Yiwu's' off-season 'orders witness China's foreign trade' upward curve '
In June, Yiwu City, Zhejiang Province, was hit by a "heat wave" of commercial vitality. In the Christmas Supplies Zone of Zone 1 of Yiwu International Trade City, Christmas tree lights are shining brightly, and various exquisite ornaments are dazzling. Merchants are busy verifying orders, organizing samples, and connecting with overseas merchants
This busy scene of summer rush to produce winter festival goods clearly reflects the resilience and vitality of Yiwu's foreign trade. And this cross seasonal production and sales boom is far more than just a single track for Christmas supplies. Looking at the entire Yiwu International Trade City, a variety of categories such as home furnishings, craft accessories, and daily necessities are flourishing, and overseas orders are pouring in.
Taking Yiwu as a window, we can see the solid foundation of China's current foreign trade: innovation and upgrading open up value-added space, industrial chain clusters build supply confidence, and global diversified layout disperses external risks. Although the global trade environment is complex and ever-changing, China's foreign trade still maintains a steady and positive trend, continuously releasing strong growth momentum.
Transitioning from "volume price competition" to "value-added competition"
As the world's largest distribution center for Christmas supplies, Yiwu is experiencing a "off-season" production and sales boom.
This year's Spring Festival has just passed, and old overseas customers have been sending orders one after another. Currently, the delivery of orders has been scheduled until the end of August, "said Zhuang Yanqiao, the owner of Xingda Christmas Craft Gift Shop in Yiwu International Trade City. While quickly organizing the Christmas balls and bow ties hanging on the wall, she told a reporter from Securities Daily," Since May, we have entered the busiest shipping peak of the year, especially for orders sent to Europe and South America, which have longer transportation times. All goods need to be shipped before the end of July
Faced with rapidly changing market demands both domestically and internationally, seemingly ordinary decorative items have quietly undergone quality upgrades.
The wall mounted LED abyss tunnel light is our new self-developed product and also the best-selling product exported by the factory this year. ”Long Xijin, the marketing director of Little Angel Christmas Craft Factory, told Securities Daily reporters that the market response to the new product far exceeded expectations. The vast majority of European and Latin American merchants who visited this year are willing to purchase, and this product alone has contributed nearly 20% of the factory's new orders.
Multiple self-developed products are selling well, which cannot be separated from the long-term stable R&D investment of the enterprise. Long Xijin stated that his company invests around 20% of its revenue in research and development, and regularly conducts technological iterations and product updates.
In the past, Yiwu's small commodities relied on standardized mass production and low-priced volume to open up the global market. However, with the intensification of industry competition at home and abroad, the drawbacks of homogeneous and low-priced competition have become increasingly prominent. In this context, a large number of merchants are either focusing on customized services or increasing their efforts in original self research to stimulate new demand.
In the early years of doing foreign trade business, we fought for low prices and high volume. Now, in order to stabilize orders and retain customers, we rely more on excellent quality, "Xiang Lili, the general manager of Yiwu Zuoxi Sports Goods Factory, who has been deeply involved in the sports goods industry for more than 20 years, told reporters
The factory is simultaneously focusing on both raw materials and design: targeted improvement of material and process in the raw material production process, comprehensively enhancing the wear resistance, waterproof performance, and fabric density of ball products, and consolidating the core advantage of product durability; In terms of exterior design, we utilize professional design teams from universities to explore new and innovative ideas that align with the aesthetic trends of various overseas markets. Xiang Lili candidly stated, "In the past, we sold whatever we had, but now it's customers who make whatever they need
Sharp tools make good work. To improve the quality of their products, many companies consider equipment updates and intelligent transformations as key factors. Zhao Sport, the chairman of Shanghai Guming essence Flavor Co., Ltd., who took root in Yiwu, introduced to the reporter that essence has a wide range of applications, and there are demands in daily chemicals, fragrance, food and other fields. Since last year, its factory has gradually introduced digital intelligent devices. This type of equipment is expensive, but its production capacity is considerable, with an hourly workload equivalent to more than ten workers working for a full day. More importantly, manual feeding inevitably has errors, while automated equipment has extremely high precision and can reduce product defects and defect rates from the production source, meeting customers' complex customization needs.
