Asian merchandise trade is projected to expand 96 percent by 2025, outpacing the 73 percent growth in global trade during the same period, HSBC said in its latest quarterly world trade forecast.
HSBC Trade Connections’ quarterly report released yesterday said Asia trade volumes would increase to about US$14 trillion over the next 15 years and would become the key driver of world trade growth.
In this region, India, Vietnam, Indonesia and China are amongst the top five global powerhouses, along with Brazil, which would drive world trade growth until 2025, the report said.
Overall, HSBC said it expected world trade volumes to increase to US$48.5 trillion by 2025 from US$27.2 trillion now. During this period, China’s share of world trade would reach 13 percent by 2025, overtaking the US as the largest trading nation, it said.
Meanwhile, following the growing trade of basic foodstuffs and agricultural commodities, HSBC said the Asia-Pacific would remain important as a core trading route between China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and the US, eventually increasingly the route to Brazil, Malaysia, India and Vietnam.
Despite prospects of long-term growth in the region, both importers and exporters in Asia have at the same time shown declining confidence over the next six months, evidently affected by the rising global economic headwinds, the report’s HSBC Trade Confidence Index showed.
The confidence index revealed that 41 percent of respondents in Asia expect the global economy to decline within six months, with those in Singapore, China and India expressing the most pessimistic outlook within the region.
Moreover, both importers and exporters in Australia, Singapore, Vietnam and China are most worried about buyers defaulting on payments. Businesses in these markets therefore have shown an intention to either request advanced payments or tighten payments terms from their suppliers, HSBC said.
Noel Quinn, regional head of HSBC’s commercial banking for the Asia-Pacific, said the falling confidence index reminded companies the spillover effects of a worsening global financial crisis to their businesses.
He thus called on Asian importers and exporters to well prepare themselves while extending their reaches to other markets in the region or across the world.
“There are undoubtedly short-term risks for businesses given the challenging economic conditions but some mitigation is possible if companies start preparing now to capitalize on the growth in global trade,” Quinn said in a statement.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last