Mainland Chinese manufacturers joining an expo in Hong Kong have said they are eager to shift their customer base towards the Middle East to help mitigate the effects of the intensifying Trump trade war.
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More than 150,000 products spanning categories such as mobile electronics, smart homes and lifestyle are being displayed at the Global Sources Hong Kong Shows that opened at AsiaWorld-Expo on Friday.
Among them was Doogee, a mainland consumer electronics manufacturer specialising in rugged smartphones, which said it was seeking to shift its reliance away from traditional markets amid the tariff war.
The firm cited one of its bestsellers – the S200X model – as an example. Priced at about US$300, the phone is compatible with the Gemini AI system developed by Google.
“Europe accounts for 60 per cent of our market and the US 20 per cent,” company spokeswoman Yuki Zhu said. “We’re looking at the Middle Eastern market to lessen the reliance on the US market. We already export 200,000 tablets to the region every year.”
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Grace Gan from Doogee’s marketing department said the Middle East was a relatively untapped market for the company as it had focused on Europe, America, Japan and Australia.