Value of medical equipment exports from China 2018-2022

Between January and November 2022, China exported around 444 billion yuan worths of medical equipment. The export of medical equipment surged in 2020, thanks to the high demand of medical consumables during the coronavirus pandemic. The United States, Japan, and Germany were the leading export markets for China's medical equipment in 2022.Changing Chinese regulations - a domestic market boom? The medical technology market in China is difficult for overseas manufacturers to penetrate, due to the ever-changing market requirements and regulations, which must be observed to in order to have an impact on the industry. The familiarity of these regulations and improved accessibility for domestic manufacturers has proliferated the growth of local manufacturers of high-end medical technology. Low-end medical technology is still the primary market for local manufacturers and recent developments have allowed local producers to compete with overseas manufacturers. However, imported high-end technology is still preferred over locally produced technologies.State of exports before the COVID-19 pandemicThe year 2016 witnessed the election of Donald Trump as the President of the United States. The ensuing trade war between the U.S. and China resulted in a drastic fall of exports from China to its major consumers. Nevertheless, the medical technology industry has since registered significant growth in exports across the world. The most prominent manufactured entity were medical apparatus, which included both high-end and low-end medical technology, accounting for approximately half of the medical export revenue before 2020. Rehabilitation and diagnostic equipment also constituted a large share of the export revenue of China’s medtech.

于2022年1月至11月间，中国出口的医疗设备价值约为4440亿元人民币。得益于新冠病毒疫情期间对医疗消耗品的高需求，医疗设备的出口在2020年显著增长。美国、日本和德国是中国医疗设备的主要出口市场。随着中国监管政策的不断变化，国内市场是否将迎来繁荣？由于市场要求和监管规则的不断调整，海外制造商在中国医疗技术市场中面临着渗透的难题，这些规则必须被严格遵守，方能对行业产生影响。国内制造商对这些法规的熟悉程度提升以及准入门槛的降低，促进了本土高端医疗技术制造商的蓬勃发展。低端医疗技术仍为国内制造商的主要市场，而近期的发展使得本土生产商能够与海外制造商竞争。然而，相较于本土生产的医疗技术，进口的高端技术仍然更受欢迎。在COVID-19疫情爆发前，出口状况如何？2016年，唐纳德·特朗普当选为美国总统。随后，美中之间的贸易战导致中国对主要消费国的出口急剧下降。尽管如此，全球医疗技术行业的出口自那时以来已实现了显著增长。最显著的制造实体是医疗设备，包括高端和低端医疗技术，在2020年之前的医疗出口收入中占比约一半。康复和诊断设备也构成了中国医疗技术出口收入的一大份额。