Right road: Employees work on the production line of a factory of Beijing Benz Automotive Co, a joint venture with Mercedes-Benz. German companies in China have expressed optimism about heading into 2023. — Reuters
BEIJING: German firms showed optimism for their business performance prospects in China in 2023 after the world’s second-largest economy optimised its Covid-19 response and vowed stronger support for economic growth.
Half of the 593 China-based German companies polled expect a rise in turnover in 2023 compared to 2022, according to the latest business confidence survey from the German Chamber of Commerce in China.
Among the respondents, 37% forecast higher profits next year.
Meanwhile, 77% of the surveyed German enterprises expect increased annual growth in their industries for the next five years.
Earlier this month, China announced a string of measures to optimise its Covid-19 response in order to better coordinate it with economic and social development needs, marking the shift into a new phase of the country’s Covid-19 prevention and control.
China’s recent adjustment of its Covid-19 response is a much-welcomed development and helps restore business confidence in the medium and long term, the report said.
German firms have been investing heavily in China this year. Data from the Commerce Ministry showed that in the first 10 months of 2022, foreign direct investment from Germany soared by 95.8% year-on-year.
Many of the German investments in China targeted manufacturing, especially the automobile sector.
BMW Group’s joint venture in China, BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd, said in November that it will invest 10 billion yuan (RM6.3bil) in a new battery production project in northeast China’s Liaoning province.
The new investment comes after a period of extensive upgrading at the province’s BMW production base, which includes a 15 billion yuan (RM9.5bil) plant opened June 2022.
Last week, domestically produced heavy duty trucks of German automaker Mercedes-Benz Trucks hit the Chinese market.
These trucks are produced at a factory owned by a Sino-German joint venture, which is capable of producing 60,000 trucks a year.
The official launch of the made-in-China Mercedes-Benz trucks was another milestone of the company’s long-term development in China, said Karl Deppen, member of the board of management of Daimler Truck Holding AG.
“Despite all the odds and challenges, China remains unrivalled in terms of market size and market growth opportunities for many German companies,” said Clas Neumann, chairman of the German Chamber of Commerce in China. “The large majority will stay committed to the Chinese market.” — China Daily/ANN
