China's Industrial Economy Begins Year Of The Tiger With Vigor - Industry News - News

With motors rotating and machines roaring, China's industrial firms started the first week after the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday full of vim and vigor.

Facing multiple challenges in 2022, Rong Juchuan, founder of the Beyond Group, a textile company headquartered in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province, said the company "can't just wait, but should take the initiative."

Under 2022 kommer företaget att prioritera att förbättra sina digitala möjligheter och utnyttja nya försäljningskanaler som live-streamingplattformar för att sänka driftskostnaderna och utnyttja potentiell efterfrågan, säger Rong.

Recent economic data has echoed such enthusiasm for business. The purchasing managers' index (PMI) for China's manufacturing sector, a key economic barometer, came in at 50.1 in January, staying in the expansion territory for three months in a row.

In particular, manufacturing companies' confidence was on the rise, with the sub-index for production and operation activity expectations at 57.5, up 3.2 percentage points from a month earlier.

China's economic performance in the first quarter is expected to beat market expectations, said Li Chao, chief economist of Zheshang Securities, citing a PMI remaining above the boom-bust line for three consecutive months and steady credit growth.

The resilience of China's industrial economy was also reflected in other barometers, including the total consumption of electricity.

One of the country's industrial powerhouses, East China's Jiangsu province, saw its total electricity use rise 18.27 percent year-on-year during the holiday, while Hubei, a key manufacturing base in China, reported a 36.45-percent year-on-year increase in power use.

According to an estimate of the China Electricity Council, the country's total electricity consumption will rise by 5 percent to 6 percent year-on-year in 2022.

In the face of headwinds such as high commodity prices and supply chain challenges, China has prioritized stable growth for industrial development in 2022, which is the "ballast stone" of the macroeconomic market.

Xiao Yaqing, minister för industri och informationsteknologi, sa i en tidigare intervju med Xinhua att säkerställandet av stabil industriell tillväxt, särskilt en bra start under första kvartalet 2022, bör sättas som den viktigaste uppgiften.

För att säkerställa en stabil expansion har flera åtgärder implementerats, inklusive att stärka utvecklingen av små och medelstora-företag, förbättra leveranskedjans motståndskraft och att spela full roll för framväxande sektorer som nya energifordon (NEV) .

The ministry aims to incubate about 3,000 "little giant" firms this year, referring to small enterprises in their early stage of development and focusing on high-end technologies.

"In 2022, more importance will be attached to promoting collaboration and innovation among small, medium-sized and large enterprises," said Xu Xiaolan, vice-minister of industry and information technology.

The NEV market could be another driving force shoring up China's industrial growth. The country's NEV sales ranked first globally for a seventh straight year in 2021.

I framtiden siktar Kina på att ytterligare underlätta tillväxten av denna blomstrande sektor genom att lindra chipbrist, förbättra stödjande faciliteter som batteribytesstationer och genomföra återvinning och användning av NEV-batterier.