Since the beginning of this year, my country’s foreign trade situation has not been optimistic. With the implementation of the “New Ten Measures” for epidemic prevention and control, domestic epidemic prevention policies have been repeatedly optimized, providing policy space for reversing this situation. In the past three years, due to the impact of the epidemic, orders have been lost and customers have been alienated… In order to recover these missing three years, the news that multiple provinces organized charter flights to go overseas to grab orders instantly hit the circle of friends!
As we all know, orders are the basic condition for enterprises to maintain production operations. Without sufficient order support, enterprises will not be able to survive. At this time, it may be the right time for some foreign trade companies to organize group charter flights to go overseas to grab orders.
The “chill” is still there, and the foreign trade situation is not optimistic
As the international environment becomes increasingly complex and severe, inflation in the United States and Europe has triggered weakening consumer demand. Affected by this, my country’s textile and apparel foreign trade companies are facing the challenge of insufficient orders, and the export situation is further under pressure.
According to data from the General Administration of Customs, in US dollars, the country’s textile and apparel exports in November this year were US$24.39 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 14.6%. Among them, textile exports were US$11.27 billion, down 14.8% year-on-year. Since falling into the negative growth range in August, the decline has continued to expand; clothing exports were US$13.12 billion, down 14.4% year-on-year, and the decline was 1.6 percentage points narrower than last month.
In fact, not only my country’s textile and apparel industry has encountered a crisis of declining export data, but the haze of economic slowdown has enveloped the entire Asian region. According to the latest data released by major textile and apparel exporting countries such as Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, the textile and apparel industries in various countries have experienced varying degrees of export decline!
A foreign trade company revealed that since the beginning of this year, foreign trade orders have dropped by about 30% compared with the same period last year. In the past, export orders were generally sold to Vietnam. However, as the epidemic has repeatedly hindered the recovery of foreign demand, and the orders themselves are for low value-added fabrics (polyester taffeta, polyester fabrics, etc.), the competition is weak. Substitutability is strong, and a large loss of orders is expected.
In the past three years, the global epidemic has broken out and spread in many places. Many foreign trade companies have reported shrinking business and order volumes have dropped to varying degrees compared with the same period in previous years. When asked about their views on market outlook, companies expressed that they may maintain a cautious wait-and-see attitude.
Orders are jobs, and it is imminent to organize a group to go overseas
Generally speaking, the fourth quarter is the traditional peak season for my country’s foreign trade companies, but now the foreign trade market is showing a “not prosperous peak season” state.
In order to get rid of this situation, after the introduction of optimization measures for epidemic prevention and control, international business activities gradually recovered. Companies from all over the country invariably chose to form groups to go overseas, and went all out to grab orders at this time point. The word “grab” not only reflects the eagerness of various places to reverse the foreign trade situation, but also reflects the urgent need for orders from foreign trade companies.
A foreign trade company said that compared with clothing, fabric sales are more limited. First of all, if you want to understand the fabric, direct touch is more convincing, and the pictures and text are a little pale; secondly, the final effect of the fabric can be better introduced face-to-face, and email exchanges can easily cause misunderstandings. Finally, when facing customers, the color card sample card is displayed in place at one time, making it easier to reach cooperation intentions. Before the outbreak of the epidemic, these problems could be solved by participating in foreign exhibitions. During the exhibition, not only could you make new customers, but you could also visit old customers and connect with each other. Through the exhibition, companies can also more intuitively see the latest popular fabrics from abroad, which can provide directions for companies to develop new fabrics in the future. However, in the past three years since the outbreak of the epidemic, all foreign exhibitions have come to nothing, and the impact on overall orders has been quite large.
Therefore, at present, various regions are organizing companies to go overseas to grab orders to solve the urgent needs of foreign trade companies that lack orders. “A meeting is worth a thousand emails.” According to reliable sources, local textile companies have reached an intention order for 4 containers during their visit to Italy, and the order grabbing process is still progressing…
Postscript:
As the “order-grabbing groups” return one after another, good news keeps coming! This overseas “snatching” of orders is both an opportunity and a challenge for companies. More and more teams are “snatching” intended orders, which also reflects that Chinese manufacturing is still popular with overseas customers. How to “keep” these hard-won orders to the greatest extent possible is worth pondering for all textile people.
</p
