Behind The Refrigerator Explosion

"The export figures keep going up!In November, it was up 52 percent from a year earlier."At the end of the year, the refrigerator workshop of Haier Zhijia is a busy scene, with all kinds of refrigerators ready for development from the world's leading production lines.Every day, the refrigerator is shipped from here to more than 60 countries and regions such as the United States, Russia, Europe and Southeast Asia.

Haier's refrigerator exports are not alone.According to the General Administration of Customs, China exported 56.01 million refrigerators in the first 10 months of this year, 28.3 percent more than that of the whole year of 2019.Since March this year, the number and amount of Chinese refrigerator exports have achieved positive year-on-year growth for eight consecutive months, and the orders of refrigerator enterprises are booming.Especially with the introduction of overseas vaccines, medical refrigerators, as a guarantee of the cold chain, are enjoying a new round of hot sales.

In the world economic situation is still complex and grim background, what is the reason for the hot refrigerator orders?What is the positive significance of the continuous improvement of China's foreign trade to the world economy?

As the epidemic continues to spread overseas, foreign factory supply chains are facing challenges, and global orders for refrigerators are concentrated in China

"Every 18 seconds a refrigerator comes off the production line", which is the assembly line speed of Hefei Haier Refrigerator Co., LTD., the world's largest single refrigerator manufacturing base.On December 10, this year's 5 millionth refrigerator was rolled off the line, with its annual output value exceeding 10 billion yuan for the first time.

Since March this year, as the epidemic continues to spread overseas, people who have been quarantined at home are more willing to stock up, driving up the demand for refrigerators, especially large ones.Foreign factory supply chains face challenges, and global orders are concentrated in China.

As biological products, vaccines are extremely sensitive to temperature and often need medical refrigerators with even lower cooling temperatures to preserve them.In the case of overseas vaccines, the modena vaccine must be transported at minus 20 degrees Celsius.Pfizer's vaccine requires even harsher cold-chain conditions, requiring storage at minus 70 degrees Celsius.

The harsh cold chain transport conditions have brought opportunities to Chinese enterprises that have long cultivated in this field and have core technologies.

"In the first three quarters of this year, Haier's overseas market revenue increased by 86.83% year-on-year!"Haier bio-related person in charge introduced that the ultra-low temperature refrigerator produced by the company can guarantee the safety of medical products including vaccines through the whole process and digitization.

Zhongkemeling Cryogenic Technology Co., which specializes in making medical refrigerators, has also been operating at full capacity for months.The company decided to launch a new production line in the near future in order to expand capacity and cope with "full" orders following the recent release of vaccines that need to be stored at -70C overseas.

China's exports and imports both hit 40-year highs in November

The boom in China's bicycle exports attracted attention before orders for fridges exploded.The orders of lvyuan, Fenghuang and other bicycle enterprises continue to grow, and some enterprises' orders are scheduled to the second half of next year.Data show that the bicycle industry's cumulative revenue has reached 75 billion yuan this year, up 11% year-on-year.Realized a profit of more than 3 billion yuan, up 30% year-on-year.

The popularity of bicycles and refrigerators is a microcosm of China's countertrend growth in foreign trade.Since the second half of this year, export orders for epidemic prevention products, "home economy" and other related industries have exploded.

"Orders have been placed until June next year."In Foshan, Guangdong in December, the temperature gradually cooled down, but one of the most concentrated areas of science and technology enterprises hantian science and Technology City is a hot.When it comes to orders so far this year, Wu Huahong, general manager of Foshan Meike Medical Technology Co, describes them as "growing fast".

Meike Medical Technology is a research and development and manufacturing of respiratory health medical equipment, including the development of oxygen, atomizer, sputum suction machine and other equipment.The sales market and cooperative customers involve more than 60 countries and regions such as the mainland and the United States, Japan and Russia.

"In the past, foreign markets accounted for about 40 percent, but this year, the proportion has gradually increased to about 60 percent."Wu huahong analyzed that the increase in the proportion of overseas customers is caused by the increase in the demand caused by the uncontrolled epidemic overseas, but more importantly, the continuous and stable development environment in China and the complete industrial chain and supply chain provide a strong guarantee for the demand of overseas customers.

Taking Meike oxygen generator of the company as an example, Wu huahong introduced that the product has independent core technology leading the industry, and its more than 200 components are all domestically made. Even when the epidemic is serious in China, the impact is still limited.Thanks to this, corporate performance bucked the trend and rose by more than 40% in the face of the epidemic.

"With the introduction of a series of policies by the central government, the situation will be further clarified next year, and the growth rate is expected to reach more than 30 percent."Wu huahong said with confidence.

According to the General Administration of Customs, the value of China's imports and exports of goods in the first 11 months of this year reached 29.04 trillion yuan, up 1.8 percent from the same period last year.In DOLLAR terms, China's exports and imports in November were both the highest in a single month since statistics began in 1979, and its exports grew at the fastest pace since February 2018.

"This fully shows that China's foreign trade has great potential and is quite resilient. It is also closely related to this year's foreign trade situation."Tang Yao, an associate professor at Peking University's Guanghua School of Management, told reporters: "The reason behind the rise in the value of imports and exports to the highest level in more than 40 years is that China has made full use of its manufacturing system, produced a lot of supplies for the global fight against the epidemic, and took over production orders that some countries could not fulfill because of the epidemic."

