Foreign Brands Eye Chinese Market for Growth at Canton Fair

Canton Fair
Updated: 10/19/2009 1:32:00 AM

The on-going Canton Fair, China' s largest trade fair in the southern Guangzhou City, has for the first time attracted a U.S. real estate company.

The Bay Realty Group, Inc. rented three standard booths for the exhibition. "We are the first U.S. real estate company to the fair, but we will not be the last one," said Johny Wang, vice President of the company. "The huge potential of the Chinese market encouraged us to make the crucial step."

More than 380 enterprises from 35 countries and regions gathered at the 15,000-square-meter import zone of the fair which opened Thursday, looking for a share in the Chinese market to offset their loss in the European and U.S. markets amid the financial crisis.

Their products ranged from electronics, food and bags to home appliances and real estate. Some just began to have plans to explore the Chinese market this year.

The TS Meditech Co. Ltd, one of the 110 enterprises from the Republic of Korea, exhibited two sets of exercising and therapy equipment.

Managing director Su-Ho Choi said the major markets of the products were in the U.S and Europe, but the demands shrank in the wake of the financial crisis.

"We hope to find Chinese distributors at the fair to enter the market which we think have a large demand," he said.

Y.P. Cheng, board chairman of the Hong Kong-based Matrix Lighting, Inc., was also eyeing the Chinese market for his LED bulbs.

"The price for each energy-saving bulb is as high as 8.5 U.S. dollars. That' s too high for the Chinese customers," he said. "We are trying to reduce the price by half in a year so that the products are affordable and popular in the Chinese market."

He said he had confidence to compete with other LED bulb manufacturers in the mainland.

"Our products could make each bulb save up to 97 U.S. dollars in energy costs annually, increasing the competitiveness of our products. China' s policies to promote the use of clean and earth friendly lamps are also good news for us," he said.

The Chinese market shows remarkable resilience in the financial crisis because of its large population and increasing consumption capabilities, said Chen Chaoren, spokesman of the fair. "The wide participation of foreign enterprises at the fair despite the financial crisis showed the world has confidence and expectation in the Chinese market."

But while seeing the prospect in China, the foreign exhibitors are still cautious about the new market. A manufacture of high-pressure cleaning systems for indoor and outdoor applications, the Italy-based Lavor is still studying the potential customers in China.

"China is a different market from the U.S. and Brazil, where we take more than 70 percent of the market share. We won't set up sales network in China before a serious study of Chinese customers," said Liang Dong, marketing and sales director of Lavor' s China region.

"We come to the fair to experience the environment of the market," he said. "We really hope more Chinese will know our brand. That is the first step for us to succeed in China."