The Life And Death Of China'S Footwear Industry And The World'S Footwear Industry

In recent years, China has been constrained by many factors such as international trade barriers, RMB appreciation, raw material prices and labor shortage.

The industry is facing severe challenges.

Under such circumstances, how can China's footwear industry maintain the status of the world's largest shoe producing and exporting country? How to move from the low-end market to the high-end market? How to change from quantity to quality and efficiency?

Global system

China is undoubtedly the most powerful Legion in the layout, because in the global annual output of 15 billion pairs of shoes, the "made in China" has more than 10 billion pairs.

However, in 2008, the unique Chinese footwear industry started a new fission. In the international trade barriers, RMB appreciation, raw material prices and labor shortages, especially the implementation of the new labor contract law, the Chinese footwear industry, which has been in a strong position, is facing severe challenges and tests.

The pfer crisis of China's footwear industry and the urgency of industrial upgrading, and how the new pattern of global footwear industry has changed, has become the focus of attention of the global industry.

First, the development of the world footwear industry and the general situation of the consumer market.

Globally, most of the world's shoemaking countries are Asia's China, India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand, Italy, Spain and Portugal, and Brazil of South America.

There are 3-4 shoe making enterprises in the world.

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The total number of employees in related industries is nearly 10 million.

China: the world's largest producer and exporter of shoes.

In recent years, China has produced over 10 billion pairs of shoes each year, accounting for 66% of the total global shoe making. It is the largest footwear manufacturing base in the world and the largest footwear exporter in the world.

In 2006, China's footwear exports amounted to 7 billion 650 million pairs, with a total export value of US $21 billion 810 million, and exports accounted for more than 53% of the world's total exports.

India: the world's second largest footwear producer after China.

At present, India has about 2 billion pairs of shoes annually, about 4000 shoemaking and related enterprises, of which about 500 are large enterprises and 3500 are small and medium-sized enterprises.

Small and medium-sized enterprises account for about 60% to 65% of the total output of footwear in India. Large enterprises generally provide high quality products, mainly for international brand processing.

Brazil: the third largest producer of shoes in the world, the quality and price of women's shoes occupy an important share in the world. At present, there are 7200 shoe making enterprises in Brazil, with 300 thousand employees, 700 million pairs of shoes per year, and 180 million pairs of annual export shoes.

Vietnam: the fourth largest shoemaking country in the world, about 400 shoemaking enterprises, employing about 500 thousand people.

Vietnam now produces 4-6 billion pairs of shoes, 90% of which are exported.

In 2006, the total value of Vietnam's footwear exports was $3 billion 550 million; in 2007, the total value of footwear exports reached 3 billion 200 million US dollars, up 9.9% over the same period last year.

Italy: Europe and the world's most important old shoe making power, the current annual output of about more than 200 million pairs of shoes, 51% of the products are positioned in the high-end market.

In Italy, there are 3 areas mainly producing high-end shoes, the first is San Mauro Pascoli, a total of 270 companies, with 15 million pairs of shoes per year.

The second one is Rivieradel Brenta, which has nearly 1000 enterprises, mainly producing high-end women's shoes.

The third one is Ma Kai's Fairmo and Ma La tower, about 3300 companies, with a total sales volume of 1 billion euros, and about 60% of their products are exported to foreign countries.

Spain: the second largest footwear producer in the European Union.

The annual output of the country is about 100 million pairs, because the competition between Asian countries and Latin American countries has completely changed the business strategy of Spanish footwear industry.

Today, they have shifted their product positioning from the main middle shift to the high-end products with high quality design projects.

The Spanish footwear industry has shifted from low-cost production centers to one of the world's middle end and high-end footwear production sites.

Portugal: it is also an important footwear producing country in Europe.

In 2003, there were 1900 shoemaking enterprises, with an annual output of 91 million 800 thousand pairs, which has been decreasing in recent years.

Most of the Portuguese shoe factories are mainly made up of shoe manufacturers in Italy and other countries. The products are mainly medium and low grade.

With the intensification of competition in the international market and the pfer of industries, the Portuguese footwear industry has begun to relocate after a period of recession, moving towards the middle and high-end products, advocating self design, building its own brand and developing the international market.

In the aspect of footwear consumption market, the main consumer market of global footwear products is concentrated in two categories, one is developed countries and regions, such as the United States, the European Union, Japan, Canada, and other countries and regions with large population, such as China, India, Brazil, Indonesia and so on.

According to the international statistics, after entering twenty-first Century, the top 10 footwear consumers in the world are: China (2 billion 257 million pairs), the United States (2 billion 133 million pairs) India (2 billion 9 million pairs), Japan (620 million pairs), Brazil (552 million pairs) Indonesia (480 million pairs), France (330 million pairs), Germany (324 million pairs), Britain (278 million pairs) and Pakistan (230 million pairs).

