Recently, we learned from China Chamber of Commerce for the Import and Export of Medicines and Health Products (CCCMHPIE) that over the first 3 quarters of 2016, total imports of China had reached USD 29.127 billion, with a year-on-year growth of 2.95%. Among them, the export is USD 15.33 billion declined by 1.46% on a year-on-year basis which is the first fall in recent five years, while the import increases by 6.52% and the export price declines by 7.49%. The export trade of medical devices as a whole presents that the exports increase and the price competition is fierce.

The latest statistics of CCCMHPIE show that from January to September, among products of sub-industries for medical devices, except for the export price of stomatological equipment and materials with a year-on-year growth of 7.37%, surgical dressings, medical disposable materials, healthcare and rehabilitation supplies in the low-end product areas as well as hospital-based diagnoses and treatment equipment in the high-end product areas fall by 11.71% on a year-on-year basis.

It’s extremely difficult to make such achievement of medical devices exports in the first 3 quarters.  Tianzhi Cai, deputy secretary general of CCCMHPIE explained that the weak global economic recovery brought about the declining market demand. China is a big exporter of medical devices and its overall exports have been partly affected by the insufficient demand in the U.S. market. Besides, the importation of Chinese medical device products has been restricted by a rise in protectionism, an increase in the access threshold of individual countries or more frequent supervision. Some countries or regions including US and the EU have increased market access standards and strengthened supervision of products such as surgery dressings in China, thus it has become more difficult to acquire market access for our surgery dressings and especially for Class II medical device products, with intensified competition of Chinese medical device products in the international market and a falling price accordingly.

Tianzhi Cai also analyzed that the improvement in quality, stability and brand effect of domestic medical devices would help remain a single-digit rise in the export of medical devices. The value of foreign trade for domestic medical devices is expected to exceed USD 40 billion in 2016.