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Last year, China’s trade deficit in vascular stents was significant.
There are a total of 53 companies in China engaged in the import of vascular stents, including 17 foreign-invested enterprises with an import value of US$248 million
Author:
We need to continuously deepen our expansion from both product and market perspectives, innovate in materials or processes, and at the same time leverage product price competitiveness and geographical advantages to focus on the Asian market.
A vascular stent is a hollow, mesh-like device used to support blood vessels that have become narrowed or blocked due to disease, thereby reducing vessel elastic recoil and remodeling and restoring blood flow. Vascular stents are fabricated from metallic or polymeric materials and can be either permanently or temporarily implanted into human blood vessels. According to China’s “Medical Device Classification Catalog,” vascular stents are implantable medical devices classified as Class III high-risk products under regulatory oversight.
According to the deployment method within blood vessels, vascular stents can be classified into two types: self-expanding and balloon-expandable. The former can expand spontaneously inside the vessel, while the latter lacks intrinsic elasticity and relies on balloon expansion for deployment. Based on surface treatment, stents can be further categorized into bare-metal, coated, and covered types. Bare-metal stents have surfaces that are merely polished; coated stents have their metal surfaces coated with substances such as heparin or titanium oxide; and covered stents feature a polymer film—either biodegradable or non-biodegradable—applied to the outer surface of the metal stent. From the perspective of clinical application efficacy, stents can be divided into simple support stents and therapeutic stents. Therapeutic stents include those with drug-coated surfaces, stents equipped with a covering layer that carries therapeutic agents externally, or radioactive stents.
In the 2012 edition of the “Customs Tariff of the People’s Republic of China,” vascular stents were, for the first time, classified as a separate product and assigned the corresponding tariff number: 9021901100 (VAT rate: 17%, export tax rebate: 15%).
China’s import and export value of vascular stents totaled 282 million U.S. dollars, with exports amounting to 97.78 million U.S. dollars and imports reaching 273 million U.S. dollars. The trade deficit was significant, at 263 million U.S. dollars. Looking at monthly import and export trends, imports have remained consistently above 20 million U.S. dollars, with March recording the highest import value at 31.1992 million U.S. dollars. Exports, on the other hand, stayed below 1.5 million U.S. dollars, with November reporting the highest export value at 1.4428 million U.S. dollars.
Asia Takes the Lead in Exports
Export market
From the perspective of export regions, Asia is the primary market for China's vascular stent exports, with an export value of 4.398 million U.S. dollars, accounting for 44.98% of the total export value. Europe ranks second, with an export value of 2.7702 million U.S. dollars, representing 28.33% of the total. With the exception of the African market, where no export trade took place, China exported to other continents totaling 2.6098 million U.S. dollars, accounting for 26.69%.
Looking at specific countries and regions, China exports vascular stents to only 19 countries and regions. The top ten markets in terms of export value are, in order: the Netherlands, Uruguay, Hong Kong, China, Belgium, the Philippines, Thailand, Brazil, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Chile. The total export value to these top ten markets amounted to 9.6115 million U.S. dollars, accounting for 98.29% of the country’s total export volume.
Exporting provinces and cities
Looking at the exporting provinces and cities, China has a total of seven regions that export vascular stents: Shanghai, Shandong, Guangdong, Liaoning, Jiangsu, Beijing, and Hubei. Among these, Shanghai accounted for the largest share, with an export value of 6.9126 million U.S. dollars, representing as much as 70.7%.
Export enterprise
Looking at exporting enterprises, in 2012, there were only 10 Chinese companies engaged in the export trade of vascular stents. Among these, 6 were private enterprises, with an export value of US$1.2877 million, accounting for 13.17%; the remaining 4 were foreign-invested enterprises, with an export value of US$8.4903 million, accounting for 86.83%.
Looking at specific enterprises, China’s vascular stents are primarily exported by four companies: Minimally Invasive Medical Devices (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., Shandong Jiwei Medical Products Co., Ltd., Evermed Medical Devices (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., and Shanghai Yilian Import & Export Co., Ltd. Among these, Minimally Invasive Medical Devices (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. accounts for nearly 60% of the total export value, while the other three companies each account for roughly 15%, with only slight differences among them.
