In the Suzhou Industrial Park Comprehensive Bonded Zone in east China's Jiangsu Province, the first of its kind in China, foreign-invested enterprises have expanded their business from simple manufacturers to after-sales service providers, enhancing their competitiveness through high-quality service.
There are currently 168 comprehensive bonded zones in China, covering all 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities, contributing nearly one-fifth of the country's total import and export volume.
Sonova is a global leader in innovative hearing care solutions, serving a growing number of people with hearing loss in more than 100 countries.
The person in charge of the company's branch in the Suzhou Industrial Park Comprehensive Bonded Zone said that in the past when the company did not offer bonded repair services, it was simply a China-based manufacturer of products for the Swiss group's headquarters. Now, with the expanded repair services, it can meet customers' after-sales service needs, and orders have been steadily increasing as a result. "Based on our current projections, we repair 700,000 cochlear implants per year, generating an output value of 14 million yuan (around 2.05 million U.S. dollars). This could drive a 14 percent year-on-year increase in our production orders," said Zhang Mei, senior operations director of Sonova's Suzhou Branch.
Zhang said the business model of "bonded repair" can be regarded as an upgraded and high-quality version of processing trade. It focuses on high-tech industries such as electronic products and medical devices, and carries out after-sales testing and repair services, earning not only "processing fees" but also technical service fees.
"The Chinese market has far surpassed the role of a mere sales market. Now, within the group's supply chain, the Suzhou base is defined as a global bonded repair center. This presents a tremendous opportunity and market for us, as we provide customers with full product lifecycle and comprehensive after-sales service," Zhang said.
"As a new form of foreign trade, bonded repair has shifted the traditional product manufacturing and selling to the entire product lifecycle, thereby keeping high-value-added links such as after-sales service and remanufacturing in China. Such a trend not only optimized the structure, but also extended China's position in global industrial and supply chains, enhanced the irreplaceability of its supply chains, and thus strengthened the country's initiative and discourse power in the international market," said Cao Yongxin, director of Suzhou Industrial Park Customs.
Foreign-funded firms explore after-sales service in China's bonded zone
