British participation
at ACHEMASIA

China is recognized by the UK Government as a major partner with many opportunities for inward investment and bilateral trade, to support its large and growing economy. The value and potential of this partnership is also recognized by the Chinese government.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said in July 2003 that he hoped the trade volume between China and Britain could reach $15 billion in the future three to five years. Wen made the remarks when meeting with British entrepreneurs. He said the trade cooperation between China and Britain has a great potential. The trade volume between the two countries reached $11.3 billion in 2002 and the target of $15 billion is probably a conservative figure, Wen added. He announced so far Britain has invested over $10 billion in China, topping the list of all the European countries and the biggest foreign project in China is also from the British Petroleum and Royal Dutch/Shell Group in Britain.
At the moment, the overall balance of trade is very much in China’s favor with imports to the UK from China being more than double the level of UK exports to China. However there is great potential for this balance to be changed in favor of UK companies, through China’s urgent need for hi-tech equipment and services in key development sectors. UK capabilities fit well with China’s priorities: transportation, telecoms, power generation, chemicals and petrochemicals, agriculture/food processing. However, as the Chinese economy develops, a wider range of opportunities e.g. in consumer goods, the environment and pollution control, healthcare, education and training and financial services are opening up. Opportunities have increased further with China’s entry to the WTO on 11th December 2001. Legislation enacted in 2002, such as Cleaner Production and Environmental Impact Assessment, as well as revisions to the Water and Grassland Laws, will provide a particular stimulus to investment.

As can be seen, many of China’s priorities are central to the focus of ACHEMASIA, especially in the areas of chemicals, petrochemicals and pharmaceuticals, environmental control and energy production. Participation of UK based companies at ACHEMASIA 2004 has been boosted by funding from the UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) Support for Exhibitions, Missions and Seminars Abroad scheme (SEMSA). This scheme, which is sponsored by the Energy Industries Council, provides grants to eligible participating companies, as well as logistical support and an exhibitors’ briefing meeting to help prepare them for the market. The Energy Industries Council (EIC) is the leading Trade Association for UK companies that supply capital goods and services to the energy industries world-wide. As well as a head office in London they have offices in Aberdeen, Houston, Singapore, Rio de Janeiro and Macae, Brazil, with a representative office in Abu Dhabi.
One of the first companies to book space at ACHEMASIA was Fluorocarbon, who manufacture Fluoropolymers, Elastomers and Advanced Engineering Thermoplastics Materials. Products include finished and semi-finished items in the above materials, slide bearings, lined pipework and fittings, expansion joints and seals. John Steel, Export Sales Manager at Fluorocarbon noticed: “We are exhibiting at ACHEMASIA in support of our market development in China. In particular, we wish to promote the products of a joint venture that we have created to allow Chinese buyers to acquire our some of European designed products with a proportion of local Chinese content.” Gareth Vity, Design Engineer at Advanced Couplings, another British Exhibitor announced: “We exhibited at ACHEMA in Frankfurt last May and were delighted with the number and quality of the enquiries that we received. Thus we decided to exhibit in Beijing, where our range of high purity stainless steel pipeline products can be exposed to the large Chinese-speaking pharmaceutical production market in the region.”