Renowned fund managers' latest strategies! Manufacturing industry going global may become the main investment theme

Source: Securities Times Network Author: Wang Xiaoqian

Against the backdrop of continued rotation in market style, an investment logic centered on “manufacturing going global” is gradually moving from the periphery to the mainstream, leaving clear marks on the performance of a group of fund managers.

Unlike the stage-based opportunities in past cycles that revolved around the export cycle, this round of market action may be closer to a spillover process driven by industrial capability. The position of Chinese manufacturing in the global industrial chain is changing.

In the view of multiple industry insiders, this direction is shifting from a “optional logic” to an “important variable.” The underlying drivers come not only from demand recovery, but also from systematic adjustments to industrial structure and competitive landscape.

In this wave of industrial change, Qian Jianjiang, a HuaTai-PineBridge Fund manager, has become one of the earlier players to build a deep layout. As early as when the “manufacturing going global” logic was not widely recognized by the market, he relied on his keen judgment of industrial trends to focus on this main opportunity, establish a systematic research framework, and continuously validate the logic and deliver performance through long-term practice.

Improving profitability in overseas business, industry spillover accelerating

Judging from market performance, manufacturing going global has already shown strong structural characteristics.

According to Wind data, since September 2024, the manufacturing going global index has risen by 77.24%, significantly outperforming the CSI All-Share Index over the same period. Meanwhile, financial data has also shown synchronized changes: in the first half of 2025, the average gross margin of overseas business for A-share listed companies reached 29.2%, higher than 24.7% for domestic business.

This profitability gap is even more pronounced across several sub-industries. Taking the commercial vehicle sector as an example, the per-vehicle profitability of some companies in the domestic market is still relatively low, while overseas markets have become the main source of profits. In the passenger coach sector, overseas profitability per unit is significantly higher than domestic levels, becoming an important support for earnings growth.

Qian Jianjiang analyzes that, from the perspective of industry distribution, manufacturing going global is no longer limited to a single track; instead, it shows the characteristics of multi-point diffusion.

In high-end manufacturing sectors such as new energy vehicles, power equipment, and communication electronics, overseas markets are being continuously expanded by leveraging technological and industrial-chain advantages. In traditional manufacturing segments such as construction machinery, heavy-duty trucks, and machine tools, with domestic demand stabilizing, the growth focus is gradually shifting overseas. For consumer manufacturing such as household appliances, light industry, and textile apparel, the value chain is extended by running both production going global and brand going global in parallel.

Overall, overseas business is gradually transforming from the past “revenue supplement” into the “profit center” for some manufacturing companies, and it has begun to provide dual support for sector valuations and performance.

Structural changes from “import substitution” to “supplying the world”

Beyond performance results, the deeper driver behind this round of manufacturing going global comes from changes in industrial logic.

Qian Jianjiang points out that, based on the historical evolution of industrial development, from 2015 to 2020, China’s manufacturing was mostly in the “import substitution” stage. Growth relied mainly on domestic demand, while key technologies and core components still had external dependencies.

After 2020, as global supply chains were reconfigured amid the shock of the pandemic, China’s manufacturing advantages in stability and efficiency were further amplified, gradually shifting from “supplementing supply” to “providing key supply.”

At the same time, domestic demand faces some pressure under the backdrop of property cycle adjustments. Industry competition has intensified, and companies actively “going out” has become an important path to seek incremental growth.

More importantly, China’s manufacturing competitive advantages are undergoing structural changes. Qian Jianjiang’s research finds that China’s manufacturing competitive advantages have long shifted from a single cost advantage to a “system-level advantage” formed by multiple factors, including supply chain systems, the engineer dividend, the efficiency of industrial workers, and foundational infrastructure networks. This capability cannot be replicated by a single company; it is the result of long-term evolution of industrial clusters.

On the demand side, emerging markets are still in the stage of infrastructure development and consumption upgrading, while the US and European markets have stable demand and room for brand premiums. Compared with China, overseas markets offer a more favorable environment in terms of demand structure and competitive landscape.

As a result, the meaning of manufacturing going global has evolved from “expanding sales radius” into “participating in global pricing in more advantageous competitive environments.”

Shenwan Hongyuan Securities also said that, with the fifth round of global industrial transfer, China is rapidly crossing the gap from a “capacity export country” to a “manufacturing + services” full industrial-chain export country. In this process, going global in the productive services sector is both a rigid necessity to ensure manufacturing’s landing and a core lever for companies to break through growth bottlenecks.

The future winners in manufacturing going global may be those that can extend toward both ends of the curve—toward the left end, exporting high value-added technologies and R&D, such as Chinese automakers reversing the direction to export intelligent driving and battery technologies to German giants; toward the right end, building brands, services, and ecosystems, such as deploying charging and battery swapping networks and official certified used-car systems in Europe.

