Text/Hong Xiaochun
Recently, various places have successively set the time for the resumption of school, which means that the domestic epidemic situation has basically passed, and all walks of life have gradually recovered. However, there may be some companies in each industry that are still struggling in the "severe cold". This group is foreign trade companies. Currently, almost all foreign trade companies (except for exporting anti-epidemic materials) are facing a life-and-death test.
一
The international epidemic spreads, and the risk of economic downturn intensifies
As of today, the cumulative number of confirmed cases of overseas epidemics has exceeded 2.4 million, resulting in more than 160,000 deaths. The International Monetary Fund predicts that the global economy will shrink by 3% this year. Therefore, it is inevitable that the foreign trade industry will suffer a heavy blow. On April 14, the General Administration of Customs released data that in the first quarter of 2020, my country’s total export value of goods trade was 3.33 trillion yuan, a decrease of 11.4%.
Review of the trade and export situation in this quarter: In the early days of the domestic epidemic outbreak in January and February, foreign trade companies withstood the "internal worries" of "there were orders but no one to fulfill them"; in March, following the outbreak of overseas epidemics, Some customers have collectively canceled their orders. It is now mid-to-late April, and foreign trade companies are still facing the "foreign trouble" of "someone is making work but there are no orders." Some people in the industry jokingly said that the most difficult people in 2020 will definitely be those in foreign trade - surviving the first half of the domestic epidemic war, but also having to accompany the second half overseas; in the overseas economic downturn As risks intensify, foreign traders who have to play "overtime" are seriously exhausted.
As a ceramic industry that exports over 20 million tons of overseas goods on average every year, in the past quarter, the number of product exports was only 3.581 million tons, a decrease of 19.2% compared to the same period last year; the total export volume was 3856.8 million tons. million US dollars, a decrease of 24.5% compared with the same period last year. I believe many people have also noticed that the export value in March increased by 4.72% compared with the same period last year, which seems to convey good news.interest? However, according to the person in charge of a foreign trade company in Foshan, the costs of packaging, transportation, tariffs, etc. for product exports have increased this year, and prices have also risen relatively. This figure is actually reasonable. For enterprises, the overall situation is still not optimistic.
二
Orders are in short supply and foreign trade companies have announced a long holiday
Recently, a holiday notice hit the internet. An electronics company in Zhuhai City issued an announcement saying that due to the serious impact of the epidemic on its business, the company has not received production orders for half a month in a row, and decided to start a company-wide holiday for half a year on April 20. Following layoffs and salary cuts, foreign trade companies have finally embarked on a long road to vacation. Some even have no fixed time for resumption of work, which feels like "gone and never to come back."
▲Factory "holiday" announcement, please read carefully!
"If we haven't received production orders for half a month, we have to take a half-year holiday? If there are a lot of people in the ceramics industry who haven't received orders for a month, wouldn't they all close down?" In this regard, Mr. A, a ceramics foreign trade person, said it was incredible.
Mr. B, who exports production equipment, also complained, "Since the beginning of the new year, I have been unable to participate in many international exhibitions, and my business has not been able to receive new orders. Last year, some orders were withdrawn by customers, and some were not withdrawn. There was no request or request. No, production and delivery is another problem.”
When the author asked: "Will you stop work?" Mr. A and Mr. B both gave a negative answer. The general meaning is that by sending anti-epidemic materials to partners, we can still sell some goods; if there is less overseas sales, we will switch to domestic sales, and there will always be a way.
三
Optimize the business environment and encourage attention to "friendly" markets
Following the above sentence "There are always ways", we have also seen the country's efforts to optimize the port business environment. On April 10, the China Building and Sanitary Ceramics Association issued a notice stating that in order to help China’s ceramic tile sanitary ware export tradeIn order for enterprises to coordinate and solve difficulties in import and export,the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has established a special class for international logistics to help enterprises solve related problems.
