China’s factories race to ship goods amid US trade truce: ‘everyone’s rushing’
Chinese manufacturers are using the pause in the trade war to front-load as many shipments as possible – and prepare for the ‘inevitable’ next crisis
Within hours of Beijing and Washington announcing a temporary truce in their ongoing trade war on Monday, production lines across China began grinding back into gear.
Chinese factory owners say they quickly received a barrage of messages from US buyers, demanding they resume production on orders that had been frozen due to sky-high tariffs – and expedite as many deliveries as possible.
Wang Jie, who runs a footwear factory in Guangdong province, had been forced to close down a production line in April, after her US clients suspended their orders following Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement.
“A client who has placed orders for May through August requested this morning that we resume production on the May order and deliver as soon as possible,” said Wang, adding that the fate of the orders for June to August would depend on the status of US-China trade negotiations.