With their domestic profits narrowing and production capacity expanding, China’s firms are continuing to widen their overseas footprints in search of new, more lucrative markets. In this series, we examine China Inc.’s next phase of “going global” and the complex, challenging international environment its companies have chosen to enter.
In early November, the chairman of one of China’s top construction machinery makers was spotted touring potential factory sites in Piracicaba, a city in southeastern Brazil.
The visit was another in a string of recent moves by major Chinese companies in the South American nation: food delivery giant Meituan has entered the market via its overseas brand Keeta, electric car maker BYD has started operations at a huge new plant in the northeastern state of Bahia, and TikTok – owned by tech leader ByteDance – has pledged US$37.7 billion to build a data centre in Ceara, another northeastern state.
Perhaps previously best known in China for its national football team and majority share of the Amazon rainforest, Brazil is now emerging as a major investment hotspot, with Chinese companies of all sizes and types – state-owned energy giants, individual e-commerce vendors and everything in between – seeing its market as a fertile land of opportunity.
The Brazilian visa application centre in central Beijing is now packed most weekdays. Industry insiders say there is a real buzz about Brazil among Chinese investors at the moment.
“So many Chinese are coming to Brazil now,” said Jack Lee, founder of the US-based consulting firm Grand Central Advisory, which helps Chinese firms enter the South American market.
“It looks to me like they’re all here for business,” added Lee, who assisted the construction machinery company with site selection in Piracicaba, where the firm’s biggest client, Caterpillar, has a facility.
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