Question of the month October 2009

In October, CE asked respondents whether they were starting to see competition in Europe from Chinese companies. Although the largest group - 43% of respondents said they were not seeing any Chinese companies either come into the market or start to win work, the remainder voiced some concern.

Some 35% of respondents said there were competitors from China present in Europe, but that they were not yet seeing genuine competition. However, a further 23% of respondents said Chinese companies were presenting a genuine competitive threat in European countries.

This prompted the question of how these new entrants are changing the landscape in Europe. As one respondent put it, "Do Chinese products/services compete just on price or do they offer new differentiation?"