With the domestic epidemic under control, the resumption of work and production is proceeding in an orderly manner. However, just as the domestic epidemic gradually subsided and preparations were made for a big fight, the foreign epidemic began to spread, and many countries in Southeast Asia and Europe announced “lockdowns.”
The “late spring cold” came a bit unprepared
Many people did not expect that things would turn around so quickly: China was severely affected by the epidemic in January and February, but as the “world’s factory” it could not Production, overseas customers urgently urged orders; in March, foreign epidemics were severe and the market was in a downturn. Customers who originally urged orders postponed or even canceled orders.
Picture source: Visual China
For foreign trade people, the “late spring cold” comes a bit unexpectedly. Regarding the epidemic, “Domestic players will fight the first half, foreign traders will fight the second half, and foreign traders will fight the whole game.” has become the most common joke among foreign traders on the Internet.
The rapid spread of the epidemic around the world has had a significant impact on some of my country’s foreign trade companies and related industries that rely more on exports to the European and American markets.
The boss of a foreign trade company in Keqiao, Shaoxing, said that the impact of the overseas epidemic has been fatal. European factory orders have decreased, inventories are backlogged, and half of the payment may not be recovered. The cash flow of many factories cannot last three months.
Since the beginning of March, the overseas epidemic has accelerated its spread, and the risk of small and medium-sized foreign trade companies losing orders has gradually increased.
. Some netizens reported to the printing and dyeing people that the boss of our factory organized buses to pick up the workers to resume work. Within a few days, the epidemic broke out in Europe and the United States. It’s holiday again. At the same time, a friend who is a shoe trader said that my shoe trader was rushing to ship out the containers when they were just able to ship them in February. As a result, the containers were still floating on the sea, but the destination city was closed down and the store was temporarily closed.
“Don’t think about how much money you can make at this time. It’s good to have an order.” Ms. Li, who is engaged in the foreign trade speaker business in Bao’an District, Shenzhen, said.
“In the spring of 2020, the foreign trade industry is very difficult. In February, we tried our best to prove to our customers that ‘we are fine’. In March, we kept confirming with our customers ‘are you OK? Do you want to continue placing the order?” Ms. Jiang, the sales manager of a coffee machine exporter in Shenzhen, said that since the start of the project, she has only received three very small orders. The order volume has been reduced by 90%, and the freight has increased a lot.
“There is still something to do in February and March, but bigger troubles may occur in April.”
Mr. Zhang, who is engaged in stretch film processing business, said. Several factories in his industrial park are preparing to take holidays starting in April due to insufficient follow-up orders.
“In the first two months of this year, China’s total export value of goods trade was 2.04 trillion yuan, a decrease of 15.9% compared with the same period last year. As the international epidemic further spreads, the foreign trade import and export situation may further deteriorate. We need to be prepared for response as early as possible.” Xin Guobin, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said at the press conference of the State Council’s Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism held on March 30.
On February 22, workers from a foreign trade company in Shaanxi were doing sorting work. Picture source “Shaanxi Daily”
The garment foreign trade industry is one of the hardest-hit areas under the impact of the epidemic. Data shows that Europe and the United States are home to many well-known fast-selling clothing brands such as ZARA and HM. Affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, the above-mentioned companies have adopted measures such as large-scale store closures around the world, and their sales have been affected.
The textile industry has launched an active self-rescue
Starting from mid-March, New confirmed cases in Europe and the United States began to grow explosively, and the operating situation of many clothing and fabric companies began to take a turn for the worse. On the one hand, European and American customers began to cancel orders in large numbers. Some customers even rushed for orders one day and suddenly canceled orders the next day. On the other hand, the payment cycle for uncancelled orders has been significantly extended, and the payment cycle for some goods has been directly extended from dozens of days to nearly a hundred days, further increasing the cash flow burden of enterprises.
Faced with the sudden “wave of cancellations”, many foreign trade companies in clothing fabrics have actively launched self-rescue.
