"Recovery" is not waiting, textile enterprises are fully committed to stabilizing exports

"In the first quarter of 2023, China's textile and clothing foreign trade enterprises face severe challenges." Zhu Yuxing, head of the Information Department of the China Textile Import and Export Chamber of Commerce, said. "Affected by tight monetary policies in Europe and the United States, overseas demand has contracted sharply, while the speed of the transfer of orders from the United States and the European Union outside China has accelerated."

Last year, China's textile and clothing exports showed a significant trend of high before and low after. The export volume in the first quarter increased by 11.2% year-on-year; In the second quarter, the export volume increased by 12.3%, reaching a year high; The pace of growth slowed significantly in the third quarter, dropping to 5.6%; In the fourth quarter, it fell rapidly, with a year-on-year decrease of 14.8%. This also indicates that textile and clothing exports will face greater downward pressure in the first quarter of this year and the first half of this year. Faced with difficulties, what should China's textile and clothing export enterprises do? Many textile enterprises have stated that they should make every effort to innovate products, seize the market, seize opportunities, and strive to achieve a "year of recovery" and "year of orders" for exports.

Gains from overseas exhibitions

"We recently participated in the 24th China Textile and Garment Trade Exhibition held in New York, mainly displaying home furnishings, meeting many excellent overseas customers, and signing many high-quality orders, including 45% of orders from the United States alone." Wei Aichun, President and Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Jiangsu Suhao Holding Group Co., Ltd., said that in 2022, the total foreign trade volume of enterprises increased by 6.49% year-on-year, with export business mainly concentrated in the United States Canada and Europe.

"Since this year, in addition to participating in professional exhibitions, we have also gone to Spain, France and other countries to negotiate orders and actively carry out customized services for different customer needs." Wei Aichun said that recently, the enterprise also plans to go to Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and other countries for in-depth investigation, and on the basis of continuing to deeply cultivate traditional markets such as Europe and the United States, we will increase efforts to develop emerging markets such as countries along the "the Belt and Road".

At the recently held Las Vegas Spring International Clothing, Fabrics, and Footwear Expo in the United States, more than 40 textile and clothing enterprises from Jinjiang, Fujian Province joined forces to participate. "This is our first overseas exhibition in nearly three years, and the company has won 9 standard booths at the Las Vegas exhibition at one go, making a great effort. We are very confident in our product quality and service, and the price is also attractive to European customers. We hope to take advantage of this overseas opportunity to expand the wider market," said Liu Haisen, business director of Jinjiang Natural Chemical Fiber Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

Liu Haisen said that many enterprises have been unable to communicate face to face with overseas customers for three years, and customer and market demands have undergone significant changes, which are different from expectations. "If you don't come to visit us for three years, you won't be close anymore. We hope that by participating on the spot, you can not only win orders for real gold and silver, but also repair the connection with the global market as soon as possible." Liu Haisen said.

Bao Haifeng, sales manager of Zhejiang Fantesi International Trade Co., Ltd., has just participated in the 26th China Textile and Clothing Trade Exhibition in Paris, which was recently held. He said, "We mainly develop and sell knitted fabrics. This time, we brought jacquard fabrics and other products. We received 30 to 40 buyers during the half day of the exhibition. In addition to many old customers placing orders, we also met many new customers." Bao Haifeng introduced that the company's export in 2022 was 1.883 billion yuan, an increase of 11.4% compared to the same period.

"Not long ago, we participated in the International Spring Consumer Goods Expo held in Birmingham, England. Going abroad to participate in the exhibition filled us with harvest, with customers' on-site intention orders exceeding $2 million. The main linen fabrics, linen handbags, and other products were quite popular in the local market at this exhibition." You Qun, General Manager of Zhejiang Qingyun Textile Technology Co., Ltd., said that the enterprise is very confident in opening the British market.

