VDMA warning over Chinese competition

Frankfurt am Main, Germany – German mechanical engineering industry is facing growing competition from Chinese companies, according to a recent study carried out by trade association VDMA.

The study, titled "China business of the future", has found that Chinees competitors “are increasingly penetrating the high-end segment of mechanical engineering,” said VDMA in a statement 16 Oct.

With the advances, particularly in the fields of technology and automation, VDMA said such Chinese companies were becoming “direct competitors of German small and midsize companies.”

According to the  German association, Chinese companies can, in many cases, count on state support - for example through subsidies or in the restrictive awarding of contracts on the domestic market.

"The financing of Chinese companies in particular must become more transparent in order to reduce distortions of competition," said VDMA president Carl Martin Welcker in a press meeting at the 10th German mechanical engineering summit in Berlin.

The official also called on the Chinese government to take “the fight against plagiarism and know-how theft” more seriously.

A VDMA study, "product piracy 2018" presented at the Hanover Fair in April showed that most counterfeits in mechanical engineering still come from China.