Switch to the production of masks and other anti-epidemic materials
Transform a boutique workshop that produces high-end fashion into masks in one fell swoop The factory, Yaying Group Co., Ltd. located in Xiuzhou District, Jiaxing, was one of the first to realize the conversion of production. “The workers in the boutique workshop have relatively high skill levels and quickly learned and figured out a complete set of processes for making masks using the original equipment in the workshop such as sewing machines and bonding machines.” Production technology manager Xia Kefeng told reporters that since February 6 Since the first batch of civilian masks were produced in Japan, workers have independently developed a series of templates, pull tubes and other small tools to improve efficiency, and have made videos of the mask production process for reference and learning by other garment factories that have switched to other industries.
However, only a very small number of clothing fabric companies can switch to producing masks. Some heads of small and medium-sized clothing and textile enterprises expressed their gratitude toThe reporter said that the initial investment in the production of masks, protective clothing and other anti-epidemic materials is large, and it is difficult to switch production, making it difficult for small businesses to bear the risks.
Closely follow the consumption psychology of epidemic prevention and develop anti-viral fabrics
These days, with the deserted The Keqiao fabric market is in sharp contrast. The showroom of a fabric company in Shaoxing located on Keqiao Street is filled with customers. It turns out that the company has successfully developed fabrics with anti-viral functions in cooperation with a company in Hong Kong. This series of fabrics was specially developed in response to the new coronavirus epidemic. The current market response is good, and many clothing brand customers have begun to place orders.
General Manager Cao of the company introduced: “Fabric development can only be competitive if it conforms to the market’s consumer psychology. At present, Under the influence of the new coronavirus epidemic, consumers are in urgent need of antibacterial and antiviral products. We accurately grasped the current market demand, responded quickly, contacted the major textile chemical brands we had cooperated with before, and finally chose Hong Kong’s This technology. Through the “active oxygen capsule” technology, we give different fabrics excellent anti-viral functions, and this function is long-lasting and can withstand 50 times of washing. It is very popular in the market. We asked several online manufacturers Customers of the live broadcast said that this anti-virus clothing was quickly sold out as soon as the anchor introduced it, and they had no choice but to place additional orders urgently.”
Live-stream selling and open up new sales channels
This is the headquarters of a clothing company in Ningbo, Zhejiang A live broadcast selling goods. Affected by the epidemic, all offline stores of this company are unable to operate. But online live streaming has opened up sales. According to the person in charge, the current sales volume of a live broadcast is about 3,000 orders, and the sales volume can reach 300,000 yuan.
Chen Jianchun, general manager of Ningbo Luomeng E-commerce Co., Ltd.: The platform now provides us with greater support. Each store is live broadcasting at the same time. So far, the offline sales have been higher than the same period last year. The incremental part has basically remained flat.
Yongquan, Vice President of Pinduoduo: Let more users see some of our related marketing resources and traffic resources. For these commodities, we need to match traffic and supply. In view of the situation in some industrial belts, some financial support has also been proposed.
The industry believes that from the current perspective, normalization of clothing retail may have to wait until autumn order production in July. In the past six months, textile and apparel foreign trade will still be in an unstable state. For enterprises, what they can do now is to ensure cash flow, work hard to reduce inventory, and ensure normal receipts and payments.
In order to relieve foreign trade companies, measures such as tax reductions and exemptions, funding support, and order creation to create demand have been adopted.
The State Administration of Taxation said that starting from March 20, the export tax rebate rate for 1,084 products such as porcelain sanitary ware The export tax rebate rate for 380 products including plant growth regulators was increased to 13%.
Hou Bangan, deputy director of the Guangzhou Taxation Bureau of the State Administration of Taxation, said, “After the policy was released, tax refund declarations have been processed for 40 foreign trade companies, and the tax refund amount reached 147 million yuan.”
The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Transport issued policies to announce that from 0:00 on March 1 to 24 on June 30 As of this date, port construction fees for import and export goods are exempted. The Ministry of Commerce, in conjunction with the China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation, provides insurance for companies that suffer losses due to importers’ commercial, political and other risks in the process of operating export business.
Many provinces and cities where foreign trade companies are concentrated have also taken action to help companies raise funds and secure orders. </p