"In April this year, we also plan to participate in the European Denim Garment Purchasing and Trade Exhibition in Amsterdam." Li Shenglin, Chairman of Fengze Textile Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Fengze Textile") in Foshan City, Guangdong Province, said that Fengze Textile is actively preparing for its annual exhibition plan. "Over the years, Fengze Textile has continued to develop functional fabrics suitable for different wearing scenarios, and its products have entered the Paris PV Exhibition, the Paris International Facial Accessories Procurement Exhibition (Texworld), and expanded its target market. Currently, overseas orders for enterprises have been scheduled for April." Li Shenglin said that in 2023, Fengze Textile will continue to pursue the high-end product line, with an estimated annual output value of about 30%.

Quick action to stabilize the order and ensure the chain

After the first round of overseas "order grabbing" this year, textile and clothing export enterprises continued to actively stabilize the insurance policy chain after resuming work during the Spring Festival holiday.

Jiangsu Sumeida Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Sumeida") recently signed a new textile procurement agreement with Amazon of the United States, with an order amount exceeding ten million dollars. "The procurement project signed with Amazon this time covers multiple advantageous categories such as home textiles, focusing on green and low-carbon products. Since cooperating with Amazon in 2019, Sumida has continued to optimize product quality and further expand cooperative categories. The order amount has maintained a year-on-year growth trend, becoming one of Amazon's stable textile suppliers." said Wang Shentao, Assistant General Manager of Sumida. Wang Shentao said that in recent years, Sumida has closely followed the trend of green and low-carbon transformation, continuously enriched the categories of green and environmental protection products, and created distinctive competitive advantages. In 2022, the company's export of green environmental protection products increased by more than 90% year-on-year. In 2023, Sumida will continue to consolidate and optimize its overseas layout, striving to create a digital driven international industrial chain and supply chain.

In recent days, Chen Deping, the general manager of Suzhou Yabo Textile Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yabo Textile"), has been busy holding video meetings with business managers based abroad to discuss plans to visit overseas customers, especially those who have not met for a long time. "In 2022, Yabai Textile achieved an export performance of over 80 million US dollars, a significant increase compared to previous years." Chen Depin said that at present, overseas orders for Yabai Textile have been scheduled for June. With the implementation of the overseas visit plan, the export trade figure of Yabai Textile is expected to exceed US $100 million this year.

Tianyun Textile Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Tianyun Textile"), located in Zunyi, Guizhou Province, has recently focused on production at full capacity and made every effort to stabilize exports. "After the Spring Festival, our company's personnel arrival rate and equipment operation rate have basically reached full production. In January, the output was around 360 tons, with exports accounting for one-third of the market, mainly targeting the Southeast Asian market." Cai Guangyu, director of Tianyun Textile Production Plant, said: "We are an enterprise specializing in the production of clothing and sewing threads, fabric and ribbon threads, and other products. In 2022, our output was more than 4000 tons, with foreign trade exports of 2.239 million US dollars. The overall sales situation is good. Currently, we are fully committed to producing the Southeast Asian orders received before the year, to ensure that the products are delivered to customers on time."

"Deeply exploring the African market is the top priority of the textile sector's work plan and pilot reform plan for the next five years. In 2022, our sales of textile and clothing products in Africa have exceeded $100 million." Tong Jisheng, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Orient International (Group) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Orient International"), said that this year, we will further expand the African market and expand sales to market segments. To this end, at the beginning of this year, Oriental International successively dispatched three teams to conduct research in more than 20 countries in Africa, selecting various major fabric distribution centers in Africa, trying to arrange trade outlets, and establishing sales networks. Based on actual conditions such as market maturity, gradually establish wholesale sales points and overseas warehouses to fully integrate into the local market as a carrier.

