General

In recent days, as the epidemic situation across the country gradually returns to normal, everything is thriving. What is the current situation of those foreign trade enterprises that have been "robbed for orders", and has their severe situation eased?

Southeast Asia orders have been placed at the end of the third quarter

Recently, Vietnamese media reported that the export orders of many enterprises have increased, and the order volume is gradually filling up. Analysts predict that Vietnam's textile and clothing exports this year are likely to exceed the established target of 42-43 billion US dollars.

According to Vietnamese media reports, in the first five months, Vietnam's textile and garment exports totaled 18.7 billion US dollars, an increase of 23.5% over the same period in 2021, and the export orders of enterprises have been placed at the end of the third quarter. Among them, Vietnamese textiles and garments have achieved considerable results in major markets such as the United States, Europe, and Japan.

The order situation of export enterprises is quite stable. But Nguyen Thi Xue Mai, deputy secretary-general of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, said that the current difficulty faced by companies is that they cannot recruit more workers to fulfill the new orders.

In addition, Vietnam has vigorously built its manufacturing industry by reducing tariffs and attracting investment through policies. In addition, the United States has used methods such as raising import tariffs on Chinese goods and setting up Sino-US trade barriers to obstruct China's export trade. In order to avoid being levied high tariffs, Chinese export companies have taken measures to bypass Vietnam.

As a member of Southeast Asian countries, Cambodia has also handed in a good report card. According to statistics from the General Administration of Customs of the country, in the first five months, Cambodia's total exports reached US$9.412 billion, a year-on-year increase of 34.5%; among which, exports of clothing, shoes and travel goods reached US$5.2 billion, accounting for 55% of total exports.

China's manufacturing industry is in trouble

In contrast, although China's textile and apparel exports have achieved year-on-year growth in the first five months, Chinese textile and apparel exporters are still faced with business problems such as order transfer and difficulty in ensuring the stability of the supply of textile and apparel raw materials. In the future, China's textile and apparel exports will continue to grow. The pressure is high.

Some experts said: "At present, the global textile industry is in the stage of transferring to Southeast Asia. Due to the obstruction of the industrial chain of domestic textile enterprises, the efficiency of textile and clothing supply has declined, and with the gradual maturity of high-end clothing industry technology in Vietnam, India and other countries, industrial transfer has appeared. Signs of acceleration, China's textile and apparel export competition is becoming increasingly fierce."

The outflow of orders is on the one hand, and on the other hand, the cost of China's manufacturing industry is shackled by external forces and continues to rise.

Analysts said that the current international situation is changing rapidly, and trade protectionism has occurred frequently in various countries around the world. Some countries have raised commodity export tax rates and even implemented commodity export bans, exacerbating the global shortage of textile raw materials.

This approach not only raised the cost of imported cotton in China, but also affected the supply stability of the textile industry chain. China's textile and apparel export enterprises encountered difficulties in their operations.

Some cotton spinning companies have reported that due to export requirements, some textile and apparel export orders have to be converted to imported cotton production, resulting in a sharp increase in the number of pure US cotton orders from May to June, but the price of US cotton to the factory is about 24,000 yuan / ton. High costs have greatly reduced the profit margins of spinning companies using imported cotton.

The output of China's light industrial products ranks first in the world

However, the recent news released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology can be said to be refreshing for foreign trade companies. The Ministry said that in 2021, the added value of my country's light industry will account for 16.9% of the national industrial added value, and the output of more than 100 categories of light industrial products will rank first in the world.

It is reported that light industry involves 20 major categories and 68 medium-level industries of the national economy, driving 35 million jobs across the board. Among the 3.847 million manufacturing enterprises in 2020, 720,000 are light industry manufacturing enterprises.

He Yaqiong, director of the Consumer Goods Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that due to factors such as frequent domestic epidemics and severe and complex international situations, light industry is facing difficulties such as rising raw material prices, poor logistics, and shrinking demand.

However, this impact and impact are phased and temporary. She said: "my country's light industry system is complete, complete with complete facilities and strong resilience, especially as a rigid industry in the fields of food, clothing, housing, use, transportation, etc., the fundamentals of long-term improvement have not changed, and some areas have also achieved certain growth. ."

From January to May, the added value of batteries, toys, wine manufacturing and other industries all achieved double-digit growth; the cumulative export value of 8 key commodities in light industry was 188.7 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 9.3%, and the export growth rate of luggage, shoes and toys exceeded 20%.

In addition, Yiwu, known as "the world's small commodity capital", also announced gratifying results.

According to Yiwu Customs statistics, in the first five months, the total value of foreign trade in Yiwu City reached 183.14 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 43.7%; exports were 167.83 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 39.8%; imports were 15.31 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 107.3%, with high growth rates respectively. In Zhejiang Province, and the year-on-year growth rate of exports is also higher than that of many Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam.