Reporter Li Chunlian Li Qiaoyu
Trainee reporter Li Wenshan
Recently, the epidemic situation in some parts of the country has been repeated, and some supply chain links have been blocked. Foreign trade companies in core foreign trade cities including Shenzhen and Shanghai have once again ushered in the big test.
Ms. Han, who has been in the foreign trade industry for more than ten years and is engaged in the export of network terminal products in Shenzhen, told the "Securities Daily" reporter that the epidemic situation in some areas has repeated, foreign trade orders have decreased, and major customers have been inactive and cautious in purchasing.
Compared with the previous two years, chip prices and shipping costs have tripled.
"Foreign trade enterprises are facing a completely different development environment this year." Associate Professor Wang Peng of Renmin University of China told the "Securities Daily" reporter, "Since this year, many domestic foreign trade orders have faced the erosion of the Southeast Asian market. At the same time, labor costs, production Costs and transportation costs continue to rise. In the short term, my country's foreign trade enterprises will suffer a certain impact."
Wang Peng also emphasized that this kind of impact is more concentrated in the low-end industrial chain. In the long run, the direction of my country's exports will gradually shift from low-end to high-end manufacturing in the future.
In fact, in order to help foreign trade companies cope with difficulties and challenges, a series of recent measures to stabilize foreign trade are being implemented at an accelerated pace.
Among them, the executive meeting of the State Council held on May 5 determined a number of measures to promote the stability and improvement of foreign trade to help stabilize the economy and stabilize the industrial chain and supply chain.
In addition, for the current weakening global demand, the tightening external environment for my country's foreign trade development, and the pressure on the slowdown in growth momentum, Vice Minister of Commerce Sheng Qiuping said in an interview with reporters that the next step, the Ministry of Commerce will focus on " Guarantee, grasp, strengthen, promote and increase” and stabilize foreign trade.
The freight rate is increased and the freight period is extended
The cost of foreign trade enterprises has risen sharply
The increase in logistics and transportation costs has become a challenge that foreign trade companies cannot avoid.
Tian Yuan, an associate researcher at the Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, told the "Securities Daily" reporter that on the one hand, the sharp rise in transportation and inventory costs led to the erosion of corporate profits; on the other hand, poor logistics led to an increase in the default rate of export orders, which was also serious Affect the order-receiving efficiency of export enterprises.
"Even from the lowest point, the shipping price has increased by 30% to 40% compared with the previous one, and the price of the Brazilian route has increased by 10 times at the highest." Hua Guangyu, CEO of cross-border e-commerce platform Muchen International, told the "Securities Daily" reporter , "The price of a TEU from China to Brazil was US$1,100 before. After the freight rate increased, the freight rate of a TEU on this route rose to a maximum of US$14,800."
The person in charge of Foshan Dalu New Energy Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Dalv New Energy"), the head seller of Amazon's household new energy charging pile category, said in an interview with a reporter from "Securities Daily", "We generally ship the goods by sea. Shipped to overseas warehouses, but the increase in shipping prices and the uncertainty of time are the biggest challenges the company has faced in these years. In the past, shipping by sea was about 7 yuan/kg, but now the average is 18 yuan/kg, and sometimes If you have money, you can't order a shipping container."
The air transport situation is also not optimistic.
"Our products are mainly exported by air, but the cost of air freight has risen a lot this year. In addition, due to factors such as the epidemic, the labor cost of delivery has greatly increased." The above-mentioned Ms. Han, who is engaged in the export of network terminal products in Shenzhen, told reporters, " The increase in logistics costs has diluted most of the company's profits."
In addition to the surge in logistics costs, the uncertainty of transportation time has also plagued many foreign trade companies.
Great Green New Energy told reporters that it used to take 25 days to transport goods from China to overseas warehouses in the United States, but now it takes 50 to 60 days, and there is great uncertainty in the time.
Machinery and equipment company Guangzhou Henglong Intelligent Co., Ltd. is also facing the same challenge.
The relevant person in charge of the company said that large-scale machinery and equipment such as resistance welding machines are transported overseas by sea, but some routes are currently suspended, and the customs clearance time is longer, usually more than 3 weeks.
Affected by the recent repeated epidemics in some parts of the country and other factors, relevant foreign trade enterprises are facing new challenges.
For example, affected by the epidemic in Shanghai, production, logistics, warehousing, etc. in the surrounding areas have been affected; some of the goods exported from Shanghai Port have been changed to export from Ningbo Port, resulting in congestion in Ningbo Port.
"You can't get in and you can't get out." Mr. Wang, who is engaged in the export of auto parts in Shanghai, described the transportation situation in Ningbo Port to reporters. The container stay time was prolonged, and the delivery time of the goods was postponed.
Dalu New Energy said that due to the uncertainty of transportation time, it has increased the number of stockpiles.
Before the epidemic, the stocking volume of overseas warehouses was generally 3 months' quantity, and currently it is about 5 months' quantity.
Increasing the number of stockpiles means an increase in operating costs and inventory, and a slight inadequacy of handling will bring great pressure to the company's operations.
"The rising cost of shipping is a stress test for cross-border trade, and maybe only half of the companies can survive it." Hua Guangyu said frankly.
The report "Competitiveness Index of China's Small, Medium and Micro Foreign Trade Enterprises in March 2022" shows that due to the temporary pressure on logistics warehousing, truck transportation, and port transportation in key foreign trade cities caused by the frequent occurrence of domestic epidemics, the efficiency of the supply chain is relatively sluggish. The average delivery time was extended to 31 days from the best-performing 29 days in November 2021.