More and more market entities are actively stepping out of homogeneous competition, cultivating creative design, and creating excellent products. This not only accurately responds to the personalized pursuit of young overseas consumers, but also reflects the hard power of rapid iteration and quick response to small orders in the domestic supply chain. "Xiao Hongwei, director and researcher of the Policy Simulation Laboratory of the Economic Forecasting Department of the National Information Center of the National Development and Reform Commission, believes in an interview with Securities Daily that this change strongly confirms that China's light industry foreign trade is accelerating its transformation from the past" volume price competition "to" value-added competition ".
Industrial clusters forge hard core supply capacity
The challenges of balancing cost pressures, meeting delivery deadlines, and meeting diverse customization needs are precisely the strengths of 'Yiwu Manufacturing', which has created a unique 'Yiwu Speed'.
During on-site visits, reporters found that Yiwu has formed a mature pattern of "centralized operation, decentralized production, and global marketing" characteristic industries, effectively breaking through land resource constraints and production capacity bottlenecks, and building precise division of labor and efficient linkage for trade side drainage and order acceptance, and production side full domain collaboration.
Our factory grew up locally in Yiwu! "Song Guanghui, the chairman of Zhejiang Wenbo Daily Necessities Co., Ltd., also known as the" King of Compressed Bags, "told Securities Daily reporters that in 2009, he rented a factory of over 4000 square meters in the Qingkou Industrial Park in Yiwu and invested more than 2 million yuan to build a production line, forming a" front store, back factory "model to keep up with the market, reduce costs and improve efficiency, flexibly accept orders, and adapt to customer needs.
He gave an example that when a customer sees a sample in the store, they may request a color change or add a logo. In the past, samples had to wait for a week before being given to customers. Now, the salesperson picks up their phone and takes a photo, then sends it to the factory group, and the factory can make the modified sample on the same day. Before the customer leaves Yiwu, the samples can be obtained, which can be described as "accepting orders in the morning, making samples in the afternoon; confirming orders, and scheduling production overnight".
The 'front store, back factory' is a highly representative form of industrial organization in Yiwu, "said Luo Yu, Secretary of the Party Branch of Yiwu Live E-commerce Association, in an interview with Securities Daily." Front stores, "represented by Yiwu International Trade City, face global buyers and accurately connect with market demand; The "back factories" scattered in Yiwu and surrounding areas such as Dongyang, Pujiang, Taizhou, etc., keep up with order dynamics and flexibly adjust product styles and production capacity; In addition, with the complete industrial supporting facilities in Zhejiang Province, an efficient collaborative system of "Yiwu receiving orders and 'Zhejiang' production" has been formed.
Ren Ziyu, the general manager of Zhejiang Aoshan Craft Products Co., Ltd., which has stores in Yiwu International Trade City and factories in Dongyang City, deeply felt the convenience brought by the high concentration of this industry. He told reporters that the main equipment, raw materials, and auxiliary materials required for current enterprise production can all be purchased in a one-stop manner within Zhejiang Province.
Compared with cross provincial procurement, the advantages of localized industrial clusters are very prominent: on the one hand, the comprehensive cost advantage is obvious. According to Ren Ziyu's calculation, when enterprises purchase raw materials within the province, the comprehensive cost is about 10% lower than outside the province, while saving large long-distance transportation and warehousing transfer costs, effectively reducing production costs. On the other hand, the supporting response efficiency is extremely high. Local suppliers are close and have convenient communication, allowing for quick supply and flexible replenishment of orders according to demand. At the same time, the long-term stable local supporting cooperation model also makes the material quality more stable and the comprehensive guarantee capability stronger.
The mature supply chain system on the manufacturing end has established cost, quality, and efficiency advantages for Yiwu products, while the efficient and diversified cross-border logistics system has helped small commodities complete the ultimate transformation from "production capacity advantage" to "overseas advantage".
