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TCL to expand global footprint
By FAN FEIFEI | China Daily | Updated: 2022-03-09 09:27
Visitors check out TCL displays during an expo in Las Vegas in January. [Photo/Xinhua]
Electronics giant charts plans for more complete industrial chains worldwide
Chinese consumer electronics giant TCL Technology Group Corp will speed up its globalization push, establish more complete industrial chains across the globe, and increase investment in next-generation display technologies, said Li Dongsheng, founder and chairman of the company.
Li, who is a deputy to the 13th National People's Congress, said Chinese enterprises should accelerate the construction of global industrial and supply chains, which is of great significance in improving their competitiveness.
He said that in the face of anti-globalization risks, TCL has adjusted the layout of its overseas industrial chain to effectively avoid trade barriers, ramped up localization efforts and continuously increased capital input in research and development.
For instance, the company has expanded overseas plants in Vietnam, Mexico and India, and established joint ventures with local partners in Brazil to jointly build production bases, supply chains and an R&D system.
"Looking ahead, we will also actively consider increasing industrial bases in Africa and strengthening our business in the Middle East," Li said. So far, TCL has established 42 research and development centers and 32 manufacturing bases around the world, with operations in over 160 countries and regions.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said stabilizing industrial growth will be its top priority this year, and it will step up the promotion of industrial chain upgrades and enhance the core competitiveness of manufacturing in the country.
Building global competitiveness has always been an important strategy for TCL, Li said, while noting the company's revenue from overseas markets stood at 117.4 billion yuan ($18.6 billion) in 2021, up 60 percent on a yearly basis.
In his proposal to this year's two sessions－the annual meetings of China's top legislature and political advisory body－Li called for intensified efforts to support more homegrown companies to participate in key fields in industrial chains and improve the industrial chain of the Chinese manufacturing sector.
He suggested the country should attract foreign high-tech manufacturing enterprises to invest and establish factories in China, as well as encourage and support leading Chinese enterprises to expand their manufacturing advantages to overseas markets, and set up R&D centers and production bases.
China has gained an upper hand in the liquid crystal display (LCD) field, accounting for about 60 to 70 percent of global production capacity, but it still lags behind in new display technologies, such as organic light-emitting diodes or OLED, Li said.
He noted the company is accelerating layout of next-generation display technologies, such as OLED, quantum dot and micro light-emitting diodes. Compared with traditional LCD, the new display technologies show great improvements in terms of image contrast, brightness and color spectrum.
It has invested heavily in medium-sized displays, including laptops, tablets and vehicle-mounted displays, and started construction of a T9 production line, which mainly produces commercial display equipment, Li added.
Chinese enterprises should step up efforts for breakthroughs in key technologies through self-dependent innovation, and promote integration of the new generation of information technologies and intelligent manufacturing with the current industrial supply chain, said Zhang Qizi, deputy director of the Institute of Industrial Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Aren't they working on their own chips as well?
They are, with focus on EV, power and imaging chips, also vertical integration.
I visited their Shenzhen factory many many years ago, some pics -
Been a lot of talk in western media about how sanctions on Russia would turn it into a chinese colony and give china unprecedented cheap access to natural resources but how much impact would there really be?
The main important resources oil and gas are still being purchased by europe and most of the world and afaik power of siberia 1 was signed on contract so no discounts there
The main important resources oil and gas are still being purchased by europe and most of the world and afaik power of siberia 1 was signed on contract so no discounts there
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
Western propaganda machine at work. The US expects China to follow the Western sanctions on Russia while on the other side get the Russians paranoid of Chinese exploitation. The West wants to strangle the Russian economy but they're concerned China might exploit the Russians by getting everything on the cheap. If China paid market prices then the West will get angry because then it will be business as usual with no sanctions for Russia but instead it will be China not Europe where Russia will be making money from. Error...
There is only so much you can do in the immediate future. A lot of the oil and gas Russia sells to Europe goes there via pipeline. What can be sent by boat could be rerouted to China. But you can bet the US would threaten to impose sanctions on Chinese oil & gas importers so China might have to use something similar to the Iran scheme with small companies skirting the sanctions.
The Russian gas industry projects depend on EU technology. These include gas liquefaction facilities and some of the more modern refining and chemical processing facilities. This means in worst case Russia will have to send raw gas and raw crude to China. However China has a huge chemical products and oil & gas industry. They have a large native supply chain for such equipment as well. Part of the deal with Iran signed a couple years ago was in fact that China would build such an industry there despite sanctions. The Russians already manufacture a lot of heavy duty mining and drilling equipment in Russia proper and have increased this with the sanctions on the annexation of Crimea.
Once Power of Siberia 2 is built, perhaps in 5 years, some 60bcm of natural gas from Yamal will be sent to China. These are the same gas reservoirs connected to Europe with NordStream 1/2 and Yamal Pipeline. Then you have the 10bcm of Russian natural gas from Sakhalin. The rest of Sakhalin's gas is sold to Asia (mostly Japan) via LNG tanker and Russia could just divert it to China or India instead.
If, for whatever reason, Europe can halve its consumption of gas in 5 years then Russia might just double Power of Siberia 2. That would be 120 bcm. Russia sells like 200bcm of gas to "Europe" right now. But the thing is a lot of this gas goes via Turkey and they are not sanctioning Russia. Turkey already launders Iranian oil. Heck they even launder oil from ISIL in Syria. They will just claim the gas comes from Azerbaijan or some BS like that. TurkStream and BlueStream gas pipelines put together are about 48 bcm.
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China has unbundled its pipeline network from the gas majors. They did this some 2 years ago.
They could just do the same to the oil pipeline network if they did not do this already.
Russia has a fully native gas pipeline industry. This includes the pipes themselves, the steel used to make them, the gas turbines to pump the gas, etc.
Also Chinese companies might not have all the leading edge oil processing equipment but they clearly have enough of it or the Iran trade deal would never have been possible in the first place. Iran has been sanctioned to hell and back for like 50 years.
They could just do the same to the oil pipeline network if they did not do this already.
Russia has a fully native gas pipeline industry. This includes the pipes themselves, the steel used to make them, the gas turbines to pump the gas, etc.
Also Chinese companies might not have all the leading edge oil processing equipment but they clearly have enough of it or the Iran trade deal would never have been possible in the first place. Iran has been sanctioned to hell and back for like 50 years.
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PipeChina controls the gas pipelines inside China proper. I never heard of them having investments abroad. So it will have limited, if any, exposure to the Western market.
It is also not in the West's interests to make China's acquisition of Russia oil & gas difficult in the short or medium term. If they did they would compete directly against China in the world energy market for whatever energy is left. Then you would see oil & gas prices really spike. It would make current prices look like a picnic.
It is also not in the West's interests to make China's acquisition of Russia oil & gas difficult in the short or medium term. If they did they would compete directly against China in the world energy market for whatever energy is left. Then you would see oil & gas prices really spike. It would make current prices look like a picnic.
Of course. You are seeing a massive financial decoupling happening. China and Russia will increasingly trade directly in the Yuan and Ruble. There will be a huge shock but in the end Russian oil and oil & gas companies will likely be listed in Shanghai instead of London Stock Exchange. Russian oil index will be listed in Shanghai. And all international trade will be converted to direct trade in each other's currencies. Right now it is 50%. This will not be immediate and there will be massive stress. But the channels for this trade already exist. They will just need to be strengthened. The US and EU will lose all its ability to inspect Russia-China trade money flows and you will likely see all sorts of BS news about collapse in Russian trade. There will be a collapse but I suspect it will quickly bounce back.