"For a period of time in the future, the situation facing my country's foreign trade enterprises will still be severe. The main export market ports are congested, the container turnover period will continue to be sluggish, the bottleneck of international logistics will still exist, and the freight rate will continue to be high for a period of time." Tian Yuan believes, " In the face of risks and challenges, the foreign trade base will be relatively high in 2021, and the pressure of my country's foreign trade development will be prominent in 2022, and multiple measures should be taken to stabilize foreign trade."
Enterprises actively self-adjust
Continued efforts to stabilize foreign trade policies
According to the "March 2022 Export Trade (B2B) Index Report of Small and Medium Enterprises" jointly released by the Commerce Industry Committee of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and XTransfer, in the first quarter of this year, my country's small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises achieved a "stable start", showing strong competitiveness.
However, with the contradictions in the global supply chain caused by the turbulent international situation and the severe challenges brought about by the frequent occurrence of the new crown pneumonia epidemic in China since March, 2022 is full of many uncertainties.
In the context of the epidemic, many foreign trade companies said that "holding on is everything".
Despite the difficulties, new adjustments and new opportunities are being explored within the industry.
The above-mentioned person in charge of Dalu New Energy said, "In response to the increase in freight costs, without affecting product quality, the company has achieved the effect of saving the overall packaging space by optimizing the size structure and improving the overall space utilization rate, which can also Reduce the individual weight of the product and save a certain amount of cost when the product is loaded into the transport container; at the same time, choose to combine the goods into the container with the peers to achieve economies of scale and save costs, with an average saving of about 2 yuan per kilogram."
At the same time, some foreign trade enterprises have further strengthened their internal coordination and supply chain management by improving their digital capabilities.
"There is no way to fly to other cities to inspect the goods now, but waiting for a long time is not the way, so I began to consider inspecting the goods through photos, videos, etc." mentioned Mr. Wang, an exporter in Shanghai.
Ms. Han also said that she is currently strengthening online customer acquisition capabilities and learning to gain traffic through social media.
This year's goal is to hope to "steady" and stick to it.
Wang Wenming, director of overseas projects of Haier Biomedical, believes that the current market structure is a test of the company's overseas layout and coping capabilities. The diversification of overseas channels, the maturity of the sales network and the coverage of product categories all determine the resilience of the company's foreign trade business.
"On the one hand, we continue to deepen the construction of network channels, and on the other hand, we continue to enhance the competitiveness of products and solutions." Wang Wenming told the "Securities Daily" reporter that the company is also facing challenges such as rising logistics costs, but by integrating industrial chain resources and improving business operations Efficiency, etc., ensure quick response to user needs and timely delivery of orders.
"Some challenges may also become new opportunities." Wang Wenming said that due to the impact of the epidemic, the opportunities for direct face-to-face communication between Haier Bio and overseas users have decreased, but the frequency of online communication has continued to increase.
"Now, on the one hand, we are increasing our strength to consolidate old users and stimulate demand transformation; on the other hand, we are also building the ability to quickly understand and respond to user needs locally, and improve local sales, logistics and warehousing."
In fact, since the beginning of this year, relevant departments have been continuously introducing measures to help foreign trade enterprises tide over the difficulties.
On April 22, ten departments including the State Administration of Taxation issued a notice, proposing 15 measures starting from three aspects: further increasing the policy support for helping enterprises, further improving the convenience of tax refund processing, and further optimizing the business environment of export enterprises.
The National Standing Committee held on May 5 emphasized the need to focus on securing orders and stabilizing the import and export of key industries and labor-intensive industries.
Guarantee the stability of production and circulation in the field of foreign trade, determine the list of key foreign trade enterprises and provide guarantees in terms of production, logistics and employment.
At the same time, it is necessary to effectively and orderly clear the collection and distribution of sea and airport, and improve the efficiency of operation and customs clearance.
Make good use of air cargo capacity to ensure the transportation of important parts, equipment and products.
Investigate and punish violations of foreign trade freight prices.
In the face of weakening global demand and great pressure on foreign trade growth, Sheng Qiuping said that challenges and opportunities coexist in my country's foreign trade development.
From the perspective of challenges, the international economic recovery is fragile and weak, the monetary policies of major economies are shrinking and inflation is intensifying, the industrial chain and supply chain are not smooth, the price of raw materials is high, and the operating pressure of enterprises is rising.
From the perspective of opportunities, my country's foreign trade industry has a solid foundation, and the long-term positive fundamentals have not changed.
In this context, how to better stabilize foreign trade in the next step?
In this regard, Sheng Qiuping said that the Ministry of Commerce will focus on five aspects of work.
The first is to ensure smooth flow, ensure the stability of production and circulation in the field of foreign trade, and solve the actual difficulties of key foreign trade enterprises with "one enterprise, one policy".
The second is to seize orders, focus on securing orders and stabilizing the import and export of key industries and labor-intensive industries, support small and medium-sized enterprises to participate in overseas exhibitions, and guide enterprises to make good use of free trade agreements and export credit insurance policies.
The third is to strengthen support, increase fiscal, taxation and financial support, increase credit to small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises, promote the expansion of policy financing scale, improve foreign trade enterprises' ability to deal with exchange rate risks, and actively and steadily promote RMB cross-border trade settlement.
The fourth is to promote innovation, encourage the use of new technologies and new models, and accelerate the expansion of new business forms and models such as cross-border e-commerce.
Give full play to the role of exhibition platforms such as the Service Trade Fair and cultivate new growth points for service trade.
The fifth is to increase momentum, promote the high-quality development of foreign trade transformation and upgrading bases, and vigorously develop digital trade and green trade.
Give play to the leading role of large-scale backbone foreign trade enterprises, and promote small and medium-sized enterprises to take the road of "specialization, specialization, specialization and innovation".
Encourage the development of products of the same line, same standard and quality, and promote the integration of domestic and foreign trade.
(Securities Daily)