilience of China's industrial economy was also reflected in other barometers, including the total consumption of electricity.

One of the country's industrial powerhouses, East China's Jiangsu province, saw its total electricity use rise 18.27 percent year-on-year during the holiday, while Hubei, a key manufacturing base in China, reported a 36.45-percent year-on-year increase in power use.

According to an estimate of the China Electricity Council, the country's total electricity consumption will rise by 5 percent to 6 percent year-on-year in 2022.

In the face of headwinds such as high commodity prices and supply chain challenges, China has prioritized stable growth for industrial development in 2022, which is the "ballast stone" of the macroeconomic market.

Xiao Yaqing, minister van Industrie en Informatietechnologie, zei in een eerder interview met Xinhua dat het zorgen voor een stabiele industriële groei, met name een goede start in het eerste kwartaal van 2022, als de belangrijkste taak moet worden gesteld.

Om een stabiele expansie te garanderen, zijn er meerdere maatregelen genomen, waaronder het stimuleren van de ontwikkeling van kleine en middelgrote-grote ondernemingen, het vergroten van de veerkracht van de toeleveringsketen en het volledig spelen van de rol van opkomende sectoren zoals nieuwe energievoertuigen (NEV's) .

The ministry aims to incubate about 3,000 "little giant" firms this year, referring to small enterprises in their early stage of development and focusing on high-end technologies.

"In 2022, more importance will be attached to promoting collaboration and innovation among small, medium-sized and large enterprises," said Xu Xiaolan, vice-minister of industry and information technology.

The NEV market could be another driving force shoring up China's industrial growth. The country's NEV sales ranked first globally for a seventh straight year in 2021.

Vooruitkijkend, wil China de groei van deze bloeiende sector verder vergemakkelijken door chiptekorten weg te nemen, ondersteunende faciliteiten zoals batterijwisselstations te verbeteren en de recycling en het gebruik van NEV-stroombatterijen uit te voeren.