China outbound investment of Q1 2023 highlights

China outbound investment (ODI) of Q1, 2023 totalled $40.47 billion, up 18% year-over-year, according to a China’s Foreign Investment Survey report. China’s outbound direct investment (ODI) refers to the investment made by Chinese companies in foreign countries.

Related data showed, over the type of Chinese companies invested in outside China, especially Chinese companies invested in European countries, about  70% of China’s ODI flowed into leasing and business services, manufacturing, wholesale, and retail as well as financial sectors, all of which recorded investments more than US$10 billion in 2020. 

Giving to initial data, the value of outward foreign direct investment (FDI) from China amounted to around  146.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2022, ranking third in the world.

Statistics of Chinese companies invested in Europe by country, here are the top three, Germany, Netherlands, and Denmark. 

Q1 2023, China’s overseas direct investment (ODI) went up

Specifically, non-financial direct investment reached US$31.54 billion, an increase of 17.2%, while China’s ODI in countries along the Belt and Road reached US$5.76 billion, an increase of 9.5% on an annualised basis.

Compared with the first quarter of last year, the volume of overseas M&A involving Chinese companies fell by 26%, the amount of transactions amounting to US$3.49 billion, while the number of transactions decreased by 4% year on year to 116 announced M&A deals.

China’s largest ODI is in the manufacturing and transportation, real estate, construction, and technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) sectors, accounting for 73% of China’s total foreign direct investment.

For the first time in five years, manufacturing and transportation took first place, and investment in these sectors, contrary to prevailing trends, increased by 87%. 

In terms of the number of trade transactions, the top three are TMT (Technology, Media & Telecom), manufacturing and transportation, and financial services, which account for 61% of the total number of transactions.

The Asian region continues to lead in terms of Chinese direct investment and deals, with four of the top ten top-investment countries in Asia, including Vietnam, Oman, Japan and South Korea.

In addition, the amount of new contracts signed by China for overseas projects amounted to US$43.15 billion, down 9% year-on-year, while the share of new contracts signed with Belt and Road countries increased by 7.2% compared to the same period last year. That suggests deal sizes have decreased slightly but the demand has increased.

Overall, China trade with BRI countries in Q1 amounted to US$31.66 billion, an increase of 9.2% year on year.

Statistics of Chinese companies invested in Europe by country, here are the FIVE countries statistics, with details of names of the Chinese companies in Europe, locations of companies' resided regions in Europe, and practical info for contacts within Europe. 

For those who would like to know more over the statistics of Chinese companies invested in Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland , France, and Belgium, just contact our team or to drop us a message.  

2022 paved the way for 2023 China (ODI) steadily grew

In 2022, China's non-financial ODI reached 785.94 billion yuan, up 7.2 percent year on year, China's outbound direct investment (ODI) grew steadily last year despite external headwinds, rising by 5.2 percent year on year to 985.37 billion yuan, according to Chinese authority accounted statistics. 

The completed turnover of foreign contracted projects grew 4.3 percent year on year to 1.04 trillion yuan, while the contract value of newly signed overseas projects amounted to 1.7 trillion yuan, up 2.1 percent.

Non-financial investment into countries along the Belt and Road increased 3.3 percent year on year to 20.97 billion dollars in 2022, accounting for 17.9 percent of the total non-financial ODI in the period.

Outbound investment in multiple fields logged rapid growth. Investments into the wholesale and retail sector rose 19.5 percent from a year earlier, while the manufacturing sector, leasing, and business services also reported growth momentum.

Statistics of Chinese companies invested in Europe by country, among others, Denmark, Sweden, and Austria are also favourable countries that attracted substantial numbers of Chinese companies invested in. It is beneficial to know how many Chinese companies invested in Denmark, and how many in Sweden, how many invested Austria. 

Projection of China's outbound direct investment (ODI) 2024

Today, China's outbound direct investment still rose 9.6 % from a year ago, which is driven by the strong interest in non-financial sectors, according to China business reporting on August, 2023.

it is not surprising that the projection in 2024 China's outbound direct investment (ODI) is somewhat quite promising, based on the previous years China's outbound direct investment (ODI) development situation, will continue to grow. 

In the long-term, the China Foreign Direct Investment is projected to trend around 2400.00 USD Hundred Million in 2024 and 2700.00 USD Hundred Million in 2025. according to the trading economics  global macro models and analysts expectations. 

In addition, the momentum for Chinese companies to go abroad has strengthened, the expansion is “expected to accelerate”, as China specifically revealed a series of initiatives, that will prop up the country’s private sector, and many expo events are lined up in the coming periods.