Accordingly, in our most important flagship issue of the year in November, we are pleased to have EFDA, FAI, HKSFC and UPIVEB presidents joining us to share with their precious point-of-views on the current industrial scenarios and what their associations are going to do or have already done to help members get challenges over or create business opportunities. 

The hottest issue in the industry worldwide this year is definitely the trade war between the USA and China. According to your observation, since August 2018, what significant change in the industry in your region has been revealed?  Has the change led to any positive or negative impact on the local industrial development?

EFDA: We notice that the Chinese are trying to sell a larger part of their production, which

they no longer sell in the USA, on the European market. However, demand from European importers is more subdued than before due to the overall deteriorating economic situation.

FAI: The USA and China Trade War has and will continue to have serious global repercussions. Trade outlook is going through a paradigm change let alone industry people, even economic and political pundits are finding it difficult to predict how it pave in the future. What the Indian Fastener Industry has witnessed is a sudden buoyancy in demand especially from the USA which is exploring alternative countries to source from. India is gaining from this as was witnessed in the spurt in visitor traffic and inquiries in the last couple of years edition of the International Fastener Expo, Las vegas, USA. Indian manufacturers have come a long way in the last decade with growing focus on quality, cost competitiveness and service levels. It is yet a tall ask to beat China on pricing with India especially on standard products. Also many U.S. buyers yet prefer to source from Taiwan if they want quality. Prices of India raw materials have been an obstacle with local mill prices rising to unprecedented levels till early 2019. However, with domestic steel prices softening since then, it would definitely cause an upswing in exports with more to USA considering India's market share was already very small. As explained the change has been positive with the current status for the Indian fastener industry. However, there has been an economic slowdown in many world major economies including India. This has currently impacted businesses in a major way. Automotive demand has dropped considerably and this has, in effect, hurt fastener manufacturers. The slowdown is showing no signs of relenting soon in some cases, and this negative impact can be partially turned around for companies looking at increasing exports to USA.

HKSFC: The industry has different opinions about the influence of U.S.-China trade war. We have a few companies replying that their orders from the U.S. have obviously decreased and they clearly felt a drastic impact on the business. The impact even caused the same decrease in the orders from some domestic clients. The trade war did cause some negative impacts on them. On the other hand, some other companies were not affected and even benefited from the trade war. Some of our members dont see any impact on their incoming orders thanks to their product uniqueness, and their technical and quality level. Some of them have benefited because of their increased export to Southeast Asia and Mexico. Continuing from above certainly we can see the decrease in orders as a negative impact, but every company is actively seeking a way out of this situation. They seek to improve their quality and technical capabilities, look for more client sources, and evaluate the possibility of investing in new plants In longer terms this will turn into positive result.

UPIVEB: EU28 imports of fasteners from PRC significantly increased in the last period. The change had a negative impact on the local industrial development.