China – Southeast Asia is a consumer market for “Made in China” motorcycles, and is now expanding to be an industrial chain partner.

Since the 1990s, “Made in Chongqing” motorcycles have been popular in Southeast Asian countries because of their high quality and low price. In recent years, the new land-sea corridor in western China has facilitated economic and trade exchanges between provinces and cities in western China and Southeast Asia. In particular, the first “motorcycle transport” special train launched on January 17 this year further unblocked this major trade corridor and tightened the motorcycle supply and demand markets.

Since the opening of the new land-sea corridor, the number of motorcycles and accessories sent from Chongqing to Southeast Asia has increased year by year, from 69 TEUs (worth 13 million yuan) in 2017 to 5,070 TEUs (worth more than 900 million yuan in 2021). By the end of 2021, 13,200 TEUs had been shipped, with a value of more than 2.8 billion yuan.

Southeast Asian companies have set up local parts assembly plants, and then manufacturing plants to undertake the welding, die-casting, painting, injection molding, mechanical processing and other production links.

The China-Laos railway has once again pushed the “speed-up button” for the industry and bilateral trade. The implementation of the RCEP creates favorable development opportunities for the motorcycle industry, and will promote in-depth integration of the motorcycle industry of the two sides.

The cooperation between the two sides in the whole motorcycle industry chain will be enhanced: specifically, the upstream R&D technology will be improved to push the value chain to be fully integrated into the international mainstream; the mid-stream production quality will be significantly improved, and the advantages of various manufacturers of the two sides will be more complementary, which is conducive to the optimization of vehicle integration and production chain; the downstream after-sales services will be more localized, improving consumer experience, brand credibility, and service chain.