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China's export industries challenged amid US credit crisis

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-04-16 23:41

BEIJING - Exhibiting at China's largest trade fair may not be a pain-killer for tens of thousands of Chinese exporters who have felt a pinch under the spell of the US credit crisis.

It is too early to see how many orders would be signed during the ongoing biannual Canton fair held in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, but gloomy prospects have prevailed among domestic manufacturers and traders who have witnessed a slower increase, or even a drop, in their orders.

"The growth of export orders in the first quarter of this year fell sharply to 20 percent from 140 percent in the same period of last year," said Cao Xiaojian, vice chairman of the Jiangsu Shuntian Co., Ltd. at the fair.

Meanwhile, the accelerating rise of the yuan makes things worse. Cao said that a 1 percent rise in the yuan would result in a sales profit decrease of 2 percent to 6 percent. He admitted a quarter of managers in the factories under the largest Chinese textile enterprise have been sacked.

The impact of the lower external demand on small and middle enterprises is catastrophic. "A US client used to order five million meters of jean fabric a year, but this year's order reduced to only one million meters," said Zhang Meng, a businessman from Lanyan Group, a major domestic jeans material producer based in Zibo of east China's Shandong Province. In Zhoucun District in the same city, only 70 out of the total 100 clothing factories opened after the Spring Festival this year, said Zhang.

"Export increase of machinery and electronic products to the US slowed to 18.9 percent in 2007, down from 26.4 percent in 2006," said Zhang Yujing, vice chairman of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import & Export of Machinery & Electronic Products. He predicted the growth would likely to further slow this year.

From January to March, China's total exports rose 21 percent to US$ 206 billion, 6.4 percentage points lower than a year earlier. The exports to the US grew 5.4 percent to 53 billion yuan, 15 percentage points lower than the same period of last year, according to customs statistics.

In the trade hub of Guangdong, the growth of exports to the United States dwindled to 4.8 percent in the first quarter of this year from 15.5 percent in the same period of 2007, said Wu Gongquan, vice director-general with the department of foreign trade and economic cooperation of the province.

"Given the sluggish US market, this year will be tough for export sectors," Wu said.

"Chinese goods are popular among the US consumers, yet we still have to reduce purchase because of the decreasing US demand," Ben Noonan, sourcing manager of the Smartful Home, a US textile importer, told Xinhua.

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