Executives from Swedish engineering and service company Alfa Laval on Friday reaffirmed their commitment to exploring the Chinese market, highlighting the country as a key market for future investment and collaboration.
Speaking in a studio interview with China Central Television (CCTV) inside the venue of the ongoing 8th China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, Alfa Laval's CEO Tom Erixon and CFO Fredrik Ekstrom shared their views on Chinese market and what CIIE has brought to their company.
This year, Alfa Laval brought its management team of 12 top executives to the expo. Erixon explained the move was a strategic decision to ensure the entire leadership group experienced the market firsthand.
"Sometimes it's important that we, as a team, experience the same thing. It's a very much a learning experience from what is for us the most important market in the world, China. Discussion, partly the Five-Year Plan, partly some of their wishes that we have from the industry in terms of facilitating our access to the China market. So, that was a very important moment for us," said Erixon.
Ekstrom noted that this year's event has offered a special place to gather stakeholders and share insights. "I think it's a mix of meeting government officials, it's meeting our customers, and of course, it's expanding our view of what's happening in China at the same time because when you look around, you really get a true sense of how important China is as a market for the rest of the world and why it's important for us to be here as well. China is really an important market for us. In fact, it's 20 percent of our turnover. But more importantly, we look at it as a future market because China leads the global energy transition right now," said the CFO.
Erixon also underscored the importance of China's Five-Year Plan and how it has effectively helped his company in planning.
"We've followed the Five-Year Plans throughout many, many years in China. We find they are very predictive of what's actually going to happen. The five-year horizon is very helpful for our planning horizon for capacity planning," said the CEO.
For Ekstrom, China's rapid advancement in green development has been a great source of confidence.
"China actually leads today. There is no other country that has invested more in the green transition than China over the last 24 months and that is certainty, the certainty of leadership and therefore we are here," said Ekstrom.
Swedish engineering company deepens commitment to China as its key market
