DHL Now & Next 2026 Summit Reveals Chinese Companies Focused on Redrawing Their Portfolio Playbooks Amidst Supply Chain Volatility

• Europe and Southeast Asia cited as top-priority markets, signaling parallel bets on mature-market demand and regional scale.
• Trade policy uncertainty tops cross-border challenges, as tariffs, export controls and freight volatility are cited as push factors 

As global trade reconfigures, companies are no longer chasing scale alone; they are redesigning supply chains for resilience, regulatory precision, and long‑term optionality. This emerging reality framed the discussions at the DHL NOW & NEXT 2026 Summit, DHL Group’s flagship global event series held in Shanghai on March 24, 2026. Bringing together senior executives from top Chinese companies, policymakers, and logistics leaders from across regions and industries, the summit reflected a profound shift underway in international trade – global trade is not retreating but being redesigned. 

“For decades, competitive advantage in supply chains was built on cost and speed. Today, it’s built on adaptability,” said Katja Busch, Chief Commercial Officer and Head of Customer Solutions & Innovation at DHL Group. “Chinese companies are not stepping back from global expansion and are in fact redesigning for it. There is a clear portfolio approach with Europe and Southeast Asia as top markets, even as trade fragmentation, regulatory divergence and sustainability expectations become structural forces. The companies that are set up for success will be those that design their supply chains to absorb disruption, with multi-node networks, data-led customs readiness and end-to-end visibility that keep inventory moving even when rules, routes or rates change.”

Insights from the latest DHL Global Connectedness Report reinforce this shift. The report highlighted that cross border flows remain resilient, even as companies reconfigure supply chains to reduce concentration risks, diversify markets, and align more closely with geopolitical and regulatory realities. The result is a deeply interconnected global economy, where connectivity is increasingly intentional rather than incidental.

What companies want next: Growth guided by clarity

The invitation‑only event convened over 350 leaders from close to 150 local corporations, spanning sectors from technology and automotive to life sciences, energy, and e‑commerce. Key insights from a voluntary post-event participant survey indicated that: 

Key Finding #1: Europe and Southeast Asia Ranked Top Markets For Expansion 

Insights from the DHL Connectedness Report 2026 support these findings. According to the report:

• China has become an increasingly important source of outbound greenfield FDI as Chinese companies grow their foreign operations. In 2025, China fully offset reduced exports to the United States with larger exports to other markets as its trade and greenfield investment grew to be more diversified across partner countries.
• The world’s level of globalization held steady at 25% in 2025, with cross‑border flows holding at historically high levels despite rising tariffs and geopolitical tensions. Contrary to common ‘near‑shoring’ narratives, average trade distances also reached record highs, indicating that companies are expanding the breadth of their international connections with a strategic emphasis towards building diversified, multi market portfolios.
• Europe ranks as the most globally connected region, driven by deep intra regional integration and broad global reach. This underpins the region’s strategic importance for companies seeking scale, stability and diversified access to end markets.
• The shift toward Southeast Asia is unfolding alongside a broader realignment in global trade, with Asia Pacific accounting for nearly a third of global trade. In particular, Southeast Asia’s growing prominence is strengthened by rising China ASEAN trade flows, as exporters rebalance toward markets offering both growth and connectivity.

These are also congruent to the latest industry figures on China trade and exports. According to the China Customs’ (GACC) full year 2025 goods trade data, ASEAN was China’s largest export destination region in 2025 with EUR567bn exports, with the European Union coming in as a close second (EUR477.3bn). 

Key Finding #2: Companies Face Layered Risks as Volatility and Policy Complexity Rise 

Companies today are navigating an increasingly layered risk environment, where trade policy uncertainty, cost volatility, and compliance complexity are reshaping how expansion decisions are executed. The UN Trade and Development had warned that maritime trade growth is expected to slow to just 0.5% in 2025, with freight rates remaining high and volatile amid geopolitical tensions, rerouting, and new trade barriers. Pricing indicators also underscore how quickly can move and add instability pressures to business plans, with the Drewry’s World Container Index climbing to EUR1,886 per 40ft container in late December 2025, up sharply from EUR1,643 earlier in the same month. 

Yet, these pressures are not translating into a pullback from cross-border trade. Aforementioned, overall trade activity continues to grow steadily, supported by the rapid scaling of cross-border e-commerce. China’s 2025 cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached RMB 2.75 trillion, a 4.6% year-on year increase according to an official State Council briefing. 

Execution risk has thus emerged as a defining challenge, particularly for companies expanding into highly regulated markets such as Europe. With the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism officially in effect since January 2026, compliance readiness is becoming a commercial differentiator rather than a regulatory afterthought. With Europe emerging as the top region favoured for expansion by Chinese companies, this amplifies the need for these corporations to embed compliance, data transparency, and resilience into their expansion blueprints from the outset.

DHL NOW & NEXT 2026: Strategy meets reality

Against this backdrop, DHL NOW & NEXT 2026 evolved beyond a traditional industry conference into a strategic forum focused on a central imperative: how companies can unlock global markets by grounding expansion decisions with a clear understanding of current market dynamics, and executing them through a combination of global capabilities and deep local market expertise. More than seventy speakers and presenters from across the globe contributed across plenary sessions, masterclasses, and topical exhibits revolving network design, compliance orchestration, digitalisation, sustainability integration, and talent strategy, translating strategy into operational reality across increasingly complex trade environments.

A defining outcome of the summit was a shift from thought leadership to tangible execution. During the event, DHL Global Forwarding signed two Memoranda of Understanding with JA Solar and Haier | RRS to strengthen logistics collaboration and support for these local companies in their international expansion efforts. DHL Express and SHEIN also signed a GoGreen Plus agreement to advance more sustainable logistics in cross-border e-commerce, as the giant online fashion and lifestyle retailer will utilize sustainable aviation fuel provided by DHL Express for its international express air freight shipments under the agreement. 

What emerged from DHL NOW & NEXT 2026 is a sophisticated vision of globalization: companies are not withdrawing from international markets, but instead they are designing for uncertainty by embedding optionality into their supply chains and treating logistics as a strategic differentiator rather than a cost function.