AP PHOTOS: Chinese factories seek to expand their business outside the US

DONGGUAN China AP Massive sheets of aluminum hang in Danny Lau s factory as workers bustled about painting them with oil coating in China s southern industrial city of Dongguan The Hong Kong businessman set up this factory in mainland China in the s taking advantage of lower manufacturing costs While the factory has soldiered through past economic turmoil Lau revealed the escalating agreement war is proving to be greater part tough We didn t expect that our orders would suffer so heavily Lau stated During U S President Donald Trump s first term the factory was hit with a tariff After Trump returned to the White House this year tariffs escalated further with US imposing a sweeping tariffs and China raising its tariffs to For Lau s aluminum-coating factory Lau commented it amounted to a tariffs for his products One third of clients for Lau s Kam Pin Industrial are from the U S One U S client announced they would keep buying materials from Lau for an ongoing project because they couldn t find another supplier but that they will need to reconsider whether to source from him for the next project A limited clients described him the chances of continuing business with him are slim Prospects are grim he mentioned Since late Lau s company has started exploring opportunities in new markets anticipating Trump s increasing tariffs Lately he visited a sparse Middle East countries While other Chinese exporters have begun diversifying their markets since Trump s first term Lau discovered the U S industry tough to replace The U S field has big advantages it has the ability to pay and they have demand for high quality and punctual delivery Lau commented Without that domain it would be tough for us One virtual reality equipment and championship company has succeeded in finding demand in Southeast Asia Latin America and the Middle East The living standard views on consumption and the cultural feelings of these countries are close to those of China announced Zou Huajian in charge of export business in Zhuoyuan VR Tech Zou declared his company has diverted information to progressing economies after the COVID- pandemic dealt a blow The U S now accounts for less than of the company s business Zou explained because people are less willing to spend on entertainment Half of the company s orders now come from countries outside China in particular from Asia-Pacific countries with India now one of their biggest export markets Associated Press video producer Olivia Zhang contributed to this document This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors Source