Limited product supply; the “minority” have already laid the groundwork

Although the relevant sectors have already seen some gains, in terms of product deployment and capital structure, “manufacturing going global” may still be at a stage of gradual diffusion.

On one hand, this theme spans multiple industries and links in the industrial chain, making it difficult to fully express through a single index or a single product. On the other hand, its logic involves multidimensional factors such as global demand, industrial relocation, and company capabilities, which imposes higher requirements on the research framework.

Against this backdrop, some fund managers have begun to construct systematic research frameworks around this direction. Among them, HuaTai-PineBridge Fund manager Qian Jianjiang is one of the earlier investors to participate deeply in this field.

It is understood that Qian Jianjiang holds a master’s degree in systems engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology. He has 10 years of experience in securities practice. In his early years, he worked at Guoyuan Securities and the Research Institute of Pacific Securities as a mechanical industry researcher. He has deeply focused on the manufacturing field and has a relatively in-depth understanding of industrial logic, technological iteration, and competitive landscape in sub-sectors such as automotive components, construction machinery, and high-end manufacturing.

His years of manufacturing industry research have laid a solid foundation in industrial research for capturing investment opportunities in manufacturing going global.

In terms of methodology, Qian Jianjiang breaks his investment system into two layers: “value pricing” and “marginal tracking.” The former focuses on evaluating business models and long-term profitability from the perspective of industry and company operations. The latter dynamically adjusts the portfolio by continuously tracking changes in fundamentals, capital flows, and trading structures.

In specific practice, Qian Jianjiang places more emphasis on industrial trends as the starting point. Through bottom-up research, he selects targets, and completes the transformation from “logic judgment” to “performance realization” through continuous validation.

Under this framework, global competitiveness of enterprises, capacity layout capabilities, and their ability to price in overseas markets become core considerations.

And this systematic research framework has also received validation in long-term real investment operations, becoming a direct proof of Qian Jianjiang’s ability to capture the dividend from manufacturing going global.

As of the end of February 2026, the yield of HuaTai-PineBridge Consumption Growth Hybrid (001069) he manages has been 95.21% since July 11, 2024, far exceeding the performance benchmark gain of 16.70% over the same period.

This further confirms his professional investment ability, as well as his deep understanding and precise positioning in the core track of manufacturing going global.

The main logic is becoming clearer; focus on companies with global competitiveness

Looking at the current point in time and the future investment opportunities in manufacturing going global, Qian Jianjiang has a clear plan for his layout.

He believes that manufacturing going global is not only the core investment main line in the capital market, but also the main theme of China’s manufacturing upgrading in this era. This trend is not a short-term market hotspot; it is a long-term industrial wave, and in the future there may still be broad room for investment.

In Qian Jianjiang’s view, the core investment opportunities for manufacturing going global in the future may still be concentrated in high-quality companies with core competitiveness.

He will focus on enterprises with technological or brand advantages and that can establish differentiated competitive strength in global markets. He said that technology and brand are the core for companies to achieve high-end and long-term development in global markets. Companies with independent core technologies are expected to secure a place in high-end tracks. Companies that successfully build overseas brands are expected to gain higher valuation premiums and stronger market stickiness. These two types of companies will become important forces behind manufacturing going global.

At the same time, he also values companies that achieve global deployment through capacity going global and channel expansion.

Qian Jianjiang points out that manufacturing going global has now entered a “localization” stage. Simply exporting products is not enough to cope with trade barriers in overseas markets and local demand. By building production capacity overseas and establishing localized sales and service channels, companies can truly integrate into overseas markets, achieving an upgrade from “going out” to “putting down roots.” The growth of companies of this type is more sustainable.

In addition, Qian Jianjiang also focuses on Chinese companies that have supply capabilities in certain overseas supply-demand tight segments of the industrial chain. He analyzes that the restructuring of the global industrial chain is still ongoing, and there are supply-demand gaps in some industries in overseas markets. Chinese companies, with a complete industrial chain and strong production capacity, can become core suppliers in these segments. Companies of this type are expected to achieve higher profit levels and more stable supply cooperation relationships, and to see phased investment opportunities.

From “import substitution” to “supplying the world,” Chinese manufacturing has completed a historic leap in industrial development, and the pace of globalization is profoundly reshaping the world’s industrial landscape.

In Qian Jianjiang’s view, manufacturing going global is not only the core investment main line in the capital market, but also the main theme of China’s manufacturing upgrading in this era. Precisely identifying high-quality companies that can create continuous “alpha” returns is the key to capturing this era’s industrial trend.

Source: Securities Times Fund Research Institute

(Editor: Wen Jing)

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                                                            Fund manager