China sells hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods to the Middle East every year, but the export machine is now seriously hampered by the war, with no concrete end to the conflict in sight. In this factory in Canton, where 300 workers produce beds and mattresses every day, the goods are not being shipped out anymore.
Countries in the Middle East, like Qatar and Kuwait, are major customers, but with the war, orders have dried up, laments a sales manager at the factory. “Our clients there are adopting a wait-and-see attitude, and the impact will be quickly visible for our factory. For example, at the furniture fair in Canton, our Middle Eastern clients are absent, when normally they were plentiful.”
About a hundred kilometers away, in this logistics company in Shenzhen, the boss is trying to find solutions to ship out the goods, but to no avail. “The maritime connections between China and the Middle East are currently suspended. For now, we can only ask the factories to postpone their shipments. We currently have between 100 and 200 containers waiting to leave.”
Products made in China are particularly affected by the war. The port of Jebel Ali in Dubai is a hub for Chinese products, with over 15 million tons of goods passing through each year before heading to Africa or Europe. The logistics have become a real headache. “I have four containers that were able to reach the port of Dubai just before the war, and it has been more than ten days since the ship arrived at the dock,” the boss laments.
The war directly threatens the major Chinese project of the new Silk Roads, of which the Middle East is a crucial piece, with $380 billion of Chinese exports annually.
