Footwear Exports In Zhongshan Rise In The Doldrums

Affected by the international and domestic situation, the export situation of Zhongshan this year is very severe. In the first half of this year, exports of many traditional industries have declined considerably, and the export of footwear commodities is an exception.

Reporters recently learned from Zhongshan customs that the export of footwear commodities in Zhongshan from 1 to June was US $480 million, up 24.6% compared with the same period last year.

The export trend of footwear exports is rising. Statistics show that in the first half of this year, Zhongshan exported footwear products by processing trade to US $450 million, a significant increase of 25.8%, accounting for 95.4% of the total footwear export value of the whole city, 15 percentage points higher than the total processing trade in the whole province, while the general trade export was only 20 million US dollars, a slight increase of 2.4%.

Foreign investment enterprises are the leading export of footwear, total exports of 320 million U.S. dollars, an increase of 26%, accounting for nearly 70% of the city's total footwear exports; private enterprises also performed well, exports 150 million U. s.dollars, an increase of 22%.

In the US export, which affected the extreme recession of the subprime mortgage crisis, footwear still maintained a growth rate of 20.5%, and exports to Hongkong increased by 62.8%.

Over the same period, Zhongshan's total exports to the two places decreased by 0.2% and 2.1% respectively.

In addition, Zhongshan's export footwear products are mainly leather shoes, accounting for 79% of the total export value.

Why can Zhongshan's footwear exports rise against the trend of a sharp downturn in foreign trade? The Zhongshan customs officials think there are many reasons, and Zhongshan shoe industry has shifted to high value-added products, which is one of the most important reasons.

On the one hand, there are more regular customers in large shoe factories in Zhongshan, and OEM production is the main force. The pressure on the price of raw materials is mainly borne by brand dealers, and the brand manufacturers have substantially increased the cost of finished products, thus maintaining export growth.

According to statistics, in the first half of this year, four large footwear companies, including Zhongshan Bao Yuan shoes factory, Tong Jia shoes industry, Xinbao shoe industry and Xinyu shoe industry, exported 230 million US dollars, accounting for 45.8% of the total export value of shoes in the city.

On the other hand, the footwear industry in Zhongshan is gradually shifting to high value-added products. It is no longer a single pursuit of export volume, but a shift towards value export.

In terms of quantity, the 48 million pairs of shoes and boots in the whole city increased by only 6.7% in the first half of the year, but in terms of value, they reached 450 million dollars, a 27.5% increase.

It is highly dependent on the risks in Europe and the United States. Although the export of footwear commodities in Zhongshan in the first half of the year has been in the opposite direction, it has broken through in the gloomy foreign trade situation. But Zhongshan customs officials believe that the proportion of Zhongshan shoe processing trade is too large and so on, which greatly puzzles the development of Zhongshan shoe industry.

From 1 to June in 2008, the export of footwear commodities in Zhongshan was in an inverse trend, which mainly benefited from the large increase in the export trade of processing trade, but the export of general trade was only 20 million dollars.

"This fully shows that the independent brand of footwear products in Zhongshan is not strong enough. In this connection, there is a certain gap between Fujian footwear manufacturers and their own brand development, which is unfavorable for the long-term development of Zhongshan footwear products."

The person in charge said.

In addition, in the first half of this year, the export value of Zhongshan shoes to the United States, Hongkong and the European Union accounted for 90.6% of the total value of Zhongshan's footwear exports, and only 9.4% of them exported to other markets.

The responsible person believes that a highly concentrated market is not conducive to reducing market risk. Once the US or EU market changes, it will not be conducive to the export of footwear products in Zhongshan.

To this end, Zhongshan Customs responsible person suggested that the development of footwear products in Zhongshan to increase R & D efforts to continuously improve high-tech products and value-added, but also should vigorously develop their own brands, the formation of their own fist products, brand-name products.

In the market development, we should increase our efforts to develop new markets such as ASEAN and Africa.