Amid struggles at home, 80% of Chinese companies in EU plan more investment

Chinese electric vehicle battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd’s factory in Debrecen, Hungary.

Photo: Reuters Almost 80 per cent of the Chinese companies operating in the European Union plan to expand their investment there, even though most complain about policy uncertainty, according to a report published on Tuesday by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce to the EU (CCCEU) and the China Economic Information Service.

The result stands in sharp contrast to similar reports published by the European Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCCC) – despite companies from both sides complaining about obstacles such as policy barriers and unlevel playing fields.

Only 38 per cent of European companies that responded to a survey had plans to expand their operations in China, according to the latest EUCCC confidence report, which was published in May last year.

The gap highlighted how profitable the European Union market remained for Chinese companies, analysts said. “Chinese companies complain, yes, but they like the European market, this is quite clear,” said Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for the Asia-Pacific region at French investment bank Natixis.

More than 60 per cent of the surveyed firms said they expected their revenue in the EU to continue growing, including 32 per cent who expected growth of more than 10 per cent, according to the report, which surveyed roughly 100 leading Chinese companies in emerging industries including batteries, electric vehicles, artificial intelligence and renewable energy.

The lure of Europe was reinforced by the growing difficulties Chinese companies had in making money at home as the domestic market became a brutal race to the bottom, as well as restrictions on access to the US market, Garcia-Herrero said.

The report said that US policy shifts had only had a limited impact on Chinese companies’ broader strategy towards Europe.

The European market was so attractive that companies were looking to invest in the EU even if they were not threatened by EU tariffs on made-in-China products, she said.

Europe was keen to have more Chinese investment to rebalance the flow of money between the two economies, Sacha Courtial, a China researcher at the Paris-based Institut Jacques Delors think tank, said.

He said the next step should be to negotiate a new version of the mothballed Comprehensive Agreement on Investment to provide a stable framework that would give Chinese companies incentives to increase production in Europe.

原文链接: 南华早报