Shanghai SME exporters show strong H1 growth

Shanghai's small and medium exporters' sales growth remained positive in the first half, showing the city's foreign trade has strongly rebounded after the pandemic, an industry report said.

Shanghai SME export sales jumped 8.8 percent year on year, despite the pandemic lockdowns.

The growth shows the market is rebounding with recovering demand and improving supply chains, according to the report by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and cross-border financial payment firm XTransfer.

The growth mainly comes from the June rebound after the citywide lockdown, with production and operations getting back to normal, said Shanghai-based XTransfer, which offers cross-border financial and payment services for 250,000 enterprise clients, including many SMEs.

Shanghai's Export Index rebounded to 84.86 in June, higher than 79.18 a year ago and compared with 79.64 in April.

In the first half, national SME export sales jumped 15.3 percent year on year. The top three SME export destinations were North America, Europe and the ASEAN countries.

Transport equipment and leather products are fastest growing sectors.

Compared with bigger firms, SME exporters are more flexible on management and supply chain when facing troubles and challenges, said XTransfer.

"We firmly believe in the strength and resilience of Chinese foreign trade enterprises," said Bill Deng, founder and chief executive of XTransfer.