China has become an anchor of global industrial and supply chain stability

"Annual container throughput has exceeded the total volume of last year!"The container throughput of Zhoushan Port in Ningbo this year has exceeded the total volume of last year, as the real-time container production data on the large screen of the dispatch and command center of Zhoushan Port in Ningbo skips "27534917 TEU" at 9:25 am on December 15.

The Yantian port in Shenzhen, one of the world's largest container terminals with the largest individual throughput, is currently bustling."The yantian port handles one TEU in 2.4 seconds on average, and every four hours or more there is a ship bound for the US. This year, the terminal throughput will set a record in the 20 years since the port was built."One out of every four containers the US imports from China comes from the Shenzhen port, which has set global single-terminal throughput records for two months in a row this year, said Lin Qingwen, managing director of Yantian International Container Terminals.

According to the latest data from the China Ports Association, cargo throughput of major coastal hubs rose 1.7 percent year on year in early December, while container throughput of eight major hubs rose 3.1 percent year on year.In terms of ports, the container throughput of Shanghai and Shenzhen ports increased by more than 10%.

As an anchor of global industrial and supply chains and an important link connecting domestic and international double cycles, foreign trade not only drives the port economy, but also plays a positive role in the overall economic recovery.The data showed that in November, the actual use of foreign capital nationwide reached 98.7bn yuan, up 5.5% from a year earlier, marking eight consecutive months of year-on-year growth.Many foreign media and organizations believe that China's economic development is conducive to the recovery of the world economy.

"Although the impact of the epidemic is still brewing, the positive trend in China's foreign trade reflects on the one hand China's remarkable achievements in fighting the epidemic, and on the other hand the strong resilience and vitality of the Chinese economy. The sound industrial system and complete supporting capacity of upstream and downstream industries play a prominent role in stabilizing the global supply chain."Wang Junchao, associate professor at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee (National Academy of Governance).

The complete industrial system and the supporting capacity of upstream and downstream industries are the basis for the countertrend growth of Chinese enterprises' orders

Hangzhou, Zhejiang, Fuhong Forklift Brake Co. LTD. Workshop.

In the production workshop of 5000 square meters, three digital intelligent assembly lines are fully in operation, and the workers have A tacit understanding with the manipulator. The forklift brakes produced will be supplied to the leading domestic forklift truck enterprises such as Hangzhou Fork, Heli, Longgong and Liugong, becoming the most critical Class A safety component among the forklift parts.

Although the company is a domestic company, but the order boom is also happening here."Sales are expected to grow nearly 30 percent this year, continuing to lead the forklift brake industry.The current orders have been arranged to February next year, and the market share has accounted for nearly 70 percent of the country."Xu Xin, general manager of the company, said that thanks to years of advanced product research and development foundation and a complete industrial chain in China, the company's performance grew against the trend under the impact of the epidemic.

"We continue to increase the digital transformation efforts, through the application of new processes, new technologies, the production line has realized man-machine automation production."Xu Xin told reporters, stamping, assembly, casting and other links, all using manipulator to replace the traditional manual, not only to improve the production efficiency of 30%, and can steadily improve the quality of products.

Regardless of foreign trade or domestic demand, perfect industrial system and complete supporting capacity of upstream and downstream industries are the basis for the growth of Chinese enterprises' orders against the trend.At present, China has 41 industrial categories, 207 industrial middle categories and 666 industrial sub-categories. It is the only country in the world that has all the industrial categories listed in the UN industrial Classification.With a wide range of industries, sound infrastructure, and open policies in finance, investment and services, China has increasingly become the world's manufacturing and creation center, playing an increasingly important role in the world's industrial and supply chains.

We will make the industrial and supply chains more independent and controllable, and build a new pattern of development

Although China has a complete industrial chain, there are still many "breakpoints" and "blocking points" in the industrial chain and supply chain, and some core links and key technologies are controlled by others.When the just-concluded Central Economic Work Conference laid out key tasks for next year, the second task is to enhance the ability of industrial and supply chains to be self-reliant and controllable.

New crown outbreak caused a huge impact on the global industrial chain and supply chain stability, superposition, the surge of global political and economic uncertainty makes the whole society and further realize the importance of industry chain supply chain independent control, especially in the national economy and people's livelihood and national economic lifelines of key areas, key industries and key links.

In the opinion of Zhu Jigao, a researcher with the National Institute of Opening up at the University of International Business and Economics, the core problem of enhancing the independent and controllable ability of the industrial chain and supply chain is how to concentrate technological power to break through the "jam neck" problem."We should develop and form an independent innovation and controllable industrial innovation system around new infrastructure such as artificial intelligence, 5G and cloud computing, and make forward-looking arrangements for strategic emerging industries such as industrial Internet, cloud computing and unmanned driving, so as to build a forward-looking, strategic and overarching industrial chain."

China's economy is a sea.To accelerate the construction of a new pattern of development, China will take on a new look in upgrading its industrial and supply chain modernization.