Under The Changing Situation, Zhejiang Foreign Trade Is Breaking Through

Zhejiang's foreign trade situation is changing quietly. Since the third quarter, the production capacity of many enterprises is still not enough.

Such a change in wind direction can also be seen from the autumn Canton Fair held in late October. At the exhibition, many foreign trade salesmen appeared to be somewhat "ambivalent" -- while they were busy receiving orders in wechat "circle of friends", they were "meeting" new customers online, but they were soliciting orders for shipment in the coming year.

The same is the online Canton Fair. This year's spring Canton Fair and autumn Canton Fair have experienced "ice and fire". In the first half of the year, enterprises made great efforts to prepare for the online Canton Fair. However, due to the impact of the epidemic situation, the results of receiving orders were not so good. Nowadays, some enterprises have too many orders in hand, so they can't make production, so there are still a lot of online orders.

What kind of extreme test has Zhejiang's foreign trade experienced behind the change of orders in the autumn Canton Fair? At present, the hot foreign trade orders can help enterprises to fill the "hole" in the first half of the year? Facing the situation of epidemic prevention and control in autumn and winter, how should foreign trade enterprises deal with it calmly?

Embracing opportunities on the cloud

The new order can't be numbered at the moment

In the first half of the year, when the first online Canton Fair was held, Leo Group Zhejiang Pump Co., Ltd. could be said to have "launched the whole line", and almost all the foreign trade salesmen devoted themselves to the exhibition; in the autumn, Leo only sent a few salesmen to record and broadcast the exhibits introduction films and reply to customers' e-mails. Tong Peili, the company's business manager, told reporters: "it's too late for salesmen to receive orders now, and the energy they can put into the Canton Fair is naturally limited."

At present, many foreign trade enterprises in Zhejiang are ushering in the "harvest season" of orders. The exhibitors tend to be more flexible in the form of production and video broadcasting.

In addition to changes in the foreign trade situation, enterprises' more abundant online exhibition experience also reduces the number of participants required. Ma Lifang, deputy general manager of Zhejiang National Garment Technology Group Co., Ltd., told reporters that after the spring online Canton Fair, they have been able to skillfully use 3D display, live broadcast and other means. As a result, they had prepared for the Spring Fair for two months, but the number of people who put in this time was less than half, and the preparation time was also shortened by half.

Investment in less energy, but many enterprises said that the exhibition has achieved remarkable results. Take "National Apparel" as an example, the data from the backstage show that there are dozens of customers entering their exhibition hall every day, and there are more intention orders than the last Guangzhou Fair. On the other hand, it is more convenient for Ma Lifang to shop online than before.

Receiving orders depends on the flow of the platform itself, which is an important change of the current Canton Fair. LV Jianfeng, sales manager of Zhengyang science and Technology Co., Ltd., told reporters that during the spring Canton Fair, they "brought their own flow" into the fair. In the early stage, they invited a large number of old customers to watch the exhibition online, hoping to enhance their willingness to place orders. This time, the old customers have been actively contacting them to place an order, and their own traffic of the Canton fair platform has become the focus of their orders.

According to the experience of his first exhibition, Lu Jianfeng also arranged for different periods of time. In the morning, they mainly present products focusing on the Middle East market; in the afternoon, when European customers just go to work, they focus on new products for European customers.

In the past two days, outside the warehouse of Zhejiang Huaxin Home Textile Co., Ltd., located in Keqiao, Shaoxing, hundreds of thousands and millions of products have been packed and sent to Europe and America. But unlike in the past, the new orders they received at the Canton Fair could not be listed for a while. Shen Yahong, the executive director of the enterprise, told reporters that the main delivery at present is the orders postponed in the first half of the year, "the orders of the Canton Fair should be arranged at least in November or even later in order to produce in succession.".

Industry differentiation is obvious

Textile, machinery situation eye-catching, outdoor goods recovery slow

In the past two days, Hu Ligang, who had just participated in the online Canton Fair, was busy participating in the local offline professional exhibition in Keqiao. Hu Ligang is the business manager of a leading warp knitting enterprise in Keqiao. When contacting him in the first half of the year, it was the spring Canton Fair. At that time, Hu Ligang and his colleagues all rushed online and were looking forward to orders. Now, their orders in hand have been arranged to March next year, and the orders received at the Canton Fair will also have to wait until the end of the year or even next year.

With the depletion of inventory in the foreign market, many foreign merchants began to place orders intensively. In Shaoxing, a big textile city, the recovery of foreign trade orders in the textile industry is particularly obvious. "Even if the workshop spins 24 hours a day, we still have no time to produce." Hu said that after September, they are basically carrying out overload production at 110% and 120% capacity.

Not only textile, machinery and equipment manufacturing and other high-tech products export situation is also eye-catching. According to the statistics of Hangzhou Customs, the export of high-tech products in the first three quarters increased by 21.6% year on year.

