EU's additional tariffs on Chinese EV makers hurt both sides: expert

China

EU's additional tariffs on Chinese EV makers hurt both sides: expert

2024-08-11 17:29 Last Updated At：21:37

The European Union's move to impose additional tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) will hurt the interests of both sides, said a Chinese expert.

China filed an appeal with the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Friday, challenging the EU's provisional additional tariffs of up to 37.6 percent on Chinese battery electric vehicle (BEV) makers.

In an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Qu Qiang, a research fellow at the Belt and Road Research Center under the Beijing-based Minzu University of China, said the EU should adopt a positive stance on competition from Chinese auto companies, and uphold its commitment to multilateralism.

"They think Chinese EVs are over-competitive and fight against their European counterparts. They want to use this policy or move to force more of the investment to go back to the European Union to create more jobs and to leave more of the taxation back in the European Union. We understand this concern, but I think they are considering the whole thing from a very wrong angle. But fortunately, I think the European Union still respects the multilateral dispute-resolving system like WTO. So, I think we still have some maneuver spaces. We can see some positive results to turn out," said Qu.

He emphasized that the interests of Chinese and EU carmakers are highly intertwined as both sides have a huge presence in each other's industry and market.

"The Chinese and European markets are not like American automobile industry fighting against previous Japanese automobile market. It's more like trade partners - you in me and me in you. Many European carmakers invested in Chinese automobile companies and vice versa. China is building a huge presence in Hungary, [a] very important member country in the European Union. And so, I think this kind of tariff argument is going to only hurt our common interests instead of making both of our courses bigger and better," said the expert.

He highlighted Chinese EV makers' contributions to the technological advancement of the industry, especially in making transportation greener and smarter, while significantly reducing production costs.

"The Chinese NEV market is quite different from the rest of the world, because we are trying to develop this market in a more open way and make our cars greener, smarter. This is going to be the mainstream in the future, totally replacing the fossil-fuel, traditional vehicles and make more transportation, their margin costs will be nearly zero," said Qu.

China's first aircraft dismantling, recycling project underway in Sichuan

2024-10-13 21:28 Last Updated At：22:07

China's first aircraft dismantling and recycling project is now underway at the Airbus Lifecycle Services Centre (ALSC) in Chengdu, a major aviation hub in southwest China's Sichuan Province, offering a new model of green circular economy in the aviation sector.

In the hangar of the service center, the initial dismantling work of a retired A330-200 wide-body aircraft has already been conducted through a collaboration between ALSC, Airbus China and Hengrui Corporation (HRC).

"We may divide the aircraft into different zones in the future, and our workers will dismantle components of the aircraft based on these different zones. The dismantling work for components in cabin and cockpit is expected to take around two months. Subsequently, we will carry out the de-decoration and cutting processes of the aircraft," explained Zhu Zixiang, a dismantling engineer at ALSC.

According to the staff there, the disassembled aircraft components will be reused in the aviation sector to cut operating expenses and minimized aircraft impact on the ecological environment. At present, around 60 to 70 percent of each aircraft’s components could be safely and effectively reused, recovered or recycled.

"Our goal for the first aircraft is to achieve a recycling rate of around 90 percent. Wide-body aircraft pose a greater challenge for recycling compared to narrow-body aircraft due to many composite materials in their fuselage, which are hard to be recycled and reused," said Yang Shudong, Business Development Director of ALSC. The project adopts innovative technologies from domestic enterprises to achieve efficient decomposition and reuse of carbon fiber composite materials, according to Wang Yongzhi, director from Hengrui Corporation, an innovative high-tech enterprise specialized in composite product developing and manufacturing,

"Composite materials have always been a problem that has remained unresolved globally. Because of our unique technology, we can break down carbon fiber composite materials, reclaim the carbon fiber, and then repurpose it. It is estimated that such a recovery rate may reach over 90 percent or even more than 95 percent," explained Wang.