China'S Exports Remain Strong &Nbsp, While Shoe Makers Worry About Prices.

On March 5th, Chinese workers returned to work after the end of the Spring Festival received a surprise.

Workers at the TTN plant in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, thought they would spend a day without orders, because their traditional big clients are experiencing Western Europe.

However, the workers at work found that they had to adjust their vacation status as soon as possible to complete the task, because the factory unexpectedly received large orders from the new market Russia and India.

The TTN factory in Wenzhou is a microcosm of many export enterprises in China. They are working hard to open up new businesses in the downturn of Europe and the West.

Li Jian, a researcher at the Ministry of Commerce and international trade and Economic Cooperation Research Institute of China, said: "the overall situation is not as bad as some people expected, and the European economy is in a doldrums, but the market will not collapse.

Japan needs to import goods for reconstruction after the 2011 earthquake, and the US economy is also recovering. "

Li Jian added that China's imports and exports will continue to maintain a two digit growth rate in 2012.

Gradually changing strategy

China is changing its trading strategy: reducing its dependence on traditional markets such as the European Union, the United States and Japan, and looking for emerging markets such as India and Russia.

This requires China to increase its exposure to emerging markets.

In fact, China's growth in exports to emerging markets will exceed the growth rate of exports to traditional markets.

Last year, China's exports to India increased by 23%, unchanged from the growth rate of the association of Southeast Asian Nations exporting to Southeast Asia.

The question now is whether the rapid growth of the export volume of the emerging market can make up for the loss of the traditional Chinese market.

In 2011, China's trade surplus decreased compared with the previous year, which also affected economic growth.

In January this year, exports also declined compared with the same period last year.

Some people think that this is a cyclical law, and the reduction of export volume is affected by the earlier spring festival.

China Customs Statistics officials said that China's exports will increase in February, and relevant trade figures will be released in March 10th.

The February government purchase index released in March 1st also shows that orders for large export enterprises have increased.

Challenges of economic crisis

Song Hong, a trade researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the European debt crisis is a challenge for Chinese exporters, but the crisis is not as serious as it was in 2008 and 2009.

"This is a regional crisis, not a recession in the whole market.

China's export enterprises have experienced the Asian financial crisis and the US economic bubble, and they are able to cope with the European economic crisis.

Song Hong predicted that although the export growth would slightly slow in 2012, even though the export growth reached 20.3% in 2011, the growth would still reach 15%.

With the spread of the European debt crisis, China's export to the EU has become the focus of attention. However, data show that the number of imports to China by the euro zone economies is relatively small.

In 2011, China's exports to Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain amounted to only 62 billion 300 million US dollars, accounting for 3.3% of China's total exports.

The EU may be China's largest single export destination, but it still accounts for only 18.8% of China's total exports.

A heady price problem.

Ye Dingsong is a foreign trade merchant in Wenzhou. His company produces shoes and products are mainly exported to Europe.

What troubles Ye Dingsong most is not the reduction of orders, but the price.

"Orders are there, but the problem is that they can't sell well.

European buyers are very sensitive to the price, but the increase in cost makes me have to raise the price.

Ye Dingsong's shoe factory has employed more than 100 people at most, but less than 50 now.

Many workers leave the factory in order to earn more money. Ye Dingsong's 10% wage increase obviously can not satisfy the workers.

Data show that last year, Wenzhou exported 265 million pairs of shoes to Europe, and almost every two Europeans wore shoes with Wenzhou exports.

However, the total sales of these shoes are only 1 billion 600 million US dollars, about 6 US dollars per pair.

This means that there is little room for workers to raise wages.

Faced with the impact of the European economic crisis, the Chinese government has also helped export enterprises such as Ye Dingsong to tide over difficulties through export tax rebates and lowering the threshold of bank loans.