U.S. businesses in China optimistic despite Trump tariffs (2)

Employees work at the Tesla Gigafactory in Shanghai, east China, Nov. 20, 2020. (Xinhua/Ding Ting)

U.S. BUSINESS OPTIMISM REDOUNDS

A total of 77.9 percent of the 338 surveyed companies considered the five-year business outlook "optimistic" or "slightly optimistic," near the 80 percent figure from 2015 to 2018, according to the report.

More than 82 percent of the respondents anticipated higher revenues in 2021 than in 2020, with the most confident industries being pharmaceuticals, medical devices and life sciences, auto-motive, non-consumer electronics and industrial manufacturers.

"This bump in optimism reflects the fact that in most industries, COVID no longer weighs as heavily on minds -- or operations -- as it did a year ago," said the report.

The aviation industry sees great potential in the Chinese market. On Thursday, Boeing said in its latest market forecast released in Beijing that over 20 years, China's aviation market would create new commercial aircraft demand valued at 1.47 trillion U.S. dollars and a commercial aviation services market valued at around 1.8 trillion U.S. dollars.

"The rapid recovery of Chinese domestic air travel highlights the country's economic vitality and resilience. Notably, the underlying demand from international long-haul travel and air freight transport will boost the widebody deliveries," said Richard Wynne, managing director of China Marketing at Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

Despite negative expectations in early 2020 due to the pandemic, the AmCham Shanghai report said business performance did not decline with over 77 percent of respondents reporting profits in 2020, which is in line with the past several years and deemed "surprisingly strong."

Companies also intend to hire more, as 63.7 percent in the report planned to increase their headcount in China this year after a decrease during the pandemic.