(Yicai) April 16 -- Foreign buyers at this year’s first round of the bi-annual Canton Fair, officially known as China Import and Export Fair, have adopted a more prudent attitude, evaluating more quality and services before making a purchase instead of straightforward buying.

In the past, European and American buyers would immediately pay once the order was confirmed, but now things have changed because of their difficulties in cleaning up stocks after the Covid-19 pandemic, He Wu, general manager at Chinese e-scooter brand Kixin Electronics, told Yicai at the 135th Canton Fair that kicked off yesterday.

Kixin is preparing to develop medium- and low-end products because those with higher cost-performance ratios are the easiest to be accepted overseas, He added. Technology and after-sales services are becoming the main focus of expanding overseas for Chinese companies.

The cost-performance ratio of Chinese products is still much more advantageous than that of European and US markets, Huang Chunlian, the foreign business department manager at Kinglan Machine Tool, said at the fair. In the first quarter of the year, sales at the Chinese punching machine manufacturer jumped 40 percent, with most clients from North America and Southeast Asia.

Kinglan will enhance services for overseas buyers, answer their inquiries within 24 hours, provide solutions within 48 hours, and arrive at their location within 72 hours, Huang noted.

More than 60,000 foreign buyers had attended the Canton Fair as of 5.00 p.m. yesterday, thanks to convenient clearance procedures. The figure soared 19 percent from the fair’s previous edition.

A total of 144,000 buyers from 215 countries and regions had pre-registered for the fair as of April 13. Those from the US, the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, the Middle East, the Belt and Road Initiative, and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership rose 21 percent, 13 percent, 25 percent, 46 percent, and 16 percent, respectively, this edition from the one before.

Moreover, 288 leading firms and industrial and commercial institutions have confirmed that they would be sending delegations, up 22 percent in the period.

On April 12, China released its official first-quarter foreign trade data.

The country’s foreign trade in goods rose 5 percent to CNY10.17 trillion (USD1.41 trillion) in the three months ended March 31 from a year earlier. Imports and exports increased 5 percent and 4.9 percent to CNY4.43 trillion (USD612.2 billion) and CNY5.74 trillion, respectively, in the period.

More Chinese companies recorded significant increases in import and export orders in March from February, said Wang Lingjun, vice minister of the General Administration of Customs of China, citing a GACC survey. The country's foreign trade is expected to expand in the first half of the year, he added.

Editors: Shi Yi, Futura Costaglione