Chinese companies are diversifying suppliers while increasing AI investment
New survey evidence links supplier expansion, resilience priorities and AI adoption across Chinese supply chains.
DP World’s Global Trade Observatory data reports that 58% of surveyed Chinese supply-chain executives plan to expand their supplier base as companies combine resilience, AI adoption and new-market expansion.
Supplier diversification can reduce concentration risk, but it also increases qualification work, planning complexity and the chance of duplicated dependencies. A broader supplier base improves resilience only when organisations understand where suppliers share upstream materials, logistics corridors or regulatory exposure.
The principal failure mode is increasing supplier count without reducing correlated risk or defining how volume, inventory and service commitments should be allocated across the expanded network.