As the market entity with the largest number of "answers" in the epidemic examination——
Foreign trade companies are more active in innovation and change
Dong Bijuan, reporter of Economic Daily and China Economic Net
After the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia, my country has introduced a series of policies to help foreign trade companies overcome difficulties, such as reducing taxes and fees, accelerating export tax rebates, guiding financial institutions to increase foreign trade credit, and supporting export products to be sold domestically.
With policy support, foreign trade companies actively cultivate their "internal strength" and continuously enhance their anti-risk capabilities and enhance their competitiveness by exploring domestic markets, strengthening technological innovation, and optimizing internal management procedures.
Since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, foreign trade companies have faced greater pressure and challenges. In the early stage, they faced the distress of personnel difficulties and high financial pressure, and later encountered the challenges of customers canceling orders and exporting to domestic sales. In the big test of the epidemic, Foreign trade companies are undoubtedly the market entities with the largest "answers".
What is the current situation of foreign trade enterprises?
What kind of growth has been achieved in this unprecedented challenge?
The Economic Daily reporter recently conducted an investigation and interview.
Production and operation are gradually improving
Chongqing Boli Biological Technology Co., Ltd. is a foreign trade company that mainly exports high-standard pet snacks.
The company's general manager Wang Chen told reporters that the most difficult period was the period from mid-January to early March.
At that time, logistics and shipments were all stopped, but the basic operating expenses of the company, such as personnel salaries, required expenses.
After the resumption of work at the end of February, the prices of almost all raw materials have risen, and the suppliers have requested that they must be cashed in stock or delivered first.
"The biggest problem at that time was funding!" Wang Chen said. Fortunately, in March, they enjoyed the "increased credit" launched by the local government and banks of 1 million yuan, which eased the pressure on liquidity and started business on the right track.
Recently, Wang Chen has been very busy.
"Since March, the monthly order volume has been increasing. Last year, our average monthly order value was around US$250,000, and the average monthly order value from March to June this year reached US$450,000." Wang Chen said .
Ji Bin, deputy general manager of Guangzhou Yaqite Industrial Co., Ltd., said that the most difficult part was February. After experiencing the downturn from March to June, it began to recover gradually at the end of July, and the export volume in August reached 30% of the same period last year. %.
The main difficulty now is that foreign customers have no way to come and select editions on site.
At present, the company is also trying to use some overseas e-commerce platforms to expand sales, and at the same time do OEMs for some domestic brands to make up for the loss of reduced foreign trade orders.
Some tool product manufacturers with high technical barriers are relatively less affected by the epidemic.
Chongqing Runtong Technology Co., Ltd. mainly produces gasoline power and terminal products, such as small generators, etc. The products are exported to more than 70 countries.
At present, the company's sales have increased by 40% over the same period last year.
“In the short term, the epidemic has only affected some of our exports to Europe, Southeast Asia and other places. In the medium and long term, the situation facing foreign trade is still very complicated and severe. We have actively increased R&D investment to expand the domestic market.” Senior Deputy of the company General Manager Leng Wenqiang said that before the epidemic, the company's domestic sales ratio was only about 3%, and it reached 12% in the first half of this year, and plans to increase it to at least 30% in the next three years.
Effectively reap the policy dividend
After the outbreak, the state introduced a series of policies to help foreign trade companies overcome difficulties, such as reducing taxes and fees, speeding up export tax rebates, guiding financial institutions to increase foreign trade credit, and supporting export products to be sold domestically. The policy strength is unprecedented.
During the interview, the reporter found that foreign trade companies have a strong sense of gaining the benefits of these policies.
Since March this year, the State Council has increased the export tax rebate rate for 1,464 products, of which the export tax rebate rate for 1084 products has been increased to 13%.
