As the “Golden Nine” ended unsatisfactorily, the “Silver Ten” became a new place of hope. However, as the global epidemic situation continues to evolve, the risk of stagflation in the world economy continues to rise. A series of factors such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict, trade frictions and supply chain instability have superimposed, severely weakening global consumer demand and spending power, leading to uncertainty in my country’s textile and apparel exports. Zooming in, October has become a critical period for stabilizing foreign trade.
The growth rate of textile and clothing exports is gradually slowing down, and the prospect is not worry-free
According to data from the General Administration of Customs, my country’s textile and apparel exports in August were US$30.976 billion, with a year-on-year growth rate slowing down 14.7 percentage points from 17.58% in July to 2.88%. Among them, the year-on-year growth rate of textile exports dropped from 16.2% in July. It was -0.23%, and the year-on-year growth rate of clothing exports slowed to 5.10% from 18.55% in July.
From January to July, as the domestic epidemic situation repeatedly led to insufficient effective demand, my country’s export performance repeatedly exceeded expectations and became an important “carriage” to drive economic growth. However, with the disruption of the domestic epidemic and external demand, August data was lower than market expectations. In September, the currencies of major overseas economies continued to tighten, and an inflection point for high export growth may have appeared.
The person in charge of a foreign trade company revealed that since the beginning of this year, the fabric order volume is only 70% of last year, and the overall performance is so-so. Orders are supported by customers accumulated in the past, and there are basically no new customers. Due to the lack of optimism in the global economic situation, customers have become increasingly cautious in placing orders, and the order volume is also very different from previous years. For example, in the past, the order volume could reach 100,000 meters, but now customers only dare to order 50,000 meters.
Another foreign trade company also said that on the international side, with the contraction of international market demand, overseas orders have decreased, and the company’s exports have decreased by about 20% year-on-year this year; on the domestic side, due to factors such as repeated domestic epidemics and rising production and operation costs Due to the impact, enterprise production has also been reduced accordingly, sales collection speed has been slower, and survival pressure has also increased significantly compared with previous years.
From this point of view, the difficulty in receiving orders has become one of the biggest “pain points” for foreign trade companies at present. To stabilize foreign trade, we must stabilize orders to a large extent. As long as orders are not lost, my country’s foreign trade will be able to “keep the green hills alive.”
Strong enemies are watching, only when you seize the opportunity can you turn around
While the growth rate of my country’s textile and apparel exports is slowing down, Vietnam, one of the export competitors in the same category, delivered an eye-catching report card in August.
According to data from the General Administration of Customs of Vietnam, as of August this year, Vietnam’s textile and clothing exports reached US$26 billion, a year-on-year increase of 24%. After achieving an average monthly export value of US$3 billion for six consecutive months, Vietnam’s textile and apparel industry exceeded the US$4 billion export mark for the first time in August.
Thanks to the effective prevention and control of the epidemic in the early stage, my country’s industrial chain was restored in time, but Southeast Asia and other regions were deeply affected. my country’s foreign trade has reaped dividends from the resurgence of orders to a certain extent. As the epidemic in Southeast Asia is gradually brought under control, the competitiveness of Southeast Asia continues to rise, attracted by cheap labor.
At present, Europe and the United States are about to usher in the peak Christmas consumption season. Many large supermarkets also need to replenish their inventories due to early supply chain obstructions. Europe still needs to reserve a large amount of winter goods due to the energy crisis. Now is an excellent time for foreign trade companies to obtain new orders. How to stand out among competitors, companies are all looking for a way out.
On September 27, the Ministry of Commerce issued “Several Policies and Measures to Support the Stable Development of Foreign Trade”, which made work arrangements for further strengthening the stability of foreign trade from six aspects, including ensuring production and contract performance. Different from the previous ones, the new round of foreign trade stabilization policies proposed by the State Council executive meeting has made more detailed arrangements for ensuring orders. The meeting made it clear that we will support guaranteed orders to expand the market and strengthen service guarantees such as outbound exhibition participation and negotiation. The timely introduction of support policies in this time window is like a timely rain, which is undoubtedly good news for textile and apparel foreign trade companies that are in urgent need of new orders.
In the face of fluctuations in external demand and the WTO lowering global foreign trade expectations, my country’s foreign trade has always been resilient. It will take time for countries such as Vietnam and India to replace and surpass my country. How can companies seize the opportunity and win in the fierce market competition? , cultivating internal strength may be the only way.
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