Malleable Management: Copper company reshapes customer mix amid trade tensions

World
Europe

02:05

In the China-US trade war, a copper producer from a small southern Chinese city recently suffered a major blow. But in the face of defeat, they scored a victory and other companies like them are doing the same. CGTN's Sun Ye reports from Yingtan, Jiangxi Province.

It was the biggest headache of Xu Yite's career. The general manager at one of China's largest copper ball plants says the China-US trade spat cost him tremendously.

MALE XU YITE, GENERAL MANAGER JIANGNAN COPPER INDUSTRY "We lost a 3 million dollar order because of the tariff, we were greatly impacted by the China-US trade war."

The factory kept working at full speed, making and shipping copper balls for circuit boards and other IT items. Xu said he traveled all over the world trying to find new buyers.

XU YITE, GENERAL MANAGER JIANGNAN COPPER INDUSTRY "We went everywhere, Germany, France, Thailand, Indonesia all the way to Japan for new opportunities. We've also been upgrading and giving our products more added value."

Those trips, mostly to industry fairs, paid off. The company not only made up for the cancelled order. In the first 8 months of 2018, JIANGNAN COPPER's exports grew nearly 3 times from last year.

SUN YE YINGTAN, JIANGXI PROVINCE "And the other exporting companies here are doing the same. They are reaching out to new markets and new clients across the world and getting some of the most encouraging feedback from belt and road countries."

YU HONGYAN, DIRECTOR-GENERAL BUREAU OF COMMERCE, YINGTAN CITY "We've been ranked in the top 100 trading cities in China for nine years now. In the first 8 months of this year, trade has continued to rise steadily, double-digit-growth both ways. And trade volume with fellow Belt and Road nations grew more than 35 percent."

Yu says they will go on to help local companies get more exposure overseas. So that like their locally-made copper, other products can shine in new places. SY, CGTN, JIANGXI PROVINCE.