(Yicai) April 18 -- Exporters and cross-border e-commerce companies in China’s southern Guangdong province have said the impact on their businesses of steep new US import tariffs will be manageable.

“As long as customers can't find an alternative, they’ll ultimately accept higher costs,” the head of a business-to-business handicrafts exporter told Yicai. The Dongguan-based company’s popular products face no big competition, so even with the additional tariff costs, they maintain a price advantage, he said.

Since most of the higher tariff costs will be passed on to American buyers, the impact on the company will be minimal, despite profit likely growing at a slightly slower pace, the person added.

“We just received an order from an American client aware of the new tariffs, and the price for the new goods was unchanged,” he noted.

While most exporters relied on the original equipment manufacturer model in the past, many of them now have their own brands, according to an executive at another exporter in the Pearl River Delta region. Even with higher tariffs, it is possible for them to still squeeze out some profit margin, he pointed out.

In the long run, the company will invest more in research and development to bolster its pricing power, as well as increase sales in countries other than the United States, the person noted. "But brand building takes time and requires greater investment in advertising,” he added.

The finance director of a business-to-consumer transborder e-commerce firm in Shenzhen told Yicai that it has stocked up on goods for about four months, so the new US tariffs will not affect its profits in the short term.

Some businesses are also starting to look for new opportunities. The sales head at the Shenzhen branch of a cross-border logistics firm told Yicai that in the wake of the Trump administration’s "reciprocal tariffs,” many Chinese companies will shift their factories and supply chains overseas, potentially bringing more work to the firm.

While businesses are playing down the impact of US tariffs, Chinese lenders have begun assessing client risks, looking at strategies to cope with the impact of tariffs, and providing new foreign exchange hedging and financing support schemes for exporters.

Bank of China’s Guangdong branch, for example, has announced that it will provide over CNY180 billion (USD24.7 billion) in trade financing, medium- and long-term loans, and cross-border financing to local exporters, as well as more than CNY 1 trillion (USD137.1 billion) in transborder Chinese yuan settlement services.

Qingdao Rural Commercial Bank has launched new products that provide unsecured credit loans tailored to importers and exporters. The manager of a city commercial bank branch in Guangdong told Yicai that the lender had increased its forex hedging product services for exporters to help them manage exchange rate risks.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione