Wenzhou Shoe Enterprises Are Making Their Own Lives Again.

The history of leather shoes made by Wenzhou people can be first pushed into the Southern Song Dynasty. However, they are now afraid that this industry will become a history in Wenzhou.

A period of internal and external difficulties is coming to the industry which accounts for nearly 1/4 of Wenzhou's gross industrial product. Data from the local shoe leather industry association said that last year, the cost of leather shoes in Wenzhou continued to rise by 20%, while endless anti-dumping and international trade disputes, like a big hand slowly tightening their throats.

It is no exaggeration to say that this is a disaster prone industry. It has encountered many crises, and almost every time it can be called a "catastrophe". However, we have to admire the tenacity of these Wenzhou bosses. They often play the role of "self revolution" in crisis, and they are their own "White Knight".

They did not lose their confidence and declared that the output value of the industry should be maintained at around 8%, and the total output value next year will be 90 billion yuan.

This figure even approaches the total amount of GDP in Qinghai last year, and most of them only sell leather shoes with a price of less than 200 yuan or even lower.

Present situation:

There are only 2000 left in 6000 shoe companies.

"China Shoes Capital" is a truly migratory bird city.

Migrant workers from all over the country receded at the end of the year, and when the new year came, they came to the surface like tides.

There are nearly 6000 shoe leather enterprises here, and hundreds of thousands of workers are producing shoes here and there. In the early spring, when it was most busy, the firecrackers and more and more new faces began to show the prosperity here.

But now, there are only 2000 enterprises left. Although there are also new enterprises established, at least 2/3 of the enterprises have become "missing persons" in the shoe market.

Even worse, even the more than 2000 surviving businesses are mixed, with only 10 brands and sales networks.

"At present, China's footwear industry has entered the stage of shuffling, and the footwear industry in Wenzhou is also facing challenges." Xie Rongfang, Secretary General of Wenzhou shoe leather industry, said.

Microcosm:

A small factory that can't keep workers.

An embarrassing reality is that as a traditional industry, the shoe leather industry is facing the condition that it can not continue to survive in Wenzhou because of the constraints of local conditions.

Chen Gang's Sheng Hai shoe factory is a microcosm.

In his early years, Chen Gang was a sales salesman of another large shoe manufacturer in Wenzhou. "After a long time in this industry, it is natural for us to develop ourselves."

In Wenzhou's character, there is a general idea of "being a chicken head rather than a phoenix tail." That's one reason why there are so many small and medium-sized enterprises in Wenzhou.

Chen Gang used to be very proud of his choice. He set up a hoisting shoe factory in 2002, with a small scale and only 1 million 500 thousand registered capital.

In shoes capital, enterprises like Chen Gang were less than 2000 at that time. But at that time, it was the "golden age" of the shoe leather industry in Wenzhou.

"Basically, you can do all the year round, and you can't finish the order." Chen Gang recalls.

At this time, Chen Gang thought of enlarging the scale of production, but it was fatal that there was no such condition at all. "The cost is too high, and money is not available."

Another thing that worries Chen Gang is. He found himself unable to keep up with the workers in the factory. When the production season was busy, workers would suddenly disappear.

One day, he went to other enterprises to inquire, only to know that he gave the "general worker" 1000 yuan a month's minimum wage has no competitiveness.

"I also want to pay more for the workers, but my profit is only that."

Just as Chen Gang was still thinking about how to solve this problem, the financial crisis came. Without any suspense, Chen Gang was forced to stop his own small factory.

Try every means to save costs.

1. shoe factories migrate to central and Western Provinces

"The development space of Wenzhou has been narrowing day by day, and the living conditions of enterprises are far behind." Zhou Dewen, President of the Wenzhou SME Development Association, who is familiar with the status of Wenzhou enterprises, said. He believes that this is a major reason for the rapid reduction in the number of shoe enterprises in Wenzhou.
Last June, ye Jianguo moved his shoe factory in Wenzhou for 14 years to Bishan, Chongqing.

"There are many factories run by Wenzhou people in this park, including a complete set of industrial chains, such as shoe materials, soles, shoes lines and packaging, which are almost the same as Wenzhou, but the scale is not that big."

According to Ye Jianguo, as early as 2007, the owners of some small and medium-sized shoe enterprises in Wenzhou had discussed the "transplant" Wenzhou mode in the Midwest provinces. Up to now, Sichuan, Chongqing and even Russia have established Wenzhou shoe making production bases.

"The impact brought about by the relocation of enterprises is a certain degree of damage to the development of local industrial clusters in Wenzhou. At the same time, these relocation enterprises also raise the level of local shoe leather industry, thus fostering a number of competitors." Zhou Dewen said.

2. move overseas to avoid anti-dumping duties.

In addition to the pain of cost, the long and helpless trade friction has also led some Wenzhou shoe companies to move overseas.

"Almost all export shoe enterprises have been affected by anti-dumping and other trade frictions in recent years." Xie Rongfang said.

The latest round of anti-dumping trade disputes from the EU began 4 years ago.

At that time, the EU imposed anti-dumping duties of up to 16.5% on leather shoes in China. The impact of this decision is that the number of leather shoes sold overseas in Wenzhou has decreased by nearly 20% per year.

No businessman will lose his profits. The fact is that if the factory is relocated to Russia, the cost of customs duties will be reduced by at least 70%.

This view comes from Zhong Puming, general manager of Kangnai group. At present, Kangnai has invested in Russia to set up an industrial park, which specially accepts leather shoes enterprises from Wenzhou.

According to Zhong Puming's statement, the export duty of a pair of semi finished leather shoes is only 5%, while the tariff of finished shoes is as high as 15%. If the customs clearance is calculated by formal customs clearance, it will be more than 3 months from Wenzhou to St Petersburg if it is "gray customs clearance".

But if an enterprise assembles half finished shoes in Russia, it can play the "MADE IN RUS-SIA" (made in Russia), not only can be sold safely in Russia, but also can be sold to the main markets of the EU, and there is no need to worry about such problems as "anti-dumping". In this way, the cost of a pair of shoes sold to Russia is reduced by 70% at least.