"Increase the tax rebate rate by 3 points is equivalent to helping enterprises raise their profits." said Miao Jianzhou, a financial officer of Fujian Pengxiang Industrial Co., Ltd., and they have declared export sales of more than 28 million yuan since April. Enjoyed a tax rebate of more than 800,000 yuan, which to some extent made up for the loss of this year's sales decline.
According to data from the State Administration of Taxation, from January to July this year, tax authorities across the country handled a total of 895.3 billion yuan in export tax rebates. The average time for tax rebates nationwide has been reduced from 10 working days in 2019 to less than 8 working days, an increase of 20%.
The continuous release of the superimposed effect of tax benefits and timely export tax rebates have relieved the "thirsty" of funds for the majority of foreign trade enterprises.
Affected by the epidemic, many foreign trade companies have begun to "transition" domestic sales, but this process is not easy.
"The domestic market is completely different from the export market." Wang Chen told reporters that in general, the value chain of foreign trade companies is from raw materials to products to export ports, and the back-end market strategies, channels and end consumers Basically not involved, this is also the most difficult place for foreign trade companies to do domestic sales.
In June of this year, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Implementation Opinions on Supporting the Transfer of Export Products to Domestic Sales", proposing a number of measures such as building a platform for transferring domestic sales, accelerating market access for transferring domestic sales, and improving the level of facilitation of transferring domestic sales.
Relevant departments are also constantly optimizing and upgrading services to help foreign trade companies export to domestic sales.
"Through the comparison of value-added tax invoice data, the taxation department has helped us to receive high-quality domestic apparel sales companies." Liu Xiangrong, head of Xinma (Anhui) Garment Co., Ltd., introduced that with the help of big tax data, their company has successfully expanded Markets in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and other places.
Up to now, the company has achieved a total of 125 million yuan in sales, of which more than 80 million yuan in domestic market sales, accounting for the first time over the international market share.
"Internal strength" training is more urgent
Several heads of foreign trade companies told reporters that after experiencing the epidemic, companies have further realized the importance of practicing their "internal strength" and enhancing their ability to resist risks in all directions.
Some companies start with technological innovation, aiming at emerging areas and strive to open up markets.
Leng Wenqiang revealed that their main product, small generators, is currently targeting a number of emerging application fields such as special industries and 5G base station backup power supplies. They continue to increase research and development efforts to focus on user needs and improve products to expand more markets.
"At the same time, we are also ready to further accelerate the pace of'going out', build factories or establish branches in Vietnam, Mexico and other places, and enhance the company's ability to respond to risks with a more comprehensive international layout." Leng Wenqiang said.
"In the process of responding to the challenge of the epidemic, we have further realized the importance of technology research and development and intellectual property reserves. The accumulation of high-gold technologies and patents can enhance product competitiveness, raise the technical threshold of enterprises, and allow the market and customers to further perceive product Differentiation and uniqueness, so as to avoid homogenized price competition, and then improve the ability to resist risks." Wang Chen said that the epidemic has also made them pay more attention to the domestic market layout and the establishment of their own brand.
Some companies have further optimized their internal management processes, paying particular attention to the management of cash flow.
Ji Bin said: “Yacht has further standardized the payment process to reduce the risk of billing period. In addition, this epidemic has also made us more deeply aware of the importance of product quality and design, and we will further strengthen our production management. Quality control, and more accurately meet consumer needs according to different scenarios, so as to further enhance the competitiveness of enterprises."
As the "internal strength" of foreign trade enterprises continues to increase, my country's import and export performance has been better than expected.
Statistics released recently by the General Administration of Customs show that in August, my country's foreign trade imports and exports reached 2.88 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6%.
In the first eight months, exports of higher value-added mechanical and electrical products increased by 2.1%.
In addition, private enterprises continue to maintain their position as the main force in foreign trade.
In the first eight months, the import and export of private enterprises was 9.21 trillion yuan, an increase of 8.5% year-on-year, accounting for 45.9% of my country's total foreign trade value, an increase of 3.9% year-on-year.