Tong Jisheng introduced that Oriental International is planning to send additional overseas teams to Vietnam, Argentina, Colombia, Panama and other countries and regions in the first half of this year. In addition to participating in local exhibitions, it will also visit local textile enterprises, visit local customers, investigate textile exports in the free trade zone, participate in entrepot trade cooperation, and other work. While seeking trade opportunities, it will also timely carry out beneficial attempts and exploration of trade innovation. In addition, in addition to organizing and implementing the preliminary preparation work for warehouse purchases, the working group dispatched by Oriental International to Australia also actively contacts and visits new and old customers to enhance mutual understanding and trust, seek cooperation opportunities, and explore new business models.

Positive policies boost confidence

In order to achieve steady progress in economic work, many government departments have made stabilizing foreign trade an important task.

This year, Fujian Shishi Bureau of Commerce has closely adhered to the central task of "comprehensively building a modern city of commerce and trade", organizing and carrying out the "exhibition to exhibition" action, including the provincial and municipal level organization of the package exhibition action; Closely connect with professional exhibition institutions and release exhibition information through websites, WeChat groups, etc; Plan and hold a "micro exhibition" in the form of "supply and procurement promotion+sample display+on-site contact+on-site investigation", and invite international high-quality purchasers or agents to achieve accurate supply and procurement docking. Shishi also launched a series of cross-border e-commerce activities targeting emerging markets such as the Middle East and South America, such as "Little Shishi Big World", and created a window for receiving orders and grasping orders that serves "general trade+market procurement+cross-border e-commerce".

"We arrived in Paris in advance to arrange the exhibition, prepared more than 100 fabric samples for exhibition, and many local enterprises offered cooperation. Recently, Fujian Ange Import and Export Trade Co., Ltd., with the support of the Shishi Municipal Bureau of Commerce, participated in the 2023 Paris International Clothing and Fabric Purchasing Exhibition with more than 20 export textile enterprises.". This is the first international exhibition attended by a large group after Shishi launched the "All Exhibitions Should Be Taken" campaign. "We also flew directly from Paris to the United States, following a group of more than 30 textile companies from Shishi to participate in the Las Vegas Spring Expo and strive for business opportunities," said Ding Lingling, an overseas sales representative of the company

This year, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, issued the "Double Hundred, Double Thousand Market Expansion" measure, and all regions responded positively by organizing enterprises within their jurisdiction to participate in the exhibition at sea as soon as possible to find more market resources. In order to encourage enterprises to expand their exports, Xiaoshan District will implement gradient and segmented incentives for enterprises whose export volume in the first quarter of 2023 exceeds the provincial average by more than 5 percentage points (inclusive) and is growing. For those who participate in overseas exhibitions, a subsidy of up to 100% of the booth fee will be granted. For business activities such as overseas exhibitions and customer visits by foreign trade enterprises in the region, a certain proportion of "subsidies" for round-trip economy class air tickets will be given, with a maximum of 20000 yuan per person.

"The construction period of the order brought back this time has already been scheduled for May." Chen Zhaodi, the chairman of Hangzhou Shengce Clothing Co., Ltd., said that since the middle of December last year, she has followed the "group going to sea to grab orders" action organized by the relevant departments of the Zhejiang Provincial Government to successively expand the market in Italy, Indonesia, and Japan, and participated in the Frankfurt Home Textile Exhibition in Germany, with negotiations on receiving orders in full swing.

Shandong has also recently released relevant policies and measures to promote stability and quality in foreign trade. The Shandong Provincial Department of Commerce has also formulated and issued the "2023 Overseas Hundred Exhibition Market Development Plan", arranging 130 exhibition projects, and fully helping enterprises seize orders and expand the market. It is understood that this year, Shandong will focus on enhancing the development of the RCEP market, and arrange 37 RCEP market exhibitions, including 15 in Japan and South Korea. It will focus on promoting enterprises in industries such as textile and clothing to make good use of relevant policies of RCEP, stabilize the export scale, and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results in the industrial chain with RCEP members.

From: https://www.tnc.com.cn/info/c-001001-d-3729426.html