The Hamburg Maritime Exhibition welcomes the strong return of Chinese exhibitors, will the shipping industry become a new growth point for China-EU economic and trade?

After China announced the trial of a unilateral visa-free policy for ordinary passport holders from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Malaysia, Claus Ulrich Selbach, director of the maritime and technical exhibition department of Hamburg Messe & Conference in Germany, quickly came to China with his team.

"On December 1, after we learned about the policy, we immediately booked a plane ticket and arrived in Shanghai, China, on December 4," Mr. Serbach said in an interview with Yicai in Shanghai. During this trip, he visited Chinese enterprises and peers in the maritime industry non-stop, and competed for more Chinese exhibitors for the Hamburg International Maritime Exhibition to be held in Hamburg, Germany on September 3~6 next year.

Started in 1963, the International Maritime Exhibition (SMM) in Hamburg, Germany, is held every two years and has been successfully held for 26 sessions, and has become the world's largest and most professional shipbuilding exhibition. The 2022 edition of Hamburg Maritime has returned from the pandemic to the virtual.

As one of the first beneficiaries of China's unilateral visa-free policy for many European countries, Selbach is pleased to see China's policy. Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular press conference on December 5 that according to the statistics of the National Immigration Administration, from December 1 to 3, the number of people entering the country from relevant countries continued to rise, with nearly 18,000 people entering China from six countries, an increase of 39% on average daily arrivals compared with November 30. Among them, nearly 7,000 people came to China through visa-free, accounting for 39% of the total number of arrivals from the six countries, which fully shows that the unilateral visa-free policy has indeed brought real convenience to the people of the six countries. In the next step, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue to optimize the visa policy and actively create favorable conditions to provide more convenience for the smooth flow of people between China and foreign countries.

China Day is planned to be held for the first time

"In 2018 there were 180 Chinese exhibitors, and since then the number of Chinese exhibitors has dropped dramatically due to the pandemic," said Serbach, "but now we are already feeling the enthusiasm of Chinese exhibitors." "According to the current situation in Selbach, it is expected that 180~200 Chinese exhibitors will participate in the 2024 Hamburg Maritime Exhibition, a record high," I have visited important Chinese shipbuilding companies such as China State Shipbuilding Corporation and COSCO Shipbuilding Industry Corporation in the past two days. ”

Selbach expects 2,000 exhibitors from 56 countries and 40,000 visitors from 120 countries to welcome 2,000 exhibitors from 56 countries and regions at Hamburg 2024, "We also have pavilions from 30 countries, of which three have been confirmed as the China pavilion." ”

He told Yicai that 46 Chinese companies have confirmed to participate in the exhibition with independent booths, including China State Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, Headway Technology Group and Qingdao Sunrui Marine Environmental Engineering Co., Ltd., "In 2018, the booth area of Chinese exhibitors was about 1,800 square meters, and now it has reached 3,000 square meters, and it should increase." ”

"It's great to see the strong return of Chinese exhibitors," said Selbach. According to him, the 2024 edition of Hamburg will focus on the energy revolution and digital transformation of the maritime industry. "Decarbonization technology already exists, and we hope that the maritime exhibition will become a platform through which technology buyers and others can fully communicate. "China is the largest shipbuilder and the world's largest shipowner. The process of global decarbonization needs China's support. ”

At the same time, Serbach also said that the exhibition will also focus on hot topics such as artificial intelligence (AI) and hydrogen energy, "which is a trend in the market and we believe that this trend should be grasped." ”

In addition, Selbach also revealed that in next year's Hamburg International Maritime Exhibition, it plans to cooperate with the Hamburg Liaison Office in China to set up a "China Day" for the first time, so as to bring together Chinese exhibitors and shipowners, and promote exchanges between Chinese exhibitors and European counterparts. According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, in January ~ August 2023, China's shipbuilding three major indicators continued to rank first in the world. In January ~ August this year, the shipbuilding volume of the mainland shipbuilding industry was 27.98 million deadweight tons, a year-on-year increase of 16.9%, the number of new orders was 52.31 million deadweight tons, a year-on-year increase of 86.5%, and the number of hand-held orders was 131.55 million deadweight tons, a year-on-year increase of 28.9%. At the same time, the export value of mainland ships reached 16.18 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 20.2%.

CEIBS creates new growth points

Selbach also said that just two weeks after the end of the Hamburg International Maritime Show, Hamburg will also host the biennial International Wind Energy Exhibition and the International Hydrogen Exhibition from Munich to Hamburg for the first time. Selbach joked that he hoped that Chinese exhibitors would stop more in Hamburg in the second half of next year.

Of course, he also reminded that due to the enthusiasm of Chinese exhibitors, it is advisable to pay attention to hotel and visa information as early as possible. Selbach hopes that the German Foreign Office will make a similar effort next year to make it easier for Chinese business people to travel to Germany and Europe.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of a comprehensive strategic partnership between China and the EU.

Klaus Deleroi, general manager of the German company REINTJES and vice chairman of the German Machinery and Equipment Manufacturing Association (VDMA), told Yicai that due to the macro environment, the future development of the shipping market is full of fog, and Germany especially hopes to maintain close ties with the important Asian market to promote the healthy and efficient development of the entire shipping industry, get rid of the traditional production model, and smoothly implement innovation in green shipping. He also told Yicai that in Germany, the business community still wants to maintain cooperation with China and promote cooperation forward, "which is different from the so-called decoupling of the United States." ”

According to data from the General Administration of Customs, in the first three quarters of this year, the total import and export volume between China and the EU was about 4.59 trillion yuan, down 1.6% year-on-year. In 2022, the total value of imports and exports between China and the EU was about 5.65 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.6% compared to 2021. The EU is China's second largest trading partner after ASEAN.

Professor Zheng Chunrong, director of the Center for German Studies at Tongji University, told Yicai that in the future, Europe should Xi accustomed to a new normal, that is, Europe will have a lot of concerns about China's exchanges, but it cannot give up China's big market and the opportunities brought by China's development, so Europe also needs to cooperate with China. "We must not be led away by Europe's ambivalence, but should use the initiative to open and take the initiative to influence Europe's negative mentality. For example, after the recent visa liberalization, some European entrepreneurs will definitely be encouraged to come to China for on-the-spot inspections, and through exchanges with European partners in China, I believe that they will definitely have practical insights into the follow-up investment in China and the layout of the Chinese market. ”

He believes that in the future, China and the EU can find new growth points in some new areas, such as climate change and green development, "Economic and trade cooperation will continue to make steady progress in the future." ”