Disappearing Orders: Shoe Boss'S October

In early October, the temperature dropped abruptly in Ruian, and the sky was very cloudy.

Sources from the local meteorological observatory said that the Zhejiang area was experiencing a cold spell.

Shen Shen put on his winter coat in advance. He was carrying a flashlight in the warehouse. He was left alone in the big factory. In the corner of the warehouse lay a pile of leather shoes that had been packed for export.

He is a boss of shoemaking enterprises in the village of Xinyang Town, Xincheng, Ruian, which specializes in overseas markets.

In the past few months, his orders have been decreasing, and these orders have disappeared almost overnight after entering October.

What Shenyang doesn't know is that the financial crisis coming from Wall Street is spreading rapidly in October. The economic depression and the increase of unemployment make the consumption desire of Europeans and Americans to the lowest point.

Will you shut down or close?

The factory has been shut down, the workers are on holiday and the amount owed is more than 1 million US dollars. This is the current situation faced by Shen Fei, which makes him unable to sleep at night.

In the past more than 10 years, Shen has been engaged in manufacturing and exporting leather shoes.

His factory has assets of over ten million yuan, nearly 300 employees, 26 technicians, and an advanced domestic shoe production line, with an annual production capacity of 1 million 500 thousand pairs.

Every day, countless leather shoes are loaded onto trucks and shipped to the docks, waiting to leave the port. The leather shoes in his factory are mainly exported to Europe and the United States. In the past, his shoes had been expanding and earning huge profits because of their low price and good quality.

"I mainly do the foreign market, because it is very simple to do, you do not need to establish your own sales network. If you go abroad, you can recruit many dealers if you are cheap, then you can sell your products.

In China, you will not only face competition from peers, but you will also need to invest a lot of money in building networks and brands, and you will not see any benefits in the near future.

Shen Fei said he abandoned the domestic market under such circumstances.

Unlike him, Wenzhou's Kangnai, red dragonfly and other footwear enterprises chose to bloom at home and abroad.

Now Shen Fei has some regrets.

In the past, 1/3 exported to the United States and 2/3 sold to Europe. This proportion can also represent the market segmentation of Chinese shoes exported overseas.

"Sometimes the US market is depressed, and it can export to Europe, but now it is depressed."

Shen said.

In the Wenzhou area a few months ago, a large number of enterprises had to close because of the rising prices of raw materials, the appreciation of the renminbi and the adjustment of a series of foreign trade policies.

"A lot of small businesses around us went bankrupt, and the bosses were looking for other opportunities."

This time, Shen Fei did not know whether he could survive.

More than half of his clients in the United States cancelled their previous orders, and many previously cooperative foreign trade companies went bankrupt because of tight funds.

Shen Fei said he had not received more than one million dollars.

"If I don't stop working, my losses will be greater. I'll have to wait and see."

Shen Fei said that many enterprises need to sell their products for capital repatriation, but often the domestic market needs several years of operation to form large-scale sales, and now the domestic market has been completely divided, and many small and medium-sized enterprises are in a dilemma.

Shen Fei said that going on like this is not a way.

In the beginning of winter, Shen Fei's factory did not receive new orders after entering the factory in September, and the original order signed at the end of October was also broken by customers. Shen said he was not too sure to take orders.

"If you take orders, who knows if they will go bankrupt?"

In October 8th, Shen Fei made a difficult decision: suspend work temporarily.

Shen Shenfei's experience is not accidental.

The latest news from the General Administration of Customs shows that, due to the financial crisis, exports of textiles, clothing, toys and other consumer products in China dropped sharply in 1~9 months.

In fact, the Christmas dinner expected by Chinese enterprises is too late.

According to Shenzhen customs data, from 1 to July this year, Shenzhen's Christmas products exported to US $47 million, a sharp decrease of 36%.

Zhou Dewen, President of the Wenzhou SME Development Association, said that the US Wall Street crisis is gradually evolving into the nightmare of countless Chinese exporters. "The collapse of financial institutions in Europe and the United States has caused tens of thousands of people to lose their jobs, and the layoffs of major companies will also increase, which will make consumers further reduce their consumption."

"Now it's just entering the winter, and the difficult days are still long."

Zhou told reporters that according to his statistics, in Wenzhou, 1/5 and nearly ten thousand small and medium-sized enterprises went bankrupt this year, and the collapse trend is still continuing.

"Maybe after I take a break, I don't know when this crisis will happen."