Spring Fair Brings New Faces: New Buyers Account For Over 4 Of The Total.

In May 5th, the 125th China Import and Export Fair was closed.

In the afternoon, the official first time informed the "harvest" of the Canton Fair: the overseas purchasers of the Canton Fair went down 3.88% compared with the Spring Fair of 2018, and the total export turnover fell 1.1% year-on-year.

The number of buyers and exports declined slightly, which lasted for the 124th session. Previously, since the 119th session of the 2016 "stop down", the Canton Fair purchasers and exports have experienced 5 "double growth".

The Canton Fair has always been regarded as the barometer and weathervane of China's foreign trade. Xu Bing, deputy director of the China Foreign Trade Center, said that the data of the Canton fair show that the domestic and foreign environment facing China's foreign trade development is more and more complex and severe, with uncertainties and unstable factors increasing, and exports facing greater downward pressure.

In May 5th, Bai Ming, deputy director of the International Market Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, said that behind this is the overhang of global market demand, the Sino US trade friction, and so on. For the government and enterprises, the most urgent task is to make further efforts in the new market and new products, create new space, reshape new advantages, and can not wait passively for some objective factors to improve.

Transaction structure optimization is more obvious.

The Canton Fair ended in a drizzle. In the afternoon of May 5th, thousands of exhibitors packed the exhibits and began to fish out. Many exhibitors got a lot of money, but there were regrets.

According to official data, 195454 people from overseas purchasers from 213 countries and regions, and 199 billion 524 million yuan (equivalent to 29 billion 730 million US dollars), were down 3.88% and 1.1% respectively.

Why is that so? In view of the decline in the number of purchasers, Xu Bing said that this is a "comprehensive impact of various factors". On the one hand, this Canton Fair coincides with important holidays in some countries, which will bring certain influence to purchasers. On the other hand, the current global economic and trade growth is slow, and the environment for China's foreign trade development is becoming more and more complex.

According to the analysis of Bai Ming, the so-called "internal and external factors" behind the performance of the Canton Fair are mainly in 4 aspects, including the sluggish demand caused by the global economic downturn, the uncertainty brought by Sino US trade friction, the rise of manufacturing industry in some Southeast Asian countries, the formation of competition and challenges, and the rise in the RMB exchange rate since the end of last year, which has also increased the pressure of export prices.

"The current time point is very embarrassing." In May 5th, Chen Wanling, director of the international trade research center of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, said that many uncertainties and unstable factors superimposed on the market, which enhanced the wait-and-see sentiment in the market. Some buyers' "no action", hoping to wait for the more favorable situation, including the result of "gambling" Sino US trade friction.

The data can be corroborated. In the current Canton Fair, the proportion of short and medium staple accounts for a high proportion. The long list ratio is low, short accounts for 42.3% in 3 months, 33.4% in 3-6 months, and 24.3% in 6 months.

However, for the $29 billion 730 million export performance, Xu Bing believes that this is still in the stable range. And further, there are many good performances such as the optimization of transaction structure and the acceleration of power transformation. For example, 20% of the total number of exhibition stands accounted for 28.8% of the total turnover, and the turnover was active and better than the whole. Many "the world's first" or "global first" products appeared on the Canton Fair, which became a sharp weapon for enterprises to actively respond to external challenges.

"The new advantage of the international competition of enterprises is accelerating." Xu Bing said that a survey conducted by the Canton Fair shows that over 83% of buyers will maintain or increase procurement in China in the coming year. "With the recent national tax reduction, support for SME development and improvement of business environment, the policy effect will gradually emerge, and the annual foreign trade will achieve stable and medium quality objectives". He said.

Chen Wanling believes that the future trend of foreign trade will largely depend on the balance between the various factors, and one of the most important variables is policy support.

"One belt and one road" accounted for 35% of the total turnover.

Among the highlights of this Canton Fair, "one belt and one road" is the most prominent one.

Since the "one belt and one road" initiative was put forward, both the Canton Fair and enterprises have been focusing on this, opening up new markets and accelerating the diversification of global layout. Judging from the current Canton Fair, this effort is achieving certain results.

Official data show that the buyers and sellers of the countries and regions along the "one belt and one road" in the Canton Fair have 88009 people, accounting for 45.03%, up 0.5 percentage points over the same period.

More importantly, there were 82375 new purchasers attending the Canton Fair, accounting for 42.15% of the total number, and 52.68% of the new purchasers from the "one belt and one road" area increased by 0.94 percentage points over the same period last year. In other words, more than 4 of this Canton Fair will become new buyers, and more than 5 of them will come from "one belt and one road".

This also brings the result of the intuitive export transaction. The data show that the Canton Fair has made a turnover of US $10 billion 630 million for exports along the "one belt" road, an increase of 9.9%, which is obviously better than the whole and accounts for 35.8% of the total turnover.

Further, ASEAN buyers increased by 4.79% over the same period, including Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and Kampuchea, with an increase of 10.75%, 9.08%, 23.71%, 4.4% and 8.83% respectively.

At the same time, the main tourist destination is also relatively stable. The number of buyers from China's ten largest trading partners account for 64% of the total number, up 2.56 percentage points over the same period last year. The former 20 largest source countries accounted for 61.44% of the total number of people, such as South Korea, Thailand, Russia, Malaysia, Japan, Vietnam, Brazil, Bangladesh and other countries.

Xu Bing said that the diversification, globalization and quality of the purchasers' sources can effectively help enterprises consolidate the traditional market, vigorously develop new markets, optimize the layout of the global market, and achieve a higher quality market diversification.

Chen Wanling said that we should not ignore the fact that the trade of "one belt and one road" is still a smaller proportion of the foreign trade of our country or Canton Fair. The base is small and easy to grow rapidly, but its influence and driving effect are still limited. At the same time, the global economic weakness has an impact on the demand of the countries along the belt and road, which is also prone to fluctuations.

"In a word, the market of" one belt and one road "needs to be further cultivated. Enterprises and governments must act and be patient. The key is to identify the needs of the other side and win a win-win space, and products must be marketable. Chen Wanling said.