German companies remain optimistic in China

By Li Jiabao in Beijing and Xie Yu in Shanghai (China Daily) Updated: 2013-07-02 06:18

"It seems that the fast growth period of turnover and profit is gone, but that is in line with China's economic performance," Mull said.

Koehler added that 90 percent of the surveyed companies plan to maintain or increase investment in China in 2013.

China is among the top three markets worldwide for 60 percent of the interviewed companies in terms of turnover and for more than 50 percent of the companies in terms of revenue.

"The future investment outlook is the most attractive for the electronics, automotive, chemical, plastics and metal industries.

"Following key customers in China is the main reason for new investments, most significantly for the automotive sector, while regional diversification was listed as the second most important reason, mostly for the consulting and plastic and metal industries," Mull said.

The survey also showed that Shanghai, Chengdu and Beijing are the most attractive locations for future investments by German companies.

Shenyang and Nanjing were new entrants among the top 10 locations.

More than half of the companies said that local governments supported them adequately.

German investment in China reached $1.22 billion in the first five months of this year, up 57.3 percent from a year earlier and compared with the 1.03-percent gain in China's overall inflow of foreign direct investment into the non-financial sector, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

"We have to note that the Chinese market is much less open to German investors compared with the European Union's market openness to Chinese investment .... Many German companies in China expect fair treatment in market access," said Beate Grzeski, head of the economics department at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Beijing.