People attend the 8th China-Russia Expo in Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on May 28, 2024. Photo: VCG

A growing number of Chinese manufacturing companies are seeking opportunities in Russia amid the country's drive to make products locally, industry insiders told the Global Times.

"Chinese companies practically dominate the show," a businessman surnamed Liu told the Global Times on Tuesday, upon returning from a machinery and tools expo held in Moscow last week.

"There was also a sizable number of Indian companies, and some Russian companies. But the Chinese were the predominant force," Liu said.

As bilateral trade ties advance steadily, Chinese companies have been seeking opportunities in the Russian market, and those that make tools stood to benefit from a Russian drive to make industrial goods locally, the Global Times learnt.

"For instance, several years ago, the Russians wouldn't care to make a coffee stir stick, whose value is trivial. But now they are making it," Liu said, whose company makes laser beam machine tools. "For Chinese companies making coffee stir stick such a change is bad news but for us the tool provider, our business is very good in the past two years and we have gained new business partners."

Another industry insider told the Global Times that amid the current complex situation, some Chinese companies had given up their Russian business voluntarily.

"But there are more companies stepping in, as drawn by the solid demand in Russia. In fact, they grow more interested in doing business in Russia, because they won't have stood a chance if the Western companies had not left," the insider said.

Some industry insiders noted growing opportunities for Chinese companies that come with a shift in Russia's industrial policy to focus more on building up its domestic industrial strength.

"From my decades of experience of living and working in Russia, I have never seen Russia getting so serious about supervising and managing its own resources," Chen Zhigang, director general of the Russian-Chinese Business Park in St. Petersburg, told the Global Times on Tuesday. "It has turned its attention on domestic investment, with plans to reinvigorate its industries, agriculture, high-tech sectors and so on, even coming up with medium- or long-term plans looking into the next six to 12 years."

"As a result, Russia has been beefing up exports, strengthening import substitution, and enhancing domestic manufacturing capacity," Chen said.

In May, during Russian President Vladimir Putin's state visit to China, the two countries issued a joint statement, calling for deepening cooperation in the field of industry and innovation and enhancing technology and production cooperation in a wide range of sectors including automaking, shipbuilding, equipment manufacturing and electronics.

In 2023, bilateral trade reached $240.1 billion, surging 26.3 percent year-on-year and achieving the target of $200 billion ahead of schedule, demonstrating strong resilience and broad prospects for mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Russia.

The year-on-year growth rate slowed to 4.7 percent in the first four months of this year, but experts said there is still "tremendous potential" for China-Russia trade and that annual trade volume could reach $240 billion in 2024.