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Africa grows rapidly as a buyer of laptops

Just like the rest of the world, Africa is lapping up laptops made in Chongqing. Three years ago only four African countries imported them, but by 2013 that number had shot up to 21 countries and regions, the Chongqing Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Commission says. Laptops from the city account for a quarter of all the laptops produced in the world, says the Chongqing's Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology.

The city exported a little more than 5,000 laptops to Africa in 2010, a drop in the ocean compared with the 970,000 it produced. By 2013, the number of laptops sent to Africa had increased more than 100 fold to 558,000 out of total exports of 48.7 million.

The bulk of the demand for made-in-Chongqing laptops comes from Europe and North America, but those markets are almost saturated, says An Hui, director of CCID Group, part of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. On the other hand, as with Africa, demand in Russia, India and South America continues to grow rapidly, and An reckons they hold out great potential for Chongqing.

Wang Jiping, director of the research client system of International Data Corporation China, says about 80 percent of laptops made in China are exported.

"Traditionally, the factories have been in coastal areas, but they have gradually moved inland to places such as Chongqing. Like Guangdong, Chongqing and Chengdu are now important electronics manufacturing centers."

The industrial chain in Chongqing will keep the city at the forefront of the electronics industry, he says. The city is also extending its logistics networks, making it easier to export goods.

One part of this is the Chongqing-Europe railway that opened in 2011 and which can cut two weeks off the time it takes to deliver goods from Chongqing to the continent.

Zhang Yonghong, president of Acer Greater China, says the line to Duisburg, Germany, need not be a one-size-fits-all solution.

To the end of last year, 95 journeys had been completed on the Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe International Railway, 36 in 2013, 41 in 2012 and 17 in 2011. The total value of goods carried was $2 billion.

Getting laptops from Chongqing to Africa is obviously a different proposition, most of them going by sea.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 06/06/2014 page15)