Supply In China Research Articles

Is US trade policy reshaping global supply chains?

This paper examines the reshaping of supply chains using detailed US 10-digit import data between 2017 and 2022. The results show that while US-China decoupling in bilateral trade is real, supply chains remain intertwined with China. Over the period, China's share of US imports fell from 22 % to 16 % as a result of US tariffs. US imports from China are being replaced with imports from large, developing countries with revealed comparative advantage in a product. In strategic industries, countries replacing China tend to be deeply integrated in China's supply chains and are experiencing faster import growth from China. Put differently, to displace China on the export side, countries must embrace China's supply chains. There is no consistent evidence of reshoring but evidence of nearshoring to border nations. Despite the significant reshaping, China remained the top supplier of directly imported goods to the US in 2022.

How does supply chain digitization affect green innovation? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China

Digital technology will profoundly impact green innovation by enabling deep supply chain transformation through cost reduction and efficiency gains. Based on a quasi-natural experiment of China's supply chain innovation and application pilot policy, this paper investigates the impact of supply chain digitization on green innovation using data from 1836 listed companies from 2013 to 2021. The results find that: (1) Supply chain digitization significantly promotes firms' green innovation level, a finding that still holds under placebo and other tests. (2) Mechanism tests indicate that supply chain digitization enhances firms' green innovation level mainly through optimizing innovation resource effect, enhancing internal control effect and expanding external demand effect. (3) The green innovation effect of supply chain digitization is greater in regions with low supply chain concentration, capital-intensive, non-polluting industries, and higher digitization degree. (4) Supply chain digitization significantly improves environmental performance through the green innovation effect.

The temporal variation of CH4 emissions embodied in Chinese supply chains, 2000–2020

Although the issue of embodied pollutants in China’s supply chains has garnered increasing attention, the dynamic changes occurring within them are unclear. Several existing studies analyze one-year or short-term data in supply chain. China’s overall CH4 emissions have risen from 41.1 Tg in 2000 to 60 Tg in 2020, so conducting long-term analyses can yield a deeper understanding of the dynamic changes across the entire supply chain from production to consumption. This study uses the environmentally extended input–output analysis (EEIOA) and structural path analysis (SPA) methods to investigate the dynamic variation of China’s embodied CH4 emissions in 20 industry sectors from 2000 to 2020, aiming to determine the key supply chain and key sectors. The results reveal that from the final demand perspective, consumption, investment and export drove 52.1%, 32%, and 15.9% of embodied CH4 emissions in 2020. The sector with the highest embodied CH4 emissions has changed from “Agriculture” in 2000 to “Construction” in 2010 to “Other service and activities” in 2020. The top listed supply chain path of embodied CH4 emissions has also evolved (starting from production to consumption) from “Agriculture → Rural consumption” in 2000 to “Agriculture → Food and tobacco → Urban consumption” in 2010 to “Agriculture → Urban consumption” in 2020. Notably, the high-ranked path, “Agriculture → Food and tobacco → Rural consumption”, shows that the embodied CH4 emission flowing between agriculture and the food industry cannot be ignored. The supply chain path “Coal Mining → Nonmetal Mineral Products → Construction → Capital Formation” has risen from 17th in 2000 to 3rd in 2020. Thus, it is necessary to control CH4 emissions from sectors upstream, which are predominantly influenced by the construction industry, and a coordinated effort between sectors is also required to effectively reduce emissions. By 2020, the CH4 emissions driven by urban consumption were 3.1 times that of rural consumption. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of China's supply chain over the past two decades. In particular, it suggests policy interventions by controlling critical supply chain paths and key sectors associated with embodied CH4 emission, thereby facilitating the coordinated reduction of anthropogenic CH4 emissions.

Assessing the supply risks of critical metals in China's low-carbon energy transition

The unprecedented low-carbon energy transition has heightened concerns about the security of critical metals (CMs) supplies that are essential for clean energy technologies. As the world's largest consumer and importer, China’s CMs supply may face significant challenges due to geopolitical uncertainties, price volatility, and other dynamics. Here, we introduce a risk-modeling framework to holistically gauge the multifaceted supply risks for 30 CMs embedded in clean energy technology spanning from 2008 to 2020. Our analysis indicates that approximately one-third of CMs supplies grapple with elevated risk, and half of these CMs are associated with electric vehicle manufacturing. These risks stem mainly from significant disruption potential (e.g., lithium and palladium) and substantial import reliance (e.g., nickel and niobium). Although China's overall CMs supply risk has remained relatively stable, the nation has grown increasingly susceptible to disruptions, especially with the surge in clean energy initiatives and associated price hikes. Our detailed analysis of the risk comparison reveals that China's supply risk for nine metals (e.g., copper and chromium) exceeds that of other countries that consume large amounts of CMs. Therefore, by adopting focused strategies related to metals, both governments and industries could benefit from global partnerships, strategic stockpiling, early warning mechanisms and sustainable supply chain management, paving the way for a smooth low-carbon energy transition for China.

Research and Development of Financial Innovation Model of Internet Supply Chain

In the context of the rapid development of the Internet, China's supply chain finance business has been well improved, both in terms of technology and efficiency. The development of contemporary new supply chain finance is still relatively good, which is mainly due to the development of financial technology, the problem of information asymmetry has been effectively improved by financial technology, and the financing efficiency has been greatly improved. This paper analyzes JD.com's Internet supply chain finance and gives a series of suggestions for its development, which provides a certain reference for promoting the future development and improvement of China's Internet supply chain finance.

Evaluating Losses from Water Scarcity and Benefits of Water Conservation Measures to Intercity Supply Chains in China.

The severe water scarcity in China poses significant economic risks to its agriculture, energy, and manufacturing sectors, which can have a cascading effect through the supply chains. Current research has assessed water scarcity losses for global countries and Chinese provinces by using the water scarcity risk (WSR) method. However, this method involves subjective functions and parameter settings, and it fails to capture the adaptive behaviors of economies to water scarcity, compromising the reliability of quantified water scarcity loss. There is a pressing need for a new method to assess losses related to water scarcity. Here, we develop an agent-based complex network model to estimate the inter-regional and intersectoral impacts of water scarcity on both cities and basins. Subsequently, we evaluate the supply chain-wide economic benefits of four different water conservation measures as stipulated by the 14th Five-Year Plan for the Construction of a Water-Saving Society. These measures include increasing the utilization rate of recycled water in water-scarce cities, reducing the national water consumption per industrial value-added, and implementing agricultural and residential water conservation measures. Results show that direct losses constitute only 9% of the total losses from water scarcity. Approximately 37% of the losses can be attributed to interregional impacts. Among the water-scarce cities, Qingdao, Lanzhou, Jinan, and Zhengzhou pose a significant threat to China's supply chains. Agricultural water conservation yields the highest amount of water savings and economic benefits, while residential water conservation provides the highest economic benefit per unit of water saved. The results provide insights into managing water scarcity, promoting cross-regional cooperation, and mitigating economic impacts.

Revealing transmissions of atmospheric heavy metals hidden in the Chinese supply chain

Heavy metals (HMs) pose significant risks to human health and the environment. Identifying the sectors that play a significant role in the transmission of HMs has rarely been considered and represents an efficient method to control and manage HMs. By combining atmospheric HM emission inventories, the multi-regional input-output approach, and a betweenness-based method, this study revealed the transmission of HMs (comprehensively evaluated by the Heavy Metal Pollution Load, HMPL) in 2017. In 2017, 119.86 million tons of HMPL were transmitted through China's supply chain, and Cr was the main contributor to HMPL transmission. The results suggest that metal smelting is the primary contributor to HMPL transmission, and metal smelting in Jiangsu, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, and Anhui are the top five critical nodes. These results suggest that the sector's role changes dramatically with respect to HM control under this perspective. The role of HM emission-intensive sectors changed the most, as their production-based HMPLs accounted for 84% of the total HMPL; however, the HMPL transmitted by these sectors accounted for only 45% of the total. The critical HMPL transmission sectors identified in this study provide a basis for policy-making from a transmission perspective.

Quantifying economic sectoral iron commodity use and related vulnerability in China's supply chains

With its widespread use in manufacturing and machinery, iron is a crucial metal for modern society. However, knowledge about the economic vulnerability of iron from multiple perspectives remains unexplored, especially for China, a country responsible for more than half of global iron and steel consumption. This study aims to quantify the inter-sectoral flows of iron commodities and the caused economic vulnerabilities, using an input-output model and complex network analysis methods. Results show that the residential building construction sector was the most vulnerable sector from a direct perspective. However, the final uses of certain services (e.g., the public administration and social organizations sector and business services sector) were more vulnerable concerning supply restriction from a consumption-based perspective. Based on the above findings, policy recommendations, such as circular economy and material substitutions are proposed to help improve resource efficiency and reduce the vulnerability of critical sectors from dependence on iron and steel.

The Impact of the US-China Trade War on China's Cotton Industry: A Case Study of the Xinjiang Cotton Controversy

The Sino-US trade conflict has been a prominent issue between China and the United States in recent years. Xinjiang cotton, being the primary producing area of China's cotton industry, has had a significant impact on its competitiveness. This paper provides data and case studies on the impact of global cotton standards, China's cotton import and export, and the supply chain to explain the causes and consequences of the Xinjiang cotton incident, as well as propose countermeasures for China's cotton industry. The study found that China's lack of cotton standard measurement methods has led to a certain setback in the cotton industry. Moreover, the incident has affected the upstream and downstream industries to some extent. Nevertheless, it has not had a significantly negative impact on China's supply chain. However, China needs to take immediate and effective measures to establish its cotton standards. Additionally, China must expand the supply and sales channels of the cotton industry and related industries, while actively developing high-tech solutions to minimize negative impacts and losses as much as possible.

Air pollution health burden embodied in China's supply chains

Product trade plays an increasing role in relocating production and the associated air pollution impact among sectors and regions. While a comprehensive depiction of atmospheric pollution redistribution through trade chains is missing, which may hinder targeted clean air cooperation among sectors and regions. Here, we combined five state-of-the-art models from physics, economy, and epidemiology to track the anthropogenic fine particle matters (PM2.5) related premature mortality along the supply chains within China in 2017. Our results highlight the key sectors that affect PM2.5-related mortality from both production and consumption perspectives. The consumption-based effects from food, light industry, equipment, construction, and services sectors, caused 2–22 times higher deaths than those from a production perspective and totally contributed 63% of the national total. From a cross-boundary perspective, 25.7% of China's PM2.5-related deaths were caused by interprovincial trade, with the largest transfer occurring from the central and northern regions to well-developed east coast provinces. Capital investment dominated the cross-boundary effect (56% of the total) by involving substantial equipment and construction products, which greatly rely on product exports from regions with specific resources. This supply chain-based analysis provides a comprehensive quantification and may inform more effective joint-control efforts among associated regions and sectors from a health risk perspective.

China’s Supply Chain During COVID-19: Disruption and Mitigation

COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) is a contagious virus that damages the respiratory system and has been spread worldwide from the end of 2019 until present. Most countries have implemented border closures, city closures, and quarantine to stop the spread of the virus, which led to mobility restrictions. China, being one of the most critical roles in the global supply chain, has faced stress from product supply, inefficient logistics and transportation, and financial crises on firms. Thus, this paper suggests three solutions to resolve China's supply chain disruption: unclog the foreign logistics system, strengthen foreign cooperation, and ensure financial security. In this way, China's supply chain can regain its robustness and resilience, which benefits the global supply chain and the global economy as a whole.

Research on the Realistic Dilemma and Path of Rural Supply Chain Financial Policy Implementation

With the proposal of rural revitalization strategy, rural inclusive finance plays an increasingly important role in the economic development of rural areas. Under the support and guidance of relevant national policies, China has vigorously developed rural supply chain finance in recent years, and issued a series of policies to promote the development of supply chain finance from the state to the provinces and cities at all levels. However, due to the lack of service awareness of financial institutions, insufficient policy publicity and the low level of modernization of agriculture and rural areas, China's supply chain financial policies are difficult to implement. Based on the above practical problems, this paper puts forward the optimization path to promote the implementation of rural supply chain finance policies in China, so as to effectively play the role of supply chain finance in solving the financing difficulties in rural areas and promote the stable and healthy development of rural economy in China.

Distribution of CO2 emissions in China's supply chains: A sub-national MRIO analysis

With the development of economy and the improvement of resident consumption level, the carbon emission generated by resident consumption is increasing and becoming a new growth point. However, there is significant heterogeneity between different regions of China, the consumption-based carbon dioxide emission status by region is still unclear. In this study, using the multi-region input-output (MRIO) method, we decomposed the per capita carbon emissions of Chinese residents at the consumer end based on the population consumption expenditure data and finally displayed the spatial and temporal distribution map of carbon emissions in the kilometer grid on Arc GIS. The results indicate that: (1) In 2012, 2015, and 2017, China's consumer end carbon emissions were 3463.83 Mt, 3700.21 Mt, 3763.29 Mt, with an annual growth rate of about 1.76%. (2) There were huge differences in the consumption-based emissions among different regions in China, which was a decreasing distribution from southeast to northwest on the whole. And the difference between Inner Mongolia (313 Mt) and Tibet (2.5 Mt) was more than 120 times. (3) Housing and transportation were the major contributors to carbon emissions, accounting for 83.0% and 10.9% on average, respectively. The distribution of carbon emissions in different regions has significant heterogeneity. The contribution of various industries to carbon emissions is also different. Therefore, each region should formulate emission reduction policies according to its own characteristics.

Factors associated with symptoms of poor mental health among women factory workers in China's supply chain.

ObjectiveForeign direct investment (FDI) to China has motivated increased labor migration to export processing zones (EPZs). Work environments with high occupational stress, such as production line jobs typical in EPZs, have been associated with adverse mental health symptoms.MethodsA cross-sectional survey that examined occupational stress and symptoms of poor mental health was implemented among Chinese women factory workers in three electronic factories in the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area. Symptoms of mental health measured in the survey were hopelessness, depression, not feeling useful or needed, and trouble concentrating. Crude and adjusted prevalence odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals were calculated with logistic regression.ResultsResponses were collected from 696 women factory workers. Participants were aged 18–56 years (mean 28 ± 5.8), 66% of whom were married and 25% of whom were migrants. Nearly 50% of participants reported at least one symptom of poor mental health. After adjusting for covariates associated with each outcome in the bivariate analysis, high job strain was associated with hopelessness (OR 2.68, 95% CI 1.58, 4.56), not feeling useful (OR 2.05, 95% CI 1.22, 3.43), and feeling depressed (OR 1.78, 95% CI 1.16, 2.72).ConclusionThis study expands on the international body of research on the well-being of women working in the global supply chain and provides evidence on the associations between occupational stressors, migration, and social support on symptoms of poor mental health among women workers. Future research to better understand and improve psychological health and to prevent suicide among workers in China’s factories is critical to improve the health of China’s labor force.

Current practice and future projection for coal-to-SNG in China

With the rapid development of economy in recent years, China's supply and demand gap for energy gradually increased. To alleviate the problem of the insufficient reserves of natural gas in China, coal to substitute natural gas (coal-to-SNG) is considered to be a promising option, especially for urban use. However, the coal-to-SNG industry of China started late and the technology is relatively backward. Therefore, the development of China's coal-to-SNG industry needs the corresponding recommendations. Based on the understanding of the current technical conditions and market environment of coal gasification in China, as well as the endowment of coal resources and the policy environment, this paper makes a strategic analysis on China's coal-to-SNG industry. This paper mainly uses the PEST (Politics, Economy, society, Technology) analysis method and SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis method. Policy factors are mainly analyzed from three aspects of political system, policy promulgation and international agreements. Economic factors are focused on three aspects of Industrial structure, natural gas demand and economic costs. Social factors are discussed from three aspects of social status quo, environmental protection and social development. Technical factors are evaluated from three aspects of coal type, water consumption and carbon emissions. The SWOT analysis method is the analysis of the coal-to-SNG industry in four aspects including the advantages, disadvantages, opportunities and threats. Through the coal-to-SNG analysis, this paper puts forward some suggestions for the development of the industry.

