AptarGroup CEO: China unfazed by tariffs because their ‘grit and willpower is on a different scale’
Good morning. It is easy to assume that China was so paralyzed by the US trade battle that it reached a temporary truce when president Trump and President Xi met in October. But China’s trade surplus reached a record level of $1.08 trillion in the first eleven months of this year. Some of this is due to China redoubling its efforts in other markets: total exports rose 6% in November from a year earlier, although exports to the United States fell 29%.
But part of it reflects the fact that corporate America has not disappeared. I recently spoke with Stefan Tanda, CEO of AptarGroup, a $3.7 billion-a-year manufacturer of specialty packaging and delivery systems for pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies and consumers, headquartered in Crystal Lake, Illinois. He notes that China remains a major manufacturing hub with long-standing infrastructure and relationships that are key to the company’s regional supply chain. What’s more, he says that speed to market is a feature that will be difficult to replicate in their other innovation centers around the world.
“The sheer amount of determination and willpower is on a different scale,” Tanda said, noting that he is now tapping Chinese talent to help his European factories develop product prototypes in six weeks versus up to 18 months. “We need the Chinese ecosystem to create the experimental template. We may still want something made in France for luxury beauty products, but a lot of the innovation has been in China. [producing] For China, and now China for the region, and China for the world.”
Tanda has the advantage that his products are not considered sensitive from a national defense perspective — “essential materials but, yeah, there’s not going to be a war going on them” — and he echoes his American peers in focusing a large portion of his production on domestic needs, with more than half his customer base of Chinese-made products coming from China. “It used to be that you wanted the luxury Western brand but now you buy the Chinese brand because it’s the same quality or better… It helps that we’ve been a leader in automating our core processes and it’s become much easier with AI.”
“China is more capitalist than any other country I know in terms of real drive, acceleration, making things work, and iteration,” Tanda added. “For companies doing business, that’s what you’re competing with. It means you become a more competitive actor to be successful in that environment. It helps us stay sharp and become more competitive because if we can do it there, we can also learn it here.”
Connect with the CEO daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com
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CEO Daily is compiled and edited by Joey Abrams, Claire Zelman, and Lee Clifford.
2025-12-23 10:07:00
