According to the textile and clothing foreign trade data released by the General Administration of Customs from January to February 2020, due to the combined impact of the Spring Festival holiday and the new coronavirus epidemic, the value of my country’s textile and clothing exports dropped in the first two months, and the magnitude was greater than that of the overall goods Export value fell. So, how confident are my country’s textile and clothing foreign trade companies in expanding overseas markets? What means can effectively reduce the impact of the spread of the global epidemic on my country’s textile and clothing foreign trade?
Export confidence is affected by the global spread of the epidemic Challenge
On March 7, the General Administration of Customs released the “Volume Value of Key National Export Commodities from January to February 2020″ Table” shows that from January to February 2020, my country’s export value of textile yarns, fabrics and products was 96.23 billion yuan, a cumulative decrease of 18.7% compared with the same period last year; the export value of clothing and clothing accessories was 112.26 billion yuan, a cumulative decrease of 18.7% compared with the same period last year.
For my country’s textile and garment export enterprises, ensuring orders, maintaining the market, and ensuring contract performance are the biggest challenges they currently face. The premise for all this is to steadily promote the orderly resumption of work and production.
Currently, with the support of a series of national policies, export textile companies are achieving an orderly resumption of production. However, the reporter learned that some companies with strong technical capabilities have transformed into the production of masks and other medical prevention and control materials, and have a higher rate of resumption of production and work; some companies that still focus on traditional business have relatively unoptimistic resumption of production and work.
The person in charge of an export company in Zhejiang that focuses on the European market and specializes in men’s jackets said that Europe is becoming The new epicenter of the epidemic, the closure of air routes in many countries has led to poor logistics and severely hampered the shipment of export goods. At the same time, the epidemic continues to spread in European countries, affecting residents’ lives. Demand in the local clothing consumer market is sluggish, and orders have dropped significantly.
Under the double attack of Sino-US trade friction and the new coronavirus epidemic, a carpet company from Shandong that exports to the United States feels pressure larger. The person in charge of this company said that the United States is currently suffering from the increasingly severe impact of the epidemic, with exhibitions postponed and tourism stagnant. The company’s demand for carpet products supplied to local hotels, conference centers and other places has dropped significantly, and the newly built hotels may be delayed. Or the work is suspended, and the carpets in the conference space that were originally planned to be updated will not be replaced. The market share that was already affected by the Sino-US trade friction is once again compressed.
At the same time, although export textile companies have a high resumption rate, most companies still face worker shortages and industrial chain problems. Upstream and downstream enterprises face many difficulties such as unsynchronized resumption of work and lack of protective resources.
There is great uncertainty in the current development trend of the global epidemic, and the smooth operation of the market must go through a long period of recovery period. Therefore, the confidence of export textile enterprises has been frustrated.
Stabilize the Southeast Asian market and improve intelligent manufacturing
Currently, the epidemic is Southeast Asian countries are not as affected as European and American countries. Southeast Asian countries rely heavily on my country’s supply of textile raw materials, and supply was once cut off due to the epidemic. As China’s export textile companies gradually resume work and production, protecting and stabilizing market share in Southeast Asia has become the top priority of export textile companies’ foreign trade.
For example, the textile and garment processing industry is one of Cambodia’s main economic pillar industries and provides a large number of jobs. More than 60% of the fabric and auxiliary materials in this industry are imported from China. As Chinese noodle and auxiliary material companies resume work and production at an accelerated pace, the shortage of raw materials in Cambodia has been gradually resolved, further consolidating the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries. “The textile industry is a labor-intensive industry. Although textile companies in various regions have gradually resumed production and work, even if all employees successfully return to work, they cannot gather and start work on a large scale. The production and operation of the companies have not yet returned to normal levels. This is also my country’s textile industry provides a better window period for its transfer to Southeast Asia.” Some experts said that countries such as Vietnam and Laos have many well-run industrial parks and preferential tax policies, and at the same time, these countries are also constantly improving their industrial chains and infrastructure. In response to the epidemic, China and Southeast Asia’s textile industry should strengthen cooperation.
Experts pointed out that in order to reasonably allocate production capacity during the epidemic, textile companies should also give full play to the advantages of intelligent manufacturing. A salesperson from a Fujian export textile company recently “saved” a Japanese order worth 1 million yuan through remote “cloud supervision.” After the outbreak, the factory’s production progress lagged behind. While explaining the actual situation to the Japanese customer, the salesman opened the system to check the delivery date, production status and machine parameters of the order. With the help of system data, 160 additional machines were scheduled to be added to the original number of machines to coordinate the production of this order. Thanks to this intelligent system, the order was finally saved.
Appropriately consider domestic and foreign trade and use the Internet to expand orders
Have experts It is suggested that under the current situation of effectively curbing the spread of the epidemic in my country, textile and clothing export companies may wish to give due consideration to the domestic market. In the short term, it is not a bad idea to switch from foreign trade to domestic trade. While sticking to its original position, it can appropriately develop domestic trade customers and achieve both development and maintenance. This way, the company can continue to operate and will not be unsustainable due to a lack of orders.
The person in charge of a Guangdong children’s clothing company said: “Nearly 50% of our company’s business is in Europe.”We believe that if the epidemic continues to spread in Europe, our business will definitely be affected. We are now considering whether to adjust the proportion of domestic and foreign trade and focus on the country. ”
Some experts also suggest that although the new coronavirus pneumonia epidemic has developed to many countries around the world, large-scale outbreaks are not With more, we can shift the focus of foreign trade sales to areas with less or no epidemic, and at the same time open up overseas markets.
In addition, with the spread of the epidemic, more and more international exhibitions have been postponed or canceled. For foreign trade companies, orders are life, and a large number of new orders come from various exhibitions every year. From an export textile company in Huzhou, Zhejiang Qi Qi said that at this time in previous years, the company’s orders had already been queued up to June and July, but now, orders after April this year have not yet been received, and he is eager to participate in the exhibition and expand the market.
To this end, recently, the Zhejiang Provincial Council for the Promotion of International Trade has actively organized companies to participate in a number of international exhibitions online with services provided by the Intelligent Cloud Exhibition (CALSEE) system. Exhibitors can Communicate and negotiate with merchants at the exhibition site through the Internet at any location, obtain merchants’ demand information, and solve problems such as not being able to get booths of well-known exhibition companies, being unable to visit the exhibition in person due to factors such as the epidemic.
Despite the current severe situation of the global spread of the epidemic, many textile and clothing export companies are also full of hope: “As long as the epidemic is under control, China’s complete industrial chain will still be The current difficulties in attracting overseas orders are only short-term and temporary. ”</p