A spatiotemporal analysis of energy use pathways in the construction industry: A study of China

China has experienced rapid urbanization across the country which has required significant energy use and has also posed a series of possible environmental risks. Given the role that the construction industry plays in China's economy and in achieving sustainability, it is paramount to trace and measure the evolutionary pathways of energy induced by China's supply chains. By using a multiregional input–output model, structural path analysis, and exploratory spatial data analysis, this study presents a spatiotemporal analysis of how upstream energy interactions change in the context of rapid urbanization and the Chinese economy. The results show there has been less embodied energy consumption of building materials over time due to significant improvements in energy intensity reduction. The upstream energy distribution exhibited significant spatial heterogeneity within clustered urban agglomerations. Regions with poor resource endowment but highly vibrant economies appear to have wider connections with the national economy, whilst the critical energy flows in resource-exporting regions were only concentrated in energy-intensive sectors. The findings of this study provide improved understanding of energy evolutionary pathways and their complexities from both spatial and temporal perspectives. Such understanding will assist policymakers, especially the local government of each province, to implement effective energy reduction strategies and fairly address the allocation of energy reduction responsibilities.

Water footprint and virtual water flows embodied in China's supply chain

ABSTRACT Due to the increasingly serious water shortage in China, water conservation becomes more and more important. This paper analyzes the amount of water consumption in every link of the goods supply to explore the water conservation feasibility in every link. This paper establishes an EIO-LCA model based on the life cycle assessment method for water consumption from supply chains in various sectors, and decomposes the water footprint of the inter-sector supply chain into six levels and calculates the water consumption at each level. The results show that the total water footprint of China's supply chain increases by 6.5% from 2007 to 2017; industrial sector is the core sector for indirect water footprint consumption. China is an importing country of virtual water, imported intermediate products are the main source of imported virtual water and re-exported products account for an increasing proportion of exported virtual water.

Agricultural trade shocks and carbon leakage: Evidence from China's trade shocks to the Belt & Road economies

Existing literature on carbon leakage mostly focused on polluting industries or at the national level. Agriculture is one of the main sources of carbon emissions, however, research on agricultural carbon leakage is still insufficient. To fill this gap, this paper investigates the impact of China's agricultural trade shocks on carbon emissions in a panel of 62 economies along the Belt and Road (B&R) over the period 1990–2017. The results show that China's supply shocks have a significant inhibitory effect on the agricultural carbon emissions of the B&R economies, and this inhibitory effect is very stable and will not be disturbed by other factors. On the contrary, China's demand shocks only have a significant inhibitory effect on the carbon emission intensity of economies with a higher proportion of agriculture, but it will significantly increase the agricultural carbon emissions share in all economies.

Identifying the critical transmission sectors with energy-water nexus pressures in China's supply chain networks

Energy and water resources are drawing increasing attention in China as indispensable elements of economic development and social stability. Energy and water are interconnected in economic systems. Although the nexus between them has been widely studied, few insights can be acquired by the intermediate transmission pressures across supply chains. Combing betweenness-based method and multi-regional input-output (MRIO) analysis, we, in this study, identified critical transmission sectors and main driving factors resulting from the usage structure. In details, we found that Metallurgy (S14) in Shandong, Henan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Sichuan, Zhejiang, Hunan, and Jiangsu, Electricity and hot water production and supply (S22) in Beijing and Guizhou, and Nonmetal production (S13) in Henan are the most critical transmission sectors bearing energy-water nexus pressures, ranking at the top 100 in China's supply chain networks. Roughly, the usage structure was mainly dominated by fixed capital formation, urban household consumption and trade export, and therefore should be given priority to mitigate environmental pressures. Our study provides a novel perspective of sector-specific and province-typical policy recommendations for mitigating energy-water nexus pressures in China's supply chain networks.

Innovation of China's Supply Chain Financing Process : Case of JingDong's New Financing Process

China's supply chain finance (SCF) is a huge market, and many Internet Finance Companies (IFCs) are willing to provide financing for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to improve business relationships and economic benefits. However, many risks are associated with financing. Innovations are introduced in China's supply chain financing to reduce the risks. Many companies used Big data, Blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), and other new technologies to facilitate innovation, tap resources, and improve production. This study takes Jingdong's (JD's) new financing process to understand innovation financing in China. Through analysis of JingBaoBei, JingXiaoDai, and YunCangJingRong financing processes, we discuss the JD's new supply chain financing based on funding sources, mode of operation, financing quota, audit time, funding speed, and annual interest rate.