With Soft Domestic Demand, Chinese Factories Shift Focus to Exports

New York, NY, November 10, 2023-"Some Chinese factories, saddled with overcapacity in a struggling economy, are trying to export their way out of trouble and stoking new trade tensions in the process,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

“Makers of electric vehicles, solar panels and other products are cutting prices and trying harder to muscle into overseas markets as they face weakened demand at home, upsetting competitors who see threats to their bottom lines.   

“The tensions are most acute in Europe, where European Union regulators in September unveiled an antisubsidy probe, reflecting concern that China is flooding the region with low-cost electric vehicles.

“The U.S. recently announced levies on tin-plate metal products from China and two other countries, after determining that their steelmakers were selling at unfairly low prices.

“India is investigating whether China dumped a range of goods, from chemicals to furniture parts, into the country at unfair prices. Vietnam in September started examining whether wind towers imported from China have hurt domestic manufacturers.

“Chinese officials have said that the country’s manufacturers are competing fairly and that their products are gaining market share overseas because they are attractive to foreign buyers. Beijing denounced the EU’s EV investigation as a ‘naked protectionist act’ that will disrupt the global car supply chain.”