Hunan’s Medical Device Exports up 42.6% in March

2020-04-21

Changsha Customs announced, on April 20, that Hunan exported 120 million yuan in medical equipment and devices (medical devices) in March, up 42.6% over last year. At present, there are 118 provincial enterprises exporting medical supplies. Thirty three are new this year.

In March, Hunan exports of medical devices grew rapidly, narrowing the decline of its first quarter medical device exports over the same period last year.

Affected by the epidemic, provincial medical device exports dropped significantly in January and February. Since the resumption of work and production, provincial enterprises have actively switched to other production lines and expanded capacity. Some foreign trade enterprises such as automobile and toy manufacturers have introduced production lines of anti-epidemic materials such as masks and thermometer “guns”.

In the first quarter of 2020, Hunan's total export value of medical devices was 190 million yuan. This is down 8.6% compared to last year. The rate of decline was reduced by 35 percentage points compared to the prior two months. In the first quarter, the province exported 48.627 million yuan of medical devices to Belt and Road countries, up 75.9%, accounting for 25.2% of the province’s total exports.

According to the Changsha Customs, currently, China and Belt and Road countries have strong economic complementarity and have a broad space for foreign trade development. Actively exploring markets in Belt and Road countries is conducive to foreign trade stability.

The Changsha customs suggested that the province should:

-Further open international transportation channels and give full play to the role of Changsha medical imports port, so as to help the province’s medical device industry turn risks into opportunities.

-Actively guide medical device enterprises to improve their innovation and market development capabilities while strengthening customs protection of intellectual property rights for all kinds of medical devices; and,

-Strengthen medical device quality inspection and strictly reject unqualified products.

This article is from Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.