China remains a “critical supplier” to the world and efforts for a full decoupling remain “difficult, if not impossible,” a trade report by Allianz Trade said.
Despite talk of decoupling and derisking from China, European companies remain bullish about prospects in the country — with nearly 40 percent of companies in Germany and Spain and more than 30 percent of firms in France expecting their supply chain footprint n the country to increase.
That’s according to the report which showed that only 27 percent of companies surveyed in the U.S. were planning to expand in China.
“European companies are clearly less worried than US firms,” the report, led by Allianz Trade’s Head of Economic Research Ana Boata said.
The Allianz Trade survey polled more than 3 000 companies in China, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, the UK and the US were surveyed about their outlook for global trade in 2024.
More than one-third of respondents plan to increase their China footprint, while only 11 percent said they would decrease it, the trade survey showed.
“China remains the world’s critical supplier, from which a full decoupling seems difficult, if not impossible,” the Allianz Trade report said.