In addition to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's efforts to help solve logistics problems, companies exporting products to friendly trade areas also enjoy preferential treatment through customs clearance facilitation. Take the ceramic products exported from Chaozhou as an example. Ordinary exported goods will be levied a 6.0% CIF import tariff. However, as the 10th anniversary of the official implementation of the China-Peru Free Trade Agreement in 2020, companies holding original documents of the China-Peru Free Trade Agreement With a certificate of origin, you can get zero-tariff VIP treatment. Recently, Chaozhou Santai Ceramics Co., Ltd. has applied for this China-Peru Free Trade Agreement Certificate of Origin, and daily-use porcelain tableware exported overseas has entered the Peruvian market with zero tariff. The relevant person in charge of Santai Ceramics revealed to the author: We went to apply for it as soon as we learned about this preferential policy, which is very beneficial to improving the price advantage and market competitiveness of our products.
Of course, ASEAN is indispensable for regions that maintain friendly trade relations with our country. Since the beginning of the year, Fujian Province’s ceramic product exports have risen against the trend, with the surge in ASEAN exports becoming the main driving force. According to Xiamen Customs, while the province’s main export commodities have declined to varying degrees, ceramic products achieved a total export value of 2.53 billion yuan from January to February, a significant increase of 35.6%; among which, A total of 550 million yuan of ceramic products were exported to ASEAN, a sharp increase of 52.4%.
Li Kuiwen, spokesman of the General Administration of Customs and director of the Statistics and Analysis Department, said that although the overall foreign trade import and export showed a downward trend in the first quarter, my country's foreign trade import and export to countries along the "Belt and Road" increased by 3.2% year-on-year; among which, to ASEAN Imports and exports amounted to 991.34 billion yuan, an increase of 6.1%, accounting for 15.1% of my country's total foreign trade value, marking that ASEAN has surpassed the EU to become my country's largest trading partner.
According to the "2019 Import and Export Analysis of China's Building Ceramics and Sanitary Ware Industry" released by the China Building Ceramics and Sanitary Ware Industry,In 2019, China's export volume of ceramic tiles to developed countries and regions such as Europe, the United States, and Japan and The proportion of exports to ASEAN, Africa and other countries along the Belt and Road is increasing year by year. The export market of Chinese ceramics has undergone tremendous changes. So, encourage foreigners toTrading companies have turned their attention to overseas markets that maintain friendly trade relations with my country.
四
The Canton Fair becomes an "online" fair, Are you ready?
A few days ago, The Ministry of Commerce announced that the 127th China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair) will be held online from June 15th to 24th for a period of 10 days. It is understood that the Online Canton Fair is mainly B2B, supplemented by B2C. All 25,000 companies and exhibits are online and distributed according to the original physical exhibition areas; a cross-border e-commerce area is also set up to encourage qualified companies to participate. will; each company has an independent "10X24 hours" live broadcast room, which can provide both individual face-to-face and group-oriented live broadcasts. As soon as this news came out, everyone was joking: the Canton Fair has become an "online" fair, andforeign trade salesmen have to transform into anchors.
In fact, as early as 2013, the Canton Fair established an e-commerce platform. After seven years of explosive development of my country’s e-commerce platform, this year this event with a huge trade volume and international influence has been moved online (as of the 126th session , the Canton Fair’s cumulative export turnover is approximately US$1,412.6 billion), it is certainly not just an “online shopping + live streaming” model for consumers on e-commerce platforms. It is foreseeable that an online trade fair that subverts traditional cognition is coming to usThis will be a great opportunity for hundreds of thousands of foreign trade companies and millions of employees around the world. Brand-new opportunities and challenges will inevitably cause some companies to overtake others, while those companies that cannot keep up with the pace of transformation may be completely left behind.
Therefore, in the unpredictable year of 2020, if foreign traders do not adapt to the development and make changes and transformations, they will have no choice but to "go home and farm".
