Poland overtakes China as sales market for German products

By Rene Wagner

BERLIN (Reuters) - German exporters sold more goods to Poland than to China in the first half of the year, an analysis showed on Friday, marking the success of a diversification drive by major German companies as they look to reduce their dependence on the Chinese market.

Major German exporting companies in sectors such as industrial goods and autos have long been pillars of the country's economy and account for its strong trade surplus, but recent tensions between China and the West have driven a change of focus in export strategies.

Data from Germany's Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations, a lobby group which aims to promote trade between Germany and eastern Europe, showed that exports of goods to Poland grew by 4.6% to 48.4 billion euros ($53.2 billion) in the first six months of the year.

By contrast, exports to China fell by 2.7% compared with the same period of the previous year to 48.2 billion, said the report, based on preliminary data from the German statistics office.

Poland thus moved up to fourth place among the most important sales markets for the German export industry, while China slipped to fifth.

Cathrina Claas-Muehlhaeuser, chairwoman of the committee, said it was a remarkable success with regard to the urgently needed diversification of the German economy, which above all wants to reduce its dependence on China.

"This should be an incentive for the new EU Commission and the candidate countries to continue the expansion of the EU to the east and southeast without delay," she told Reuters.

According to the figures, German exports to Eastern Europe increased slightly to 145 billion euros in the first half of the year, while total exports shrank.

Accounting for almost 19% of German foreign trade, Eastern European countries have become a pillar of the German export-oriented economy, said Claas-Muehlhaeuser.

The U.S. remained the main export market for Germany in the first six months of the year, followed by France and the Netherlands, the data showed.

($1 = 0.9101 euros)

(Reporting by Rene Wagner; Writing by Maria Martinez; Editing by David Holmes)