German firms tap Tianjin for success

Like Big Dutchman, many German companies, including Flender, ZF Friedrichshafen AG and Leybold, have cooperated well with Tianjin for many years.

According to statistics from the city's municipal bureau of commerce, as of May 2023, Tianjin had 471 German-invested enterprises in the fields of equipment, automobile and electrical and mechanical manufacturing.

The cumulative contracted foreign investment of these companies had reached nearly $5.7 billion, and the accumulated actual utilized foreign investment had exceeded $4 billion.

China has been Germany's most important trading partner for seven years in a row. German corporations invested a record 11.5 billion euros ($12.5 billion) in China in 2022, according to a German Economic Institute report released in March.

Recently, Siemens announced a plan to increase investments in the country, including an additional 1.1 billion yuan in fixed-asset investment for its industrial automation products smart manufacturing base in Southwest China's Chengdu in Sichuan province.

German chemical giant BASF continues to see China as a future growth market and is willing to strengthen its business in the nation to continue its momentum of development.

According to data from the German Institute for Economic Research, direct investment by Germany in China is on the rise. A survey published by the German Chamber of Commerce in China in June said that about 55 percent of responding German companies plan to increase investment in the country in the coming two years.

"To achieve long-term development in China, we plan to establish a second production base and logistics center in South China to meet the increasingly developing Chinese market," said Benz.

In the next five years, the company is looking forward to increasing its output value in China to 1.5 billion yuan and will continue to share the growth potential of the Chinese market, Benz added.