I have been engaged in the foreign trade industry for many years, and I have listened to too many sad and happy stories of the industry in the past two years.
Some people say that this year is a cold winter for the foreign trade industry. It cannot be denied that during the epidemic, some enterprises have indeed been dragged down and closed. However, the term "cold winter" is inevitably one-sided, and it is not objective to replace the whole with some phenomena.
According to the Data Of the General Administration of Customs of China, the total import and export value of trade in goods in the first three quarters of this year reached 28.33 trillion yuan, an increase of 22.7% over the same period last year. Among them, exports and imports increased by 22.7% and 22.6% respectively. Moreover, since june last year, imports and exports have achieved 17 consecutive months of growth. This phenomenon is clearly contrary to the term "cold winter".
In fact, it is not that enterprises do not make money, but those enterprises that make money are working hard, and everyone's mind is muffled to make a fortune. One thing is certain that in an unstable trade environment, the challenges faced by foreign traders are more diverse. What we should think about is that in the face of multiple challenges, what are the companies that have survived, or even have a hot business, do right?
International trade under the challenge of diversification
As the epidemic continues indefinitely, the impact on international trade is deepening. During the short window period in early 2020, China's foreign trade demonstrated its strong strength as a former "world factory". The order volume of many foreign traders has shown a state of blowout explosion, and the factory has begun to replace the 24-hour continuous shaft rotation without stopping.
After the window period disappeared, the orders that had originally turned to China flowed back to the place of origin, and this short-term dividend ended. There is also the so-called "cold winter", but in fact, only summer has passed.
In 2021, the situation in the foreign trade industry has become more complicated, and problems such as rising raw materials, logistics prices, and difficulties in expanding customers are transmitted to the downstream. Take household goods as an example, the need for wood, glue, screws and other raw materials are rising sharply, but the downstream customer demand has become weaker, resulting in the company is not afraid to rise in prices, not rising and easy to lose.
While the overall growth rate has decreased, there are more industry practitioners. Previously, the popularity of foreign trade attracted a large number of domestic traders and cross-border e-commerce at the toC end, pouring into the track of foreign trade. The growth rate of cake cannot keep up with the growth of people who eat cake, and naturally some people cannot eat cake.
In addition, the power curtailment and production of the factory also affected the order delivery of the enterprise. In September this year, Jiangsu, Qinghai, Guangxi and other places have issued the most stringent power ration orders, resulting in the impact on the production capacity of steel, cement and other enterprises. Yunnan Province proposed that the average monthly output of industrial silicon enterprises in September should not exceed 10% of the output of the previous month, and the average monthly output of the yellow phosphorus production line from September to December should not exceed 10% of august.
Finally, and the most important reason why many foreign trade enterprises are not doing well, it is that the freight is too expensive. Sea freight prices have been rising since last year and have soared this year, with the most exaggerated routes even 300% of the original price.
For example, a friend I know who does rubber business, in fact, this year's demand is quite hot, but the freight is the same every day, and some customers do not dare to take the order at all, resulting in many companies like him falling into a dilemma, not taking orders Customer loss, taking a single enterprise loss.
Under a variety of challenges, the business of foreign trade enterprises is indeed not so easy. But for others, challenges are opportunities, and many companies have silently become the trendsetters of the times.
The platform becomes the key to the turnaround of foreign trade enterprises
The biggest impact of the epidemic is the uncertainty of the entire business chain. Enterprises do not know the price of next week's goods, the price of tomorrow's cargo hold, or even the needs of customers, and those who grasp the certainty will also grasp the key to enjoying the dividends of the times.
On November 24, the Ministry of Commerce held a special press conference, at which it was mentioned that since the beginning of this year, in the face of complex and severe domestic and foreign situations, foreign trade has achieved rapid growth. From January to October, the total import and export volume was 4.89 trillion US dollars, which has exceeded the whole of last year and hit a record high.
In addition, in the first half of this year, China's export and import international market share reached 14.6% and 12% respectively, both of which hit a new high in the same period. China's trading partners cover more than 230 countries and regions around the world, and China's daily import and export trade volume exceeds 15 billion US dollars.
The dividend of foreign trade growth is still there, but certainty is difficult to find. For small and medium-sized enterprises, the best way is to cooperate with platforms that can provide certainty, and Alibaba International is a good choice. Alibaba International Has been established for 22 years and is an international trade service provider that is deeply rooted in China, which undoubtedly provides a sense of security for cooperation.
In April this year, the friend I was talking about who was in the rubber business took the initiative to contact Alibaba International Station and used the "worry-free line" to solve the transportation problems that had plagued him for several months. In the difficult situation of shipping, simply took the shipping.
Even popular routes such as China and the United States can be delivered in 3-10 working days through the "worry-free line". In addition, under the background of rising cross-border logistics market costs, Alibaba International Station also provides certain logistics services for small and medium-sized enterprises such as "order lock price", "cabin guarantee", "cabinet payment", etc.
Today, Alibaba International Station recently released the Million Foreign Trade Talents Program, as well as the cross-border digital service trade system previously launched, which provides an important lesson for foreign trade enterprises in talent and digitalization. Looking at China, there is no second platform that can provide such a one-stop service.
From the perspective of enterprises, this is tantamount to a white prostitution opportunity to absorb the experience accumulated by Alibaba International Station for 22 years of opening up to itself and rebuild its core competitiveness. People who realized this early on have already recovered wealth in this era full of opportunities.
More macroscopically, the epidemic is more like a wave of forcing people to evolve, so that people can no longer stick to the routine, but need to evolve butterflies. In this process, the platform has become the most stable tool for SMEs and the key to their security transformation.