One of the more common “China” questions asked over the last years has been “When would China begin exporting brands?”. There have of course been the anecdotal exceptions like Haier and TsingTao that people hold up as successful cases, and there was some talk that Chinese firms would leverage their cash positions to scoop up cheap Western assets during the recession. Transactions, which did not really materialize as some had planned. Sure there was the attempt by Tongcheng to take Hummer, but outside of that, there seemed to be little noticeable movements in Chinese firms taking down Western brands.
But, if one were to look at the infrastructure sector, one would find plenty of activity, as the article China to bid on US high-speed rail projects recently highlighted:
China plans to bid for contracts to build U.S. high-speed train lines and is stepping up exports of rail technology to Europe and Latin America, a government official said Saturday. [...] Wang gave no details of where China’s railway builders might seek contracts, but systems are planned in California, Florida and Illinois. He said state-owned Chinese companies already are building high-speed lines in Turkey and Venezuela.
An expansion whose roots lie in China:
So far, China’s government has completed 2,295 miles (3,676 kilometers) of rail lines with top speeds of up to 220 mph (350 kph) and 1,795 miles (2,876 kilometers) with speeds up to 155 mph (250 kph), according to Wang. [...] Another 6,000 miles (10,000 kilometers) of lines are under construction, he said.
to some, this will not be new news. Afterall, China has been aggressively going after the cleantech markets, and been willing to commit to building facilities in Arizona and Minnesota to get around those who see Chinese imports of cleantech as a political hot button. but, this is something that goes back further, and a conversation with one of my employees from Yichang a few months back highlighted that…. Asking her about the economic development/ job market for her hometown, she mentioned that at one point the market was absolutely booming with activity and jobs, and a lot of it had been tied to the three gorges dam. That, after the dam had been completed, what ended up happening was that many of the engineering firms and contractors were unable to find much domestically, but often found work overseas in countries who were in need of foreign expertise.
Circling back to the original story, and in some way my original question, when looking for Chinese “brands” that are successfully expanding, perhaps it is time to readjust the lens by which one looks at the market. That if China were looking to successfully expand beyond its borders, it would do so in a capacity in which it is confident it could succeed, and anyone who has been in China and seen the work in infrastructure, urban planning, and energy, it would be easy to begin seeing where there are firms whom are confident, competent, and getting ready to bust a move.
In doing so though, what will be interesting to see (particularly in the U.S… say vs. South America/ SE Asia/ Africa), is how China will fare when overcoming several hurdles:
1) Politics – China’s history of overcoming the wrath of politicians in the U.S. has been spotty, and I have little doubt that were China to succeed in grabbing an “unfair” amount of contracts that someone would stand up and try to impede access. Perhaps it would be supported by “jobs” defense, or a “good paying” jobs claim, but one can be sure that the words “communist China” would be used in an effort to inflame.
2) Economics – China’s successful expansion of rail has been supported by not only political will, but also easy access to money. Considered a national priority opened a lot of doors that would ordinarily have been shut, and for me, I think this will be the big one. That, regardless of whether or not a political roadblock is erected, Chinese firms will have to make this venture profitable on their own.
3) Execution – Successfully bidding is one thing, but delivering is another, and as San Francisco residents have found in their recent experiences with the new Chinese made Bay Bridge, delivering on promises on large programs can be quite difficult. Chinese firms will need to maintain large engineering and tech. support staffs in the U.S., which means either training up U.S. staffers in China, or sending Chinese overseas.
4) Service – When that bullet train breaks down half way between St. Louis and Kansas City, someone is going to have to get to site, identify the problem, and make fixes. Which, if the Chinese firms want to build a long term brand around these projects, will require that they have the capacity to manage these issues. for allowing an external firm “USA bullet train service firm X” to do it would remove the Chinese firms from that coveted top ring where the entire profit cycle could be captured.
Where this ultimately makes so much sense to me though, is China simply has developed one of the best networks there is, at a speed that few others could manage, and in doing so has learned a great deal. the question is whether or not transferring this wealth of information and ability to execute at speeds/ scale no one else has before, will be something valued by others outside China.
One of the things that fascinated me most about this city was its express delivery network, a service that I had used quite often to send letters/ packages across town, but paid little attention to as the people behind it seem quite decentralized and rarely cared to say anymore more than “sign here”. Then, a couple years while wondering why so many people seemed to be hanging out near the turnstiles of the metro station, I realized something.
Anyone who has used a kuai di service provider knows that everything is negotiable and that this is a cut throat market. While studying the traditional express market several years ago, we were locally very interested in seeing how these groups worked as well.. and it is all word of mouth and by mobile phone. So, the best salespeople give secretaries the best discount.
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