Shoe Companies Should Appeal To EU To Expand Overseas Market

With the spread of the global financial crisis, China's manufacturing industry has encountered an unprecedented "cold wave".

As a big exporter of shoe products, in 2008, many shoe enterprises in China were faced with the challenges of the international trade environment, such as the appreciation of the renminbi, the rising cost of labor, and the rising prices of raw materials.

Internal and external troubles have made this remarkable industry, which has maintained its two digit annual growth rate for more than 20 years, has been in a difficult situation.

According to the investigation of China's Light Industry Crafts Import and export chamber 4~7 month in Dongguan, Wenzhou, Quanzhou and other shoe-making industrial bases, not only did some small shoe enterprises stop production and go bankrupt, but some strong enterprises also had to resolve their risks through changing production methods.

Export enterprises have been fighting for the domestic market. This year, due to the global economic crisis, the international consumer market has shrunk dramatically, and the export of footwear industry, which is mainly originated from Europe and the United States, has been significantly affected.

Traditional footwear companies with low technological content and smaller scale enterprises are less able to resist market volatility and are gradually eliminated.

Wenzhou shoe leather industry association in the "second quarter of 2008 shoe leather industry economic operation analysis report", said that with the rise of various pressures, the pfer of production and closing down enterprises have further intensified trend, as of the end of August, nearly 150 shoe enterprises in Wenzhou were forced to close.

It is understood that the number of shoemaking enterprises in Wenzhou has been reduced from more than 5000 in 2003 to 2600 today.

In the case of greater impact on the export market, many domestic export oriented shoe companies have drawn their eyes to the domestic market, especially the recent series of policies to stimulate domestic demand, so that shoe companies see hope.

Since the financial turmoil, AOKANG, Kangnai and giant shoe companies in Wenzhou have adjusted their market strategy and further expand domestic market around domestic demand.

AOKANG continues to optimize thousands of independent stores and stores, and officially launched the AOKANG online shopping mall in August.

According to the company's estimate, the annual sales volume of the online store can reach 4 million yuan, which is equivalent to a year's sales of a very good franchised store, and its profit is at least 3 times more than that of a physical store.

All those who know foreign trade know that Chengdu shoes are good, but Chengdu brand shoes are rarely seen in the domestic market.

According to the person in charge of the western shoes city, there are more than 1700 shoemaking enterprises in Wuhou District at the core of Chengdu. But for a long time, most of the enterprises have been focusing on export sales and domestic sales, laying emphasis on OEM and creating brands.

Faced with the increasingly severe situation of the export market this year, the Chengdu Economic Commission began to guide enterprises to fully accelerate the pace of local shoe enterprises entering the domestic market.

Under the premise of quality assurance for export market, Chengdu footwear industry has learned lessons from the past single soldier operations, and is making industrial clusters to open up domestic sales channels.

It is understood that, in order to help Chengdu shoes open the door to domestic sales, Wuhou District is planning to build a 100 thousand square meter "Chengdu shoes direct selling mall" in the industrial park of China's women's shoes capital, and plans to open in April next year. At present, the top 20 enterprises of Chengdu scale have already signed up through the examination and approval.

The footwear industry in Fujian is in tripartite confrontation with Guangdong and Zhejiang.

The biggest impact of the global financial crisis on Quanzhou's export shoe enterprises is the reduction of foreign trade orders. At present, many export oriented enterprises in Quanzhou are returning to the domestic market from foreign markets.

A shoe manufacturer in Quanzhou said that although this year's export orders have been reduced by about half compared with the previous years, this is not a bad thing, but rather a good thing.

The reason is, "we can finally make room for our domestic market."

Take Baofeng shoe industry in Quanzhou as an example, the company started opening stores in Fujian province two years ago and opened counters in supermarkets. In the second half of this year, Baofeng shoes industry has entered the terminal outlets in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shandong and Anhui.

In October this year, the European Commission announced the "sunset review" of anti-dumping measures against leather shoes in China and Vietnam. This means that the EU's anti-dumping duties on leather shoes and children's shoes imported from China for 16.5% years in 2006 will be extended for another 12 to 15 months.

This news is adding insult to injury to the Chinese shoe industry, which is already in the "cold current".

In the face of the EU's anti-dumping stick, China's shoe companies have not withdrawn, but have been actively preparing for action.

The Ministry of Commerce, the Fair Trade Bureau, the Zhejiang provincial foreign trade and Economic Cooperation Department, the China Light Industry Arts and crafts import and Export Chamber of Commerce, the China Leather Association, and the three shoe industry organizations in Fujian, Zhejiang and Guangdong, have rushed to the shoe production base to review the EU's anti-dumping review on Chinese leather shoes and hold a meeting to mobilize shoe enterprises to take the initiative to deal with the review.

Zhejiang AOKANG, Fujian Jian Yue and Yuyuan industries in Guangdong, Panyu Chuangxin shoes industry, Huajian, Tong Jia shoes industry, and Foshan Nanhai Jin shoe 7 shoe enterprises began to receive the EU anti-dumping investigation form at the end of 10, and on behalf of the whole Chinese shoe industry, they set foot in the process of preparing written defense procedures for responding.

At present, 7 home buyers have already submitted the anti-dumping sunset review questionnaire to the European Commission.

At the same time, while responding to EU anti-dumping, Chinese shoe enterprises did not slow down the pace of diversification and expand the international market.

Especially from December 1st, the export rebate rate of shoes increased from 11% to 13%, which greatly encouraged the difficult export shoe enterprises and increased the confidence of enterprises to "go out" and expand the market.

It is understood that before the export of Zhejiang shoes mainly exported to Europe and the United States and Japan, has now expanded to Russia, Spain and the Middle East and other emerging markets.

Experts said that with the continuous improvement of international trade barriers and the increasing standard of health and environmental protection, Chinese shoe enterprises should focus more on improving the added value of products and cultivating their own brands.

Only by developing new materials for shoes making, pforming the traditional shoemaking process, and upgrading the export of Chinese shoes to quality, can we enhance the core competitiveness of enterprises.

Yang Jing: editor in charge