Export orders to US down a third at China’s largest trade fair

Wednesday, 7 November 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Beijing/Dongguan (Reuters): The value of export orders to the United States signed at China’s largest trade fair dropped 30.3% on the year, its organizer said, as higher US import tariffs made goods from batteries to farm tractors costlier.

The steep fall in business with China’s biggest trading partner at the twice-a-year Canton fair, which ended on Sunday, points to growing headwinds for exports, a key growth driver.

Fair exhibitors said they were pessimistic about next year’s export outlook as the costs of raw material and labor rise, in addition to growing impact of trade friction with the United States, the China Foreign Trade Centre (CFTC) said.

The United States has levied additional tariffs of 10% to 25% on $250 billion of Chinese goods this year, as punishment for what it calls the country’s unfair trade practices, with the 10% tariffs set to rise to 25% at year end.

“The overall impact on our battery industry will gradually show from next year on,” Bill Ho, sales manager at BetterPower Battery Co in Shenzhen, told Reuters at the fair.

The company is considering expanding its export market beyond the United States to include the Middle East and other parts of Asia, Ho added.

Abell Lu, general manager at Motoma, a Chinese lithium battery producer that sells more than half its products to US smartphone makers, said he was “extremely worried”.

US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping are expected to meet on the sidelines of the Group of 20 leaders summit in Argentina at the end of November.