Imported, Europe-led
Import market
From the perspective of import regions, Europe is China's primary market for vascular stent imports, with an import value of 232 million U.S. dollars, accounting for as much as 85%. North America ranks second, with an import value of 36.5487 million U.S. dollars, representing 13.41%.
From a national and regional perspective, China imported vascular stents from a total of 14 countries and regions. The top ten import markets, in order, were Ireland, the United States, Germany, Mexico, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Singapore, Japan, and the Netherlands. Among these, the value of imports from the Irish market reached 209 million U.S. dollars, accounting for as much as 76.54%.
Imported provinces and cities
Looking at the provinces and cities from which imports originate, China has a total of six provinces and cities that import vascular stents. Among them, Shanghai is the primary importing hub, with an import value reaching 258 million U.S. dollars, accounting for as much as 94.76%. Among the importing provinces and cities, Beijing has the largest number of enterprises engaged in the trade of imported vascular stents—23 companies, representing 43.4% of the national total. Its import value stands at 7.3254 million U.S. dollars, placing it second. Guangdong, by contrast, has only five importing enterprises, with an import value of 6.4736 million U.S. dollars, ranking third.
Importing enterprise
Looking at the structure of importing companies, in 2012, China had a total of 53 enterprises engaged in the import of vascular stents. Among these, 17 were foreign-invested enterprises, with an import value of 248 million U.S. dollars, accounting for 91.12%; 23 were private enterprises, with an import value of 16 million U.S. dollars, accounting for 6.04%; and 13 were state-owned enterprises, with an import value of 8 million U.S. dollars, accounting for 2.84%. In terms of quantity, private enterprises ranked first; however, their share of the total import value was significantly lower than that of foreign-invested enterprises.
Looking at specific enterprises, the top ten companies together accounted for $261 million in imports, representing 95.8% of the total. Among these top ten, seven were foreign-invested enterprises, with a combined import value of $248 million, or 90.83% of the total. In terms of specific amounts, Gaiteng International Trading (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. and Medtronic Medical Supplies & Technical Services (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. had significantly higher import volumes than the other companies, each exceeding $90 million. Boke International Medical Trading (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., ranked third, reported imports over $30 million, while Bard Medical Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. recorded imports exceeding $10 million. The remaining companies all had import values below $10 million.
Seeking a breakthrough
As people’s living standards improve and lifestyles change, the incidence of cardiovascular diseases is on the rise, and their treatment and prevention have attracted increasing attention. Drug therapy and surgical intervention have long been the traditional approaches to treating cardiovascular diseases; however, the former is suitable only for mild arterial stenosis, involves a lengthy treatment period, and has a slow onset of action, while the latter carries higher risks and may cause permanent harm to patients. Interventional treatment for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases—characterized by minimal surgical trauma and immediate therapeutic effects—has now become the primary method for addressing cardiovascular stenosis.
Since the mid-1980s, with the advancement of technology, vascular stents have undergone continuous upgrades—from bare-metal stents (stents without any drug coating) and drug-eluting stents to bioabsorbable stents—each iteration demonstrating increasingly remarkable therapeutic effects. Currently, demand for vascular stents in the international market is on the rise, which in turn is driving the diversification of stent products. Today, the international market offers not only arterial stents suitable for patients with coronary artery disease but also renal vascular stents, biliary stents, and cerebral vascular stents, among others.
In China, as public awareness of vascular stents continues to rise and living standards improve, the demand for vascular stents among domestic patients is steadily increasing. According to reports, in recent years, the growth rate of China’s vascular stent market has been around 30%. From a market-share perspective, currently, most of the vascular stents used in Chinese medical institutions are either purely imported or produced by foreign companies operating in China. The reasons behind this situation are twofold: First, foreign companies entered the Chinese market earlier and established sales networks more quickly, thereby capturing a larger market share; second, domestic companies started later, and their products still have certain performance gaps compared to foreign counterparts, resulting in lower market penetration.
In summary, as both domestic and international markets are experiencing growth, Chinese vascular stent companies are facing new opportunities and challenges. Therefore, Chinese enterprises need to continue deepening their market and product development efforts from two perspectives: innovating in materials and manufacturing processes to enhance product quality, while leveraging competitive pricing and geographical advantages to focus on neighboring Asian markets.
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