China's Enterprising Firms Are Finding Success Abroad
For all its appeal to foreign businesses, China has yet to create a world-class company of its own.
A fragmented domestic market and numerous regulatory constraints have squashed local entrepreneurs' hopes for building the sort of big company that can innovate and compete abroad. China's larger enterprises, meanwhile, have tended to be poorly run, state-controlled monopolies.
Recently, however, there are signs this may be changing. Beijing's policy toward private ownership has evolved from forbidding the practice to openly promoting it. As a result, some Chinese companies are finding niche industries where they can take on -- or even beat -- U.S. and European rivals in their own backyards.
Western corporations have tended to view China primarily as a low-cost production base and only just now are waking to the fact that Chinese businesses one day may be global competitors. This threatens to eventually change the competitive landscape in high-end industries like auto making or mobile-phone technology.
Already, some Chinese firms have a global footprint. Home-appliance concern Haier Group, for instance, now controls about 50% of the U.S. market for small refrigerators, the kind found in hotels and college dormitory rooms (the company's shares trade in Hong Kong as Haier-CCT Holdings). Legend Group boasts 20% of the world market for computer motherboards, while BYD Battery has 72% of the global market share for cellphone batteries and 38% for batteries in electric tools. Both companies also trade in Hong Kong.
A few foreign firms have even decided it is better to join forces with a promising Chinese enterprise than compete head-on. French electronics concern Thomson announced earlier this month that it is forming a joint venture with TCL Corp. that will be two-thirds owned by the Chinese maker of televisions and mobile phones. The new venture is slated to produce 18 million TV sets annually, putting it ahead of well-known rivals like Sony, Samsung Electronics and Philips Electronics, which also have production in China or elsewhere in Asia. TCL shares initially jumped in Hong Kong on the news, though they have drifted lower since as traders said the price already had been bid up in anticipation of the deal.
"There's an opportunity for any product that can be manufactured to be made more cheaply in China," says Dave Linehan, a portfolio manager for U.S. Trust in New York. "So there's a chance for a Chinese company to grab global market share."
Market share alone, of course, doesn't necessarily make an enterprise a worthy investment; and many of these exporters aren't profitable. Paul Wolansky, president of New China Management Corp., a Greenwich, Conn., investment firm specializing in China, thinks that many Chinese businesses are expanding in low-value industries by dint of cheap labor rather than by introducing new technologies. Under this model, he says, margins inevitably shrink as cheaper labor is found and these companies must learn to innovate in order to survive beyond the next several years.
Moreover, a recent study from consultants McKinsey & Co. concluded that while China now can compete globally in terms of product quality, most Chinese corporations lack the marketing skills and distribution channels to create and sustain brand names in the U.S.
But that hasn't prevented several Chinese businesses from targeting certain global industries. These are usually segments of the market from which big U.S., European or Japanese firms have exited, or aren't interested in serving, because they won't generate big enough profits, such as air conditioners or microwave ovens.
"The average American won't notice these [Chinese] companies for a while," says Peter Williamson, an affiliate professor of Asian business at the Singapore campus of the French business school Insead and co-author of an article on Chinese brands for the Harvard Business Review. "They won't be big consumer brands. They will be in industries like machinery, or containers. It's happening already."
That is because barriers to private enterprise in China have been falling. Domestic companies only recently were granted the right to compete against the big state-owned firms in lucrative industries like banking, railroads and telecommunications. In March 2001, President Jiang Zemin announced a "going abroad" policy to encourage Chinese businesses to invest overseas, and Beijing has begun to ease the approval process for companies that want to export.
Mr. Williamson points to a group of Chinese firms he calls hybrids because of their mixed structure of state, foreign and private ownership. TCL, for example, is majority-owned by the Chinese government but also counts Japan's Toshiba and the company's management as investors. Tsingtao Brewery sold a 15% stake to U.S. beer giant Anheuser-Busch in exchange for technical support, capital and a distribution alliance.
Beijing often has allowed these hybrids to raise funds on China's stock exchanges ahead of other companies and has permitted them to make acquisitions. Haier, the appliance maker, with the help of the government, was able to grow rapidly by acquiring dozens of unprofitable Chinese concerns during the previous decade.
These Chinese enterprises generally haven't invested much in new product development or customization. Instead, they have focused on mature technologies, with standardized global demand where cheap manufacturing provides a crucial edge, Mr. Williamson notes. Haier's minirefrigerator customers sought no dazzling technological advancement, only a reliable, inexpensive product.
Some investors maintain that a few Chinese firms are even showing signs of innovation in basic industries. Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery (Group) now accounts for nearly 40% of the global market for cranes that lift large shipping containers used at ports. That's about double its market share of three years ago, says Fang Zhang, a fund manager at Neon Capital Management, a New York hedge fund.
Edmund Harriss, a portfolio manager for Guinness Atkinson Asset Management in London, says Shanghai Zhenhua's share price looks too expensive to own right now. Another drawback is that the stock is available to foreigners only in Shanghai's thinly-traded B-share market. But the company, he says, is increasing earnings without relying simply on cheap labor. "Their cranes can stack boxes higher, and move them more efficiently," Mr. Harriss says. "It is a technological advance."
