Why China is unfazed by Trump's tariffs: 'The amount of grit and sheer willpower is on a different scale,' CEO of $3.7 billion company says | Fortune

"I recently spoke with Stephan Tanda, CEO of AptarGroup, a $3.7 billion-a-year manufacturer of specialized packaging and delivery systems for pharma, beauty, and consumer companies, based in Crystal Lake, Illinois. He points out that China remains a key manufacturing hub with longstanding infrastructure and relationships that are central to the company's regional supply chain. What's more, he says the speed to market is an advantage that's hard to replicate in their other innovation centers around the world."

""The amount of grit and sheer willpower is on a different scale," said Tanda, noting that he now leverages Chinese talent to help his European plants develop product prototypes in six weeks vs. up to 18 months. "We need the China ecosystem to create the pilot mold. We may still want something made in France for luxury beauty products but a lot of innovation used to be China [producing] for China and now it's China for the region, China for the world.""

"Tanda does have the advantage that his products are not considered sensitive from a national defense perspective-"essential items but, yes, there's not going to be a war waged over them"-and he echoes his U.S. peers in focusing much of his production on local needs, with more than half of his customer base for Chinese-made products coming from China. "It used to be you'd want the Western luxury brand but now you buy the Chinese brand because it's just as good or better ... It"

China's trade surplus reached $1.08 trillion in the first 11 months of the year, driven partly by redirecting exports to other markets and continued global demand. Overall exports rose 6% in November year-over-year while exports to the U.S. fell 29%. U.S. companies continue to rely on China for manufacturing because of established infrastructure, relationships, and speed to market. AptarGroup leverages Chinese talent to produce prototypes in six weeks versus up to 18 months elsewhere, using China to create pilot molds while finishing luxury products in France. More than half of Chinese-made product customers are within China, and Chinese brands increasingly match Western quality.

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