After losing its manufacturing market due to high duties imposed on Chinese products, the country is now losing more manufacturing to Vietnam, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, and Taiwan.
The exports of its SMEs including that of apparel producers are on decline along with furniture, footwear, travel goods and handbags, minerals, and science and technology. The beneficiaries according to market observers are the Asian neighbours. The Zero Covid” policies imposed by the Chinese regime are significant factors in this regard. This has further dented Chinese long-time dominance of global trade.
Trade data shows China has lost ground in key consumer categories, including clothing and accessories, footwear, furniture, and travel goods, while also seeing declines in its share of exports from minerals to office technology.
The foreign buyers are forced to seek alternatives to Chinese products as its Zero Covid approach is impacting production and causing long delays in deliveries. Experts have observed that individual China has been continuing to lose market share, with Vietnam amongst the countries gaining importance on the international landscape. This is perhaps due to Vietnam’s close proximity to China. Moreover, cheap labour is another reason why Vietnam is considered a suitable alternative.
Anticipating higher port activities, a leading Ocean carrier in collaboration with Vietnamese authorities is creating a new trans-shipment container terminal project near Ho Chi Minh City. Once completed, this terminal would become the largest in the nation. Both Maersk and CMA CGM are investing in their own facility expansions in that region.
The competition with China had been intensifying in the years before Covid. Vietnam was able to grab the lion’s share of the manufacturing trade away from China. It has increased its foreign trade by 360 percent since 2014. One must give credit to the Vietnamese government for its foresight as it was the same the year they intensified investment in its maritime and manufacturing sector.
Meanwhile Malaysia and Bangladesh have also grabbed the Zero-Covid delays from China by taking sufficient apparel manufacturing away from China.
