Solar panels in Bijie, Southwest China’s Guizhou Province Photo: VCG

Chinese foreign trade has begun to show a clear diversification amid the epidemic, with traditional manufacturing under order pressure. However, some sectors such as new energy, heating equipment and World Cup-related products are witnessing rising demand.

In a latest industry report released by cross-border e-commerce platform Alibaba.com some products, within the platform's top 10, have recorded a doubling in sales, including household solar heating tools, charging piles, electric blankets and electric scooter, highlighting the resilience and rapid response of China's industrial chain to overseas demand.

Our orders this year have increased by 60 percent compared to last year, and the demand for this year is specially soaring, general manager assistant Michelle Zhong, from a Guangdong-based photovoltaic module and component manufacturer Must Energy Tech Co told the Global Times on Wednesday.

From the end of February, production capacity has been increasing, especially in the first half of this year, Zhong said, "We are trying best to catch up with new orders."

To meet the fast-growing demand, the company has expanded its plant capacity by 30 percent this year, and is improving the efficiency with the help of business wide digital transformation.

This is one of the drivers behind China's growing exports.

Liu Ting, who is in charge of an energy technology company in Shenzhen focusing on household energy storage products, also told the Global Times that the company's export growth rate this year is as high as 220 percent, and the growth is "higher than in previous years."

The soaring demand is amid the worsening of the European energy crisis combined with short-term factors, and also the global "dual carbon" goal as a long-term motivation behind, experts said.

Due to factors such as limited infrastructure construction in the Middle East and Africa and the continuous power shortages, the demand for photovoltaic power generation and household energy storage continues to grow, Sam Wu, a general manager from Must Energy told the Global Times.

According to data from Alibaba.com, the sales of domestic new energy-related products have maintained triple-digit growth for three consecutive years. Among them, the number of buyers of photovoltaic system products in 2022 increased by 62.68 percent year-on-year, while sales increase by 162.9 percent year-on-year.

In addition, the number of buyers of new-energy charging piles increased by 2.5 times year-on-year, and the transaction volume increased by 184 percent.

Supply chain resilience

China's heating equipment exports continue to gain momentum. In the first three quarters of this year, China's exports of electric water heaters and electric heaters to Europe recorded rapid growth across the board.

In an earlier interview with Global Times, Liu Ligang, deputy general manager of MBT Clivet with Midea Group said there will be no problem for Midea to become the top three brands in terms of heat pump output in Europe by the end of 2022. Heat pumps are becoming an important growth stream for Midea Group, whose heat pump exports have increased by 200 percent in the first eight months of this year.

The transaction volume of warm sweaters on Alibaba.com increased by 188 percent year-on-year, among which the demand for electric blankets increased the most, and sales increased by nearly 5 times year-on-year.

The biggest difference between this year and previous years is that orders from Europe have increased significantly, according to the information Zhongshan Yika Electrical Appliance told the Global Times on Wednesday.

The company said orders in March and April have increased by 30 percent compared with the same period in previous years. Currently, backlogs of new orders stretch to the end of November.

The company was established in 2011 and its main products are electric convection heaters, far infrared radiant heater, fan heater, electric fireplace and fans.

The list reflects the resilience of Chinese merchants, and also the market confidence in the high-quality growth of China's foreign trade, according to Zhang Kuo, president of Alibaba.com, adding that made-in-China products are gaining popularity helped with digitalization, and that China's supply chain is playing an increasingly important role in shoring up global trade.

The soccer-related economy has also been one of the driving forces for China's foreign trade. The World Cup in Qatar, which has attracted a global audience, installed container apartments priced at $200 a night in FIFA fan villages, with a total of 12,000 sets of these compact dwellings made by Chinese suppliers.

Ye Yikai, chairman of Guangdong Zhonghui Green Building Mobile Housing Technology Co said that the company began to receive inquiries from the World Cup in May this year, and received the first order for 1,000 units of prefabricated mobile homes at the end of July, followed by another 1,000 units order in September.

To improve the delivery speed, we finally choose the automated robot and "one robot can complete a mobile home every day," Ye said.

Rising demand for some categories, such as new energy, heating equipment, and the World Cup, is as expected, said Wei Jianguo, vice chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchange and former vice minister of the Ministry of Commerce, explaining that with the continuous improvement of operational capabilities, the sensitivity and response ability to capture sudden demands in overseas markets, Chinese players have shown the resilience, response speed and cost performance of China's supply chain, Wei added.