中国企业海外市场露峥嵘
虽然中国对外资企业颇具吸引力，但这个国家迄今尚未建立起自己的世界顶级企业。
支离破碎的国内市场和数不胜数的监管限制，粉碎了中国企业家创办勇于创新、具备国际竞争力的强势企业的梦想。与此同时，中国的大型企业仍然多为管理混乱的国有垄断企业。
但最近有迹象显示，这种情况可能正在发生改变。中国政府对待私人所有制的态度发生逆转：从过去的禁止到现在的公开支持。有鉴于此，一些中国公司找到了适合自己发展的领域，在这些市场，它们能够同欧美企业一较高下，甚至于击败这些国际竞争对手。
西方企业一直将中国视为一个低成本的生产基地，直到如今才猛然惊醒，发现中国企业有朝一日可能会成为他们在全球范围内的竞争对手。这可能最终改写汽车生产和移动电话技术等高端行业的竞争格局。
一些中国公司已开始涉足国际市场。以生产家用电器的海尔集团(Haier Group)为例，目前海尔小冰箱已占据美国小冰箱（酒店和学生宿舍专用）市场50%左右的占有率。海尔股票在香港上市，名称为海尔中建(Haier-CCT Holdings)。联想集团(Legend Group)则以占据全球电脑主板市场20%的占有率为豪。而比亚迪股份(BYD Battery)生产的手机电池已获得全球市场72%的占有率，其电动工具电池的全球市场占有率也达38%。联想集团和比亚迪股份均为香港联交所上市公司。
一些外资公司甚至认为，与富有潜力的中国企业携手合作好过与之开展正面竞争。本月早些时候，法国电子巨头Thomson宣布将与中国电视和移动电话制造商TCL集团(TCL Corp.)成立合资公司，其中三分之二的股权将由TCL集团持有。合资企业计划年产电视机1,800万台，产量甚至超出索尼(Sony)、三星电子(Samsung Electronics)、以及飞利浦电子(Philips Electronics)等在中国或亚洲其他地区拥有生产厂的知名对手。受此消息提振，TCL股价起初跃升，后又呈现下跌走势，原因是交易员表示，该股股价已将成立合资公司的因素考虑在内。
U.S. Trust驻纽约的投资组合经理戴夫?莱恩汉(Dave Linehan)表示，中国货具有低成本的优点，因此中国企业有机会在全球市场获取部分占有率。
诚然，获取市场占有率并不一定意味著该企业值得投资；许多此类出口商并不赢利。New China Management Corp.总裁保罗?沃兰斯基(Paul Wolansky)认为，许多中国企业积极拓展低附加值行业，它们通过使用便宜的劳动力、而非引进新技术来达到扩张目的。他说，在这种模式下，发现更为便宜的劳力不可避免地会降低公司利润率；为了继续生存，这些公司必须进行技术创新。New China Management Corp.是专门从事中国业务的投资公司。
此外，咨询公司麦肯锡(McKinsey & Co.)最近公布的一份报告得出结论称，尽管中国产品的质量目前具备国际竞争力，但中国企业的市场营销能力有限、分销渠道缺乏，这使得它们无法在美国创造并维护公司品牌。
但这并没有成为一些中国企业进军某些全球市场的障碍。这些市场通常是美国、欧洲或日本的大型企业已经退出的领域，或是它们不感兴趣的领域；这些市场不能带来巨额利润，比如空调或微波炉行业。
彼得?威廉森(Peter Williamson)表示，美国民众长期以来并未关注这些（中国）公司；这些公司不会成为消费领域的知名品牌，它们将在机械或集装箱领域有所作为，事实上这种情况正在发生。威廉森是法国商学院Insead新加坡分校的教授；《哈佛商业评论》刊登了一篇阐述中国品牌问题的文章，他是作者之一。
中国公司蓬勃发展的原因在于民营企业面临的投资障碍有所减少。民营企业近来被授予在银行、铁路及电信等高利润行业与国有大型企业开展竞争的权利。2001年3月，时任中国主席的江泽民宣布了“走出国门”政策，鼓励中国企业进行海外投资；北京也开始简化出口企业的审批程序。
威廉森将兼有国有经济、外资及民营经济成分在内的中国公司称为混合型企业。例如，TCL的大部分股权由中国政府持有，但日本的东芝公司(Toshiba)和TCL的管理层也同为TCL的投资者。青岛啤酒(Tsingtao Brewery)将15%的股权售于了美国啤酒巨头安海斯公司(Anheuser-Busch)，作为交换，后者将向前者提供技术、资本和分销方面的支持。
北京已允许这些混合型企业优先通过中国证券市场筹资，并准许它们进行收购交易。在当局的支持下，家电制造商海尔在过去10年的时间内收购了数十家亏损企业，得以迅速发展壮大。
威廉森指出，此类中国企业通常不会对新产品开发或用户定制进行大规模投资。事实上，它们专注于成熟技术的运用，生产的产品具有规格全球化的特点，便宜的制造成本是制胜关键。比如，海尔小冰箱的用户追求的不是技术进步，他们需要的只是可靠的便宜产品。
一些投资者坚持认为，甚至连基础行业中的部分中国企业也已显露创新态势。纽约对冲基金Neon Capital Management的一名基金经理张放(Fang Zhang，音译)表示，上海振华港口机械(集团)股份有限公司(Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery (Group))目前已占据码头起重机市场40%左右的占有率（此类起重机用于搬运大型集装箱），较3年前增长了约1倍。
Guinness Atkinson Asset Management驻伦敦投资组合经理埃德蒙?哈利斯(Edmund Harriss)称，振华公司股价过高，当前并非买进良机。该股的另一个缺点在于其仅在上海B股市场对海外投资者开放。但他表示，这家公司利润的提高并非仅仅依赖于便宜的劳动力；其生产的起重机能将集装箱叠得更高，且搬运效率更为理想，这些都是技术进步的表现。
