Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporters Tai Xiaoan and Li Huiying

Quanzhou is an important manufacturing production base and foreign trade export base in China. Affected by the continued spread of the overseas epidemic, Quanzhou's foreign trade companies have generally faced many problems since this spring, such as difficulty in receiving orders, difficulty in fulfilling contracts, and poor international logistics. Quanzhou's foreign trade imports and exports, which increased by 13.9% in 2019, fell by 11.0% year-on-year in the first quarter of this year.

Faced with the difficult situation, a battle to defend orders was launched in Quanzhou.

Foreign orders turned to domestic sales, and foreign trade companies "turned the rudder"

The continued overseas epidemic has made it difficult for international orders to recover; while the Chinese market has gradually recovered, many foreign trade companies have begun to turn foreign orders to domestic sales.

Du Pihuang, general manager of Fujian Huaang Sports Goods Co., Ltd., said that the company has long been OEM for internationally renowned footwear and clothing brands. In mid-March, as employees gradually arrived, the company's production was fully restored, but overseas customers who had been urging for goods have successively stopped orders on the grounds of force majeure, and the company's order volume has shrunk by 30%.

Huaang Sports is located in Jinjiang, Quanzhou, a major footwear town with a concentration of footwear manufacturing companies and obvious advantages in the industrial chain cluster. In addition to export-oriented companies, there are also many domestic brands.

Huaang Sports previously focused on OEM for international brands. Under the coordination of the local government, Huaang Sports turned to OEM production for domestic brands, using the Chinese market to make up for part of the losses and ensure the basic stability of the company's production.

Shi Fangfang, full-time deputy secretary-general of the Jinjiang Swimwear Industry Association, said that as the Chinese market picks up, many swimwear export companies have also switched from OEM for international brands to OEM for Chinese brands.

After focusing on the Chinese consumer market, in order to achieve a smooth connection, many companies choose to promote themselves through live streaming, and some companies and e-commerce platforms use big data to achieve accurate orders through reverse customization by consumers.

Qingsheng Home Furnishing is a gardening equipment manufacturer in Dehua, Quanzhou. The company originally exported 30% of its products, but since the outbreak of the epidemic, overseas orders have dropped sharply, and the company can only expand the Chinese market on e-commerce platforms such as Taobao. By studying the sales big data of relevant platforms and then conducting reverse customization for consumers, the company has achieved unexpected growth during the epidemic.

"Through data analysis, we found that the consumer group of our products is mainly young people. They prefer the simple "little fresh" style in the shape of the equipment, and pay attention to the drainage and ventilation functions in the functional materials, so we have made corresponding adjustments and improvements in raw materials and technology." Li Junjie, head of Qingsheng Home Furnishing, said that they used e-commerce platform data to analyze the characteristics of consumer groups, and then developed styles based on the characteristics of the population and consumer demand, and put them online for testing. Relying on the advantages of reverse customization, Qingsheng Home Furnishing sold more than 100,000 customized flower pots during the epidemic, effectively offsetting the gap in overseas orders.

Orders come, let's do "shared orders" together to keep warm

The epidemic has impacted the global manufacturing supply chain, which has caused different companies to face different difficulties such as orders, raw materials, labor, and funds. The reporter found that some companies with order advantages have integrated industry companies through "shared orders" to achieve group development.

All employees of Quanzhou Jiali Children's Products Co., Ltd. have returned to work and are working at full capacity to produce toys for overseas orders. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the company's orders have been stable, and recently it has repeatedly received some large orders.

The company's head, Chen Yusheng, told reporters that Jiali's orders used to rely entirely on its own production, which required a large investment in labor and funds. Companies are worried about market fluctuations and often dare not take on large orders alone.

Now, they have adjusted the entire manufacturing process, and separated many production links such as order taking, design, injection molding, and assembly line assembly independently, and each link is contracted to other companies.

"Jia Li Company reduced costs and optimized the manufacturing process, while the subcontracting companies received orders and resumed production, achieving a win-win situation." Chen Yusheng said.

As a major clothing manufacturing center in China, Shishi City has more than 8,000 upstream and downstream clothing companies. Since the beginning of this year, the epidemic has had a great impact on small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises. With the support of the local government, some foreign trade companies have established "shared factories" to keep warm together.

At the end of March, the first "shared factory" in Shishi City was established, and the first batch of equipment and workers entered the site to realize "order sharing" and "data sharing", and 120,000 overseas garments were soon put into production.

Hu Huiming, the person in charge of the "shared factory" and chairman of Shishi Huilitong International Trade Co., Ltd., introduced that the "shared factory" not only provides production sites, warehousing and other supporting resources for small and medium-sized enterprises, but also provides orders for companies with difficulty in receiving orders, and solves supply chain payment problems for companies with financial difficulties; the operating costs of enterprises can be reduced by half.

Linsheng Trading Company became one of the first companies to move in. With the help of the "shared factory", the company breathed a sigh of relief and has now received new orders. Cai Rongfeng, the head of the company, said that the "shared factory" also has special machines and other facilities that can be shared, which saves a lot of operating costs for the company.

Swimwear companies sell yoga clothes to extend production areas

Quanzhou swimwear products account for about 30% of global production, of which exports account for more than 80%. Affected by the epidemic, exports of industry companies have fallen by 50%-70%.

"If foreign trade companies all turn to the Chinese market, China will not be able to accommodate them. But companies have to try their best to keep the workforce stable. We encourage companies to extend their production areas according to changes in market demand and find various orders by all means." Shi Fangfang said.

"Crisis is crisis, and there will be opportunities when there is crisis." Hong Jianku, chairman of the Seven Color Fox Swimwear Group, found that people staying at home have a significantly increased demand for indoor sports products such as yoga clothes, which is a good opportunity for Seven Color Fox.

"The production process of light sports products such as yoga clothes and fitness clothes is similar to that of swimwear, but the swimwear business was so good in the past that we were too busy to handle it, so we only produced a small amount. Now that the swimwear orders have shrunk, we have increased the production of yoga clothes and other products." Hong Jianku said that since the outbreak of the epidemic, Qicaihu's yoga clothes orders have nearly tripled, with sales reaching 70 to 80 million yuan.

During the epidemic, masks became a hot product. Qicaihu took the opportunity to launch a series of non-medical fashion mask products, which became a hit for a while and won back many orders for the company.

"This year we are "guaranteeing 70% and looking forward to 90%", at least we can reach 70% of the total order amount last year, and strive to restore to 90%." Hong Jianku said that the epidemic closed a door for the company, but by extending the production field, the company opened several windows, and these extended fields may become new growth points in the future. They are building a new 50,000-square-meter factory to prepare for market recovery and diversified development after the epidemic.

As an important manufacturing base in China, Quanzhou has a high concentration of textile, footwear and clothing industries, and has obvious advantages in switching to the production of masks, protective clothing and other epidemic prevention materials. Faced with the impact of the epidemic on orders, many companies have begun to extend their production areas to epidemic prevention materials, while contributing to epidemic prevention and control, they have also solved some order problems.

It is understood that Quanzhou originally had almost no mask and protective clothing production companies. After the outbreak, hundreds of companies have now invested in related production. Quanzhou has become an important mask and protective clothing production and export base in China.

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