Published: 21/07/2021

Although the volume of world trade in goods dropped by 5.5 per cent in 2020 against 2019, the demand for electronics soared and deliveries of computers went up by 13.1 per cent.

Slightly more than 6 per cent of the Polish firms surveyed by the PEI in collaboration with GUS admitted to benefiting from the relocation of supply chains from China. Apart from companies already involved in shifting supply chains from China, another 7.7 per cent were positive about the phenomenon; 3.9 per cent of the respondents intended to join in, 2.3 per cent considered participation, whereas a mere 1.5 per cent declared that they would be willing to participate if subsidised from public funds. As demonstrated by the PEI survey results, over 15 per cent of the total number of respondents had no intention to take part in shifting production from China. It is worth noting that nearly 41 per cent of the respondents thought that the relocation of production from China by transnational corporations did not concern them.

‘The relatively good performance of Polish exporters was determined by several factors. Firstly, it was due to greater diversification of Poland’s exports as compared to the majority of the EU Member States. For example, automotive products had a considerably lower share in Polish exports than in those of many EU Member States and the automotive industry was hit the hardest during the spring lock-down. Secondly, in the period of the spring lock-down, a fall in Polish exports was cushioned by a relatively greater role played by articles for which foreign demand dropped to a lesser degree than in the case of cars, or even showed an increase. Between March and May 2020, there was a marked rise in Polish exports of medicines and pharmaceuticals (by 23 per cent), tobacco products (by 14 per cent), wearing apparel, beverages and foodstuffs. Therefore, growth was noted with regard to nearly 18 per cent of Polish deliveries abroad. Thirdly, Polish exporters benefited from increased global demand for durable consumer goods, with a rather high share in Poland’s export sales. Those included household appliances, radio and television equipment, electronics and furniture. Moreover, Poland was actively involved in global supply chains related to electromobility (having gained in importance during the pandemic), thus strengthening its position as a manufacturer and exporter of electric buses and becoming the largest exporter of Li-ion batteries’, says Łukasz Ambroziak, an analyst of the foreign trade team at the Polish Economic Institute.