Between 2014 and 2023, Chinese companies gained in importance, particularly for large enterprises in Germany. Whilst small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make up the vast majority of Germany’s foreign trade with China, they expanded their import relationships to a lesser extent than large enterprises. This is the result of the study “The Foreign Trade Relations of German SMEs with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan”, for which researchers at the IfM Bonn analysed official statistics on the East Asian customs regions of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong for the first time. The study also revealed that the number of SMEs exporting goods to China or Hong Kong is declining.
“Many SMEs are adapting their procurement strategies and attempting to develop new import regions besides China. However, their customers are often unwilling to pay the higher costs resulting from the new supply chains. Large companies therefore continue to regard China as important both as an import region and as a sales market,” reports Peter Kranzusch.
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