ABC QUICK SURVEY APRIL 2022 IN THE YANGTZE-RIVER-DELTA

In the light of the lockdown in Shanghai, ADVANTAGE AUSTRIA Shanghai conducted the ABC Quick Survey among the Austrian business community in the Yangtze-River-Delta. More than 430 Austrian subsidiaries are currently located in the provinces Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangxi. The ABC Quick Survey was carried out on April 1 - 2, 2022 and consisted of an online questionnaire with ten multiple choice and two open questions. 

A total of 56 respondents (leaders and key employees) participated in the survey.

Among the participants, 39% lead production plants and one quarter distribution subsidiaries. More than a third count over 250 employees while 41% have a team of less than 50 people. In consistence with statistics, most of the respondents’ companies are located in Shanghai and neighbouring Jiangsu province. 38% of the respondents have additional locations outside the Yangtze-River-Delta.

In the ABC Quick Survey, the majority of the respondents stated that their companies were limited in operation (63%) or even closed (5%). However, 9% indicated to generate more business than in the previous year. While the companies are confronted with a number of global challenges, the lockdown in Shanghai/other cities as well as the international and domestic travel restrictions affect most respondents with over 80% each. 

Unsurprisingly, the disruption of supply chains and logistics networks is the third pain point that severely distresses the great majority of companies in the Yangtze-River-Delta. With more than 60% of respondents being affected, the war in Ukraine as well as the reduced purchasing power of customers are pressing problems too.

At the time of the survey, two thirds of respondents were in lockdown. Almost half of them were subject to lockdowns of more than five days or undefined durations. The great majority of the respondents in lockdown suffers economic consequences from the non-availability of workforce, reduced sales, limited material supply and cancelled or postponed business events. However, their most important concern remains logistics, including timing and shipping prices.  

As a precaution, 88% of all respondents’ companies have opted for home office. Moreover, the majority has switched to online calls instead of face-to-face meetings and follows internal Covid-19 safety rules on company premises. Interestingly, 9% of the participants have even implemented a closed loop operation in their company.

Looking back on the first quarter of 2022, 14% of respondents saw their business improved compared to the previous year. At the same time, business deteriorated for as much as 45% of the respondents’ companies.

As to the whole business year, 43% of respondents expect more or less prudently that their sales and profitswill increase. Another 27% assume that both key figures will remain stable in 2022. In comparison to the last ABC Business Confidence Survey (link) conducted in October 2021 among Austrian subsidiaries in whole China, optimism has suffered only slightly. Back then, 51% of respondents awaited a growing turnover and 18% expected constant levels.

If you are interested in the detailed study or need any other information about Sino-Austrian business relations or our services, please contact ADVANTAGE AUSTRIA Shanghai by mail at shanghai@advantageaustria.org.