Chongqing Finance and Economics | Chongqing Enterprises Overseas Encounter "Old Buyers" Dragging Accounts Tens of Millions of Yuan Payment Insurance "Drifting"