Special Report:Global Financial Crisis
By Chinese media writer Wu Qi
BEIJING, Jan.4 (Chinese media) -- Zheng
Jianpei, a garment exporter in South China's Guangdong Province, could not idle
about, although people across the country were decorating their houses with
lanterns and streamers to celebrate the New Year. Against chilly wind, Zheng and
his fellow staff flew northward to attend an exhibition with packages of sample
garments in Beijing, in an attempt to expand the domestic market.
"The economy is in a low tide. We enterprises have to
learn to save ourselves," said Zheng, board chairman of Dongguan Hao Heng
Garment Co. Ltd., which has largely been dedicated to garment export for more
than a decade.
Hammered by the global financial crisis, the year
2008 proved hardest for most Chinese exporters over the past 10 years. It was
also a year China, with import and export contributing to about 60percent of its
gross domestic product (GDP), adjusted its foreign trade policies most
frequently in the past decade.
HIT BY PLUNGING SALES
Zheng has been engaged in the garment export business
for 11 years, coming through the stages of processing with customer's materials,
producing under the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) mode, and developing
his own brands. In the first five years in his career, Zheng worked as a worker
and then a partner in a garment mill. In 2002, Zheng set up his own tailor shop
in Dongguan City, a garment export hub in South China, selling T-shirts and
sportswear across the world.
"I had a good time up to 2007, when I expanded export
at an annual rate of 60 percent in sales volumes," said Zheng brightly.
Misfortune befell in 2008, forcing Zheng's sales to plummet month by month.
"In the beginning of 2008, I received fewer orders
from the United States and Australia," said Zheng. But the situation was unclear
at that time, because Zheng's orders from Europe, Middle East and South Asia
remained to increase about 10 percent.
The grim situation became apparent in the
order-placing meeting in March, for goods delivered in autumn. "My orders from
the United States and Australia dropped 70 percent. European buyers did not show
up as scheduled. They came in April, with orders cut by half. I managed to keep
orders unchanged for Middle East and South Asian buyers," said Zheng.
The situation turned worse in the May order-placing
meeting, for winter delivery. "Only a few clients from the United States and
Australia came, without any orders. They told me not to invite them in 2009, as
they will not come up," said Zheng. His orders from EU shrank to 20 percent of
previous sizes. And orders dropped from Middle East and South Asia.
Zheng's story was duplicated nationwide. According to
the National Bureau of Statistics, after months of decline, China's export
decreased 2.2 percent in November, the first time in the past seven years.
Anyway, China managed to maintain a steady growth in
foreign trade in 2008, against pressures from serious natural disasters and the
worst global financial crisis over the past 100 years.
Commerce Minister Chen Deming estimated China's
imports and exports would surpass 2.6 trillion U.S. dollars for 2008, up about18
percent over the previous year, despite the downturn in foreign demand during
the second half. Though the country's exports to European, U.S. and Japanese
markets grew much slower, its sales to emerging markets, such as India and
Brazil, went up rapidly, said Chen Deming.
INDUSTRIAL TRANSFORMATION
To escape the jaws of crisis, increasingly more
frustrated Chinese exporters set out to tap the domestic market.
But it proved a hard path for most exporting
businesses to set eye on the domestic market, as they ran short of marketing
channels, goods designed for domestic markets, and proper account settlement
mechanism.
Zheng proved much luckier than most counterparts, as
he had a way of escape. To prevent risks and expand sales, he set foot in the
domestic market in 2005, despite the fact that the domestic market was small
compared to his export business.
Since July, 2008, Zheng started to prioritize his
company's strategy by more vigorously exploring the domestic market.
Zheng estimated his company would have sales values
dropping by 20 percent in 2008 from the previous year. "This would be a pretty
good result, as we duly changed from export to domestic sales," said Zheng.
About 70 percent of his company's sales would come from domestic sales, and 30 percent from exports in 2008. This was just opposite the performance in 2007.
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