Rubber Production Costs Increase Shoe Enterprises Pressure Is Huge

China is the largest footwear producer and exporter in the world. In 2007, it produced 11 billion 300 million pairs, accounting for 60% of the world's total output, of which 8 billion 170 million were exported. At present, China's rubber shoes (including cloth rubber shoes, rubber shoes, rubber shoes) production has more than 6 billion pairs. According to the survey of rubber shoes Association of China Rubber Industry Association, in 2007, the production of rubber shoes for 40 branch member enterprises was 429 million 944 thousand pairs, up 0.92% from the same period last year. Taking the output statistics of China's rubber coated shoes manufacturers as an example, the national total bureau has 604 enterprises with annual sales income of more than 5 million yuan, with a capacity of 2 billion 500 million to 3 billion pairs of /a. In 2007, the production of cloth covered rubber shoes in scale enterprises was about 1 billion 800 million pairs, an increase of 13.2% over the same period last year, a decrease of 15 percentage points over that of last year. In the past 2002~2006 years, the export volume of footwear in China has increased rapidly, with an annual growth rate of 16% to 17%. It is estimated that by 2010, output will reach 12 billion 500 million pairs, and export volume will increase to 9 billion 300 million to 9 billion 500 million pairs. In 2007, China exported 6 billion 110 million pairs of rubber shoes and plastic shoes, an increase of 8.3% over the same period, amounting to $1 million 287 thousand, and export growth slowed slightly. Imports of 9 million 745 thousand pairs increased by 74% compared to the same period last year, amounting to 1 million 144 thousand US dollars. The import of rubber shoes and plastic shoes decreased briefly in 2005, and then showed an upward trend after 2006. At present, there are about 4500 kinds of rubber shoes in China, of which 40% are medium and top grade products, and sports shoes, casual shoes and rubber shoes account for 93% of the total rubber shoes. In the coming years, China will focus on the development of leather shoes, cold sports shoes, casual shoes and vulcanized cloth sports shoes, sandals, injection boots and other products. In addition, labor protective footwear is also a new key development product. The development of shoe adhesives is difficult to grow. The world shoe materials have increased from 4 to 11. In addition to traditional PVC, PU and thermoplastic elastomer, materials such as EVA, latex and polyoxyethylene rubber have also entered the field of shoemaking. Rubber shoes are mainly made of natural rubber, which accounts for 55% to 60% of the total rubber used in the industry. In addition to rubber shoes, the rubber used for other footwear in China is mainly made of synthetic rubber. In general, the amount of synthetic glue in sports shoes is 75% and leather shoes are about 70%. For example, butadiene rubber is mainly used for sports shoes and leather shoes which require high wear resistance of sole. In addition, the proportion of other synthetic rubber used in the footwear industry is also increasing. For example, nitrile rubber is used as oil resistant, conductive and antistatic footwear, neoprene is used for adhesives, and three yuan ethylene propylene rubber is used as some microporous shoe sole. In order to improve the wet skid resistance of the soles, butyl rubber is also used in the soles of some high-grade shoes. The recent rise in world oil prices and the sharp rise in production cost of synthetic rubber have brought great pressure to enterprises. If the price of synthetic rubber approaches or exceeds natural rubber, the demand for natural rubber is bound to increase. However, the dependence on natural rubber imports in China is relatively high, and the sharp rise in demand will also stimulate the rise of natural rubber prices. In the face of the continuous improvement of the price of the main material of shoemaking, the profit margins of enterprises have been continuously compressed. Finding other alternative materials to reduce costs has become a concern for the industry to achieve sustainable development. In the coming years, with the increase of reclaimed rubber and rubber powder production and quality, the natural rubber and synthetic rubber in the sole can be partially replaced, and the consumption in the shoe industry will increase. However, this substitution has small circuitous space and is difficult to fundamentally solve the impact of raw material price increase on the footwear industry. Therefore, it is estimated that the growth rate of footwear and rubber shoes will slow down in the next few years, and the consumption of rubber will not increase significantly. More clothing investment information, click here to enter the responsibility editor: Wang Xiaonan