As the 'sixth port area' of Ningbo Zhoushan Port, Yiwu Port is the main hub for small commodity exports. Some shipping companies can directly pick up containers, pack them, and issue bills of lading in Yiwu, which is very efficient and convenient. Jin Xiaomin, Chairman of Zhejiang Kingston Supply Chain Group Co., Ltd., told Securities Daily reporters that in addition, for some European inland customers, the company recommends railway transportation on a regular basis, with dense schedules, which can effectively hedge the uncertainty of sea freight cycles.
According to data from the Yiwu Market Development Commission, in the first five months of this year, the Zhejiang China Europe freight train (Yixin Europe) shipped over 109000 TEUs, a year-on-year increase of 1.2%.
There are no parts that cannot be bought, and there are no processes that cannot be solved. "This was the most common sentiment heard during the journalist's visit. The complete closed-loop industrial supporting system in Zhejiang Province can support enterprises to quickly complete sample making and flexible customized production, effectively compress delivery cycles, and reduce comprehensive production costs. This cluster advantage has also become the core competitiveness of Yiwu's small commodities in stabilizing overseas markets and continuously winning overseas orders.
Accelerate the development of emerging markets
From the small stalls of "chicken feathers for sugar" in the early years to the world-renowned "world supermarket" today, the subtle fluctuations of Yiwu's overseas orders and cross-border freight not only intuitively reflect the changes in global market demand, but also become an important window for observing China's foreign trade situation.
During consecutive visits by reporters, multiple businesses coincidentally stated that in the past two years, export orders from emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa have significantly increased. In the past, African customers did not receive large quantities of goods, but since last year, orders from Africa have increased sharply, "said Zhuang Yanqiao.
Huang Xiuying, a shop owner specializing in blind boxes and figurines in Zone 6 of Yiwu International Trade City, also has a similar feeling: "In terms of blind box exports, in the past few years, European and American customers accounted for the majority of orders, but now it has completely reversed. The total number of orders in Southeast Asia has exceeded that of old European and American customers
The intuitive experience of merchants echoes the foreign trade data of Yiwu. According to statistics from Yiwu Customs, the total import and export value of Yiwu reached 209.37 billion yuan in the first quarter of this year, surpassing the 200 billion yuan mark one month earlier than last year, a year-on-year increase of 25%. Among them, exports amounted to 178.61 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21.3%. From the perspective of trade partner structure, Yiwu had trade relations with over 220 countries and regions in the first quarter. Among them, the total import and export value of ASEAN increased by 68.3%; The total value of imports and exports to Africa reached 41 billion yuan, an increase of 47.3%; The total value of imports and exports to countries jointly building the "the Belt and Road" reached 147.4 billion yuan, up 29.8%.
Currently, emerging markets are in a golden period of accelerated development, with the industrialization process continuing to advance and the market demand for various commodities experiencing rapid growth. And China's manufacturing industry has strong strength, mature and efficient supply chain system, outstanding cost-effectiveness of products, and high compatibility with the consumption and procurement needs of emerging markets.
According to data from the General Administration of Customs, in the first five months of this year, China's total import and export value of goods trade was 20.68 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.3%. Among them, the total trade value between China and ASEAN was 3.52 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.6%; China's imports and exports to countries jointly building the "the Belt and Road" totaled 10.57 trillion yuan, up 13.6% year on year; China's imports and exports to African countries amounted to 1.14 trillion yuan, surpassing 1 trillion yuan for the first time in history during the same period, with a year-on-year increase of 18.2%.
Intensifying the cultivation and layout of emerging markets can not only fully unleash China's industrial advantages, but also be a core measure for China to seize market dividends and expand development space, "said Lv Yue, a professor at the National Institute of Opening up and Vice Dean of the School of International Economics and Trade at the University of International Business and Economics, in an interview with Securities Daily.
From the busy order taking of small commodity stores in Yiwu to the sailing of thousands of foreign trade enterprises across the country; From innovative and upgraded Christmas products to globally spread "Made in China"... China's foreign trade is resisting risks with diversified layouts, exploring potential through innovative transformation, and consolidating its foundation with full chain advantages. It can be foreseen that China's foreign trade will continue to steadily advance, injecting a continuous stream of momentum into the global trade recovery.