In these countries, China, India, Brazil, Indonesia and other countries have a large population and have a huge consumption market for footwear products. But at the same time, these countries have a large number of shoe making enterprises, whose products can meet most domestic needs and have little demand for external products.

With the economic development of these countries, the continuous improvement of people's living standards, the increasing consumption ability and awareness, the growth of the consumption market of footwear products is enormous. These countries will be the most potential market for shoe products consumption, and also the most potential market for footwear products export.

Two. Comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of the world's major shoe producing countries

Shoemaking industry is a labor-intensive industry. Its development and pfer are affected and restricted by many factors such as land resources, labor costs, raw material supply, environmental protection and sales market.

Due to the pursuit of profit maximization in the world's major consumer markets and footwear manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, we must take into account the important factors mentioned above, making the focus of the global footwear industry constantly shifting.

The center of the early global footwear industry in Europe, Italy, Spain, Portugal and other countries, began in the 60s and 70s of last century to the relatively low cost of Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Hongkong and other countries and regions.

At the end of the 80 generation of the last century and the beginning of the 90s, it moved to the coastal areas of the mainland of China, where the land labor cost is lower, the industrial resources are richer and the investment environment is more perfect.

By 1996, China has become the world's largest footwear production and export country.

In the next 10 years, China's shoemaking industry is thriving, growing and growing every year with the growth rate of 10%-20%.

During this period, the market of Vietnam and India also provided the international footwear giant with another choice of labor resources and low cost industries, thus making the footwear industry in two regions develop rapidly.

So far, Asian countries including China, Vietnam, India, Indonesia and Thailand have provided more than 85% footwear products to the global market and become the center of the global footwear industry.

Will the Asian footwear industry, including China's footwear industry, be pferred to other regions in the future, or will it be pferred among Asian countries? This is an important topic that the industry is concerned about and concerned about.

We can inspect and analyze the above factors that affect the development and pfer of footwear industry.

Comparison of the cost advantages of the main footwear industry in the world:

Country categories, labor costs, land resources, raw materials supply, industry matching, sales market, product mix, environmental protection requirements, investment index

China has a large population, low labor cost, abundant land resources, low cost, adequate supply of raw materials, low logistics cost, perfect industrial chain, complete supporting facilities, and huge sales both inside and outside the market.

Take the middle and low grade products as the main and gradually tighten up.

India: a large population, but a small number of industrial workers, low labor costs, abundant land resources, low cost, lack of raw material supply, high logistics costs, imperfect industrial matching, and a huge domestic market.

Brazil: abundant labor resources, medium cost, abundant land resources, adequate supply of raw materials, and better matching industries, forming a larger industry chain and a larger export market.

Vietnam: the population is not much, the labor price is temporarily relatively low, the general cost of land resources is relatively low, the supply of raw materials is short, the 90% depends on the imperfect import industry, the export market is limited, the middle and low market is the main and the gradual strictness.

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Indonesia has a large population, a middle level of labor costs, a moderate cost of land resources, a shortage of raw materials, a high logistics cost, imperfect industrial matching, and a relatively large domestic market.

The European Union: (Italy, Spain, Portugal) labor shortage, high cost, lack of land resources, high cost, adequate supply of raw materials, but higher prices, better industrial matching, the potential of internal and export markets is generally high, the high-end market has the advantage of high-end products and strict control.

From the above comparison, we can see that China's footwear industry is still the most competitive advantage in terms of comprehensive competitiveness.

After nearly 20 years of development, China's footwear industry has built up a sound upstream and downstream industry chain, forming various industrial clusters of footwear production, establishing a complete market for footwear products and shoe materials, and developing research centers and information centers for footwear.

Although China's footwear industry is also facing the influence of domestic policy factors and rising labor costs, as well as from India, Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia and other countries in the competition of low and medium footwear, there are competition among Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and other countries in high-end shoes, but the comprehensive competitive advantage of China's footwear industry is still no match for other countries.

Although India has a large population, vast land and almost the same price as China, it is still difficult to compete with China in terms of raw materials matching, industrial foundation and industrial workers.

Although Vietnam is the first choice for Chinese footwear industry, especially Taiwanese shoe factories, with the increase of Vietnamese shoe factories, the cost of labor and land will surpass that of mainland China, while Vietnam's raw material supply, industrial foundation and domestic market potential are more difficult to compare with China.

As officials from the United Nations Industrial Division say, for a long time, it is difficult to find a better country for shoes development than China.

Long Yongtu, Secretary General of the Boao forum for Asia, also believes that at least for a long time, China's footwear industry will not be pferred to other countries.

Of course, in the current situation, some of them are not suitable for the shoe factories that do not continue to develop in the new environment.

Three, the development trend of China's footwear industry in the future