In Taizhou road and bridge, Zhejiang Kema Power Machinery Co., Ltd. predicted the opportunity after the epidemic. Jiang Weidong, manager of the company's foreign trade department, said that since July, they have made additional investment to upgrade two old production lines. With its new production line and more than 200 employees working overtime, KOMA is now able to produce 1000 motors a day, double its previous output. But even so, KOMA's production capacity is still stretched - orders from Russia, Africa and Southeast Asia from around the world total more than 100000 motors, enough for them to produce for more than three months.

At the same time, the differentiation between industries is also obviously intensified. Compared with textile, machinery and other industries, the recovery speed of luggage, outdoor products and other industries is relatively slow. Wei shuanhu, business manager of Zhejiang bubule bags Co., Ltd., told reporters that their company is a foreign trade enterprise mainly engaged in travel bags. In previous years, the export scale was tens of millions of yuan, but affected by the epidemic situation, the overall export volume this year has shrunk by at least 30%.

"Although a lot of orders have come back since June, the overall market for luggage has not yet fully recovered." Wei shuanhu said that even now, the production capacity of enterprises has only recovered to 89% of the previous level.

At present, some enterprises with a sharp increase in orders also said that the export of the whole year will decrease by several percent. Hua Xin home textile administrative director Shen Yahong told reporters that although the company is currently in a state of booming production and sales, due to the excessive reduction in exports in the first half of the year, the company's annual exports may still be reduced by about 15%. "After all, the production capacity of enterprises is limited. It is difficult to level the whole year by relying on the last few months."

Industrial chain may be restructured

Business philosophy should be changed from "selling in producing areas" to "selling real estate"

The reporter found that Zhejiang's foreign trade is showing a rapid recovery momentum. The latest data released by Hangzhou Customs also confirms this point: in the third quarter, the export of the whole province increased by 14.4% year-on-year.

However, facing the rapid growth of orders, Zhu Libin, the international sales director of nori Intelligent Equipment Co., Ltd., is still quite rational. "In the third quarter, our orders have increased by 15% over the same period last year, and the orders in hand have been arranged to December." But in his opinion, these orders are just a release of the backlog in the first half of the year, and there is still great uncertainty about whether the follow-up orders can keep up.

With the overall recovery of foreign trade, some foreign trade enterprises that have previously moved to China have turned their attention to export once again. But Zhu Libin said that nori's determination to open up the domestic demand market will not waver. "After the baptism of the epidemic, enterprises will put domestic sales to an unprecedented important height." He said that at present, their company's foreign trade export accounts for about 65%. In the future, they will further increase the proportion of domestic sales and enhance their ability to resist risks.

The uncertainty of epidemic prevention and control in autumn and winter is another important factor that many foreign trade enterprises are worried about. You Chao, a senior designer of Zhejiang Apollo Motorcycle Manufacturing Co., Ltd., told reporters that from the perspective of the whole industry, the export of motorcycles is growing rapidly. Since May, the company's orders have doubled, and the orders in hand of enterprises have been arranged to May and June of next year. But he is worried: if the second wave of the epidemic comes, will there be a large-scale extension of orders as at the beginning of the epidemic?

In order to reduce the uncertainty caused by the epidemic situation, Youchao team has made great efforts in products, hoping to use better products to enhance customer stickiness and reduce the risk of order fluctuation. As a result, they launched five new products in the autumn Canton Fair, and demonstrated the product performance through live interviews.

During this period of time, the RMB exchange rate rose sharply, while the prices of raw materials for production increased significantly. This makes many foreign trade enterprises in frequent orders at the same time, more or less on the heart of some shadow. Yang Wenyong, general manager of Taizhou Star Cold Chain Co., Ltd., calculated an account for the reporter: "the appreciation of RMB has increased the cost of enterprises by about 3%, and the rise of raw materials has also increased the production cost by 3-4%

However, compared with the short-term factors such as exchange rate and raw material rise, Yang Wenyong is more concerned about the long-term impact of abnormal order fluctuations on foreign trade. Yang Wenyong's analysis: the sharp increase in enterprise orders is not only due to the continuous release of overstocked demand in the foreign market, but also, more importantly, the overseas supply chain has problems under the epidemic situation. Take the cold chain industry as an example. At present, the overall production capacity of global production enterprises is estimated to be only 34% of that before the epidemic, so many foreign enterprises have transferred their market share to China.

It is supposed to be a happy thing to have a higher market share, but Yang Wenyong has his own worry: the industrial chain problems exposed in the epidemic may make some countries pay more attention to the safety of industrial chain after the epidemic, thus accelerating the reconstruction of their own industrial chain. He believes that in this regard, Zhejiang foreign trade enterprises should see a longer-term impact, change their business philosophy from "sales in production areas" to "sales of real estate" in the past, and actively participate in the global industrial chain reconstruction that may further accelerate. After preparing for the epidemic, Yang Wenyong accelerated the industrial layout in the United States, Mexico and other places to hedge the impact of industrial chain reconstruction.