This year’s foreign trade industry is suffering from both sides. Due to the impact of the black swan at the beginning of the year, we had to postpone the resumption of work. Faced with orders that were postponed due to uncontrollable factors, we can only humbly plead with customers, hoping that customers can understand.
However, we are still faced with being pushed by customers, but we are watching customers cancel orders because they cannot resume work normally…
Then, finally we finally It’s time to resume work. I wanted to develop a few more new customers and do a great job. However, after resuming work, exhibitions were canceled or postponed. Other countries also implemented lockdowns due to black swans. The customs in the customer’s country also began to strictly control various imported and exported products, and the import and export operations became very complicated. Trouble caused a sharp drop in customer purchases.
From the shortage of orders to the explosion of orders, are foreign trade people enjoying themselves? No, raw materials are skyrocketing and orders are a hot potato
I originally thought that this “sick” situation would be improved by the middle of the year. Unexpectedly, in the middle of the year, the situation became more serious because of the second round abroad.
According to our customer feedback: Because there was no import at the beginning of 2020, most of their products were sold out, and there was no inventory at all in the warehouse. They urgently needed to purchase from China, so since June our company has started from ” There is a shortage of orders, and orders are about to explode.” But in the face of the increase in order volume, as a foreign trade person, I am not happy! Because while the order volume is rising, domestic raw materials are also skyrocketing.
And customers are not fools, and we cannot increase prices. If we raise the price, customers will most likely reduce their purchases or cancel their orders. In order to “survive”, they will have to accept orders at the original price. On the other hand, the supply of raw materials has increased, and due to the sudden increase in customer demand, there has been a shortage of raw materials, which has led to some suppliers not being able to provide parts to factories in a timely manner. This directly led to the inability to deliver goods on time because some spare parts were not available in time during factory production.
On the other side, facing an empty warehouse, customers are also anxious. They make several phone calls and send several emails a day to desperately urge the goods. Some customers will even say: If you delay further, we will cancel the order.
But often at this time, half of the parts for the order have been purchased or some have already started production, and our foreign trade orders are all OEM (OEM) or customized products, and most parts are not available at all. It cannot be used universally. In short, if we purchase parts and the customer cancels the order, these parts will be scrapped.
We can’t just watch the waste of raw materials, but the customer is willing to give in, so we can only let the customer start arranging inspection, hoping that we can drive out the goods from inspection to shipment.
But even if we hurry up and hurry up, various contradictions will sometimes occur. For example, one of my customers originally made an appointment to deliver the parts on November 5th, and our supplier originally made an appointment to deliver the parts to the factory on October 20th. However, on October 20th, the supplier has not yet delivered the parts. Parts delivered. When we went to urge our purchase, the supplier said: This component requires copper as the basic material. My current copper price has tripled from when we placed the order…
After purchasing After urging again and again, the supplier finally promised to send us the parts on October 25th. However, we ordered 10,000 parts for supply promotion. On November 1st, the supplier still failed to deliver all the parts. As the delivery date was approaching, our customer had already started arranging inspections, but the supplier only 2,000 were sent, saying they still needed time to prepare the rest.
Then we had to push again. Anyone who has done foreign trade knows: the customer sends a third-party representative to inspect the goods. If our goods are not completed according to the customer’s contract requirements or the goods fail to pass the inspection, we need to arrange for re-inspection. As the supplier, we need to pay the price. It ranges from US$250 to US$400 depending on the company.
So in order to reduce these cost losses, after discussing with the manager, we decided to tell the customer the truth. The customer was understanding at first and tolerated us for a week. On November 10th, after communication and efforts from many parties, the shipment was finally successfully completed, and inspection was arranged and passed.
After the inspection passed, we originally thought we could ship the goods smoothly. Unexpectedly, the customer’s freight forwarder told me that it is very difficult to order containers now. As a result, shipments were arranged from November 10th, but no shipments were made until December 10th. Either he got the SO (booking confirmation), but the tow truck driver didn’t mention the container when he went to the terminal; or he couldn’t even get the SO.
There is a worse situation: even if you get SO, due to the tight shipping, the price of sea freight has soared, several times, because the high sea freight has stopped… doThe goods can only be left in the warehouse waiting, and the time for funds to be withdrawn is also increasing.
Although we urge the freight forwarder every day, there is no progress! One day the freight forwarder suddenly told us: You can make a replenishing cabinet. The replenishing cabinet is 150-200 US dollars more expensive than an ordinary cabinet, but making a replenishing cabinet can guarantee that you can definitely lift the cabinet.
After discussing with the manager and company management, we decided to make a replenishment cabinet. We finally ordered the cabinet on December 12th, and successfully installed it on the 13th, and it was cleared by customs. . Originally, I was supposed to board the ship and leave the port directly on the 15th, but I received the news that the cabinet was dumped (that is, because the ship could not fit, the cabinet was not put on the ship and was left in the dock at the dock)…
And because the payment method for this batch of goods is to see a copy of the bill of lading. According to the habits of most customers, they usually pay the balance to redeem the bill of lading and pick up the goods a few days before the goods arrive at the destination port. Now I don’t know when the goods will be loaded onto the big ship, let alone that it will take more than a month to arrive at the destination port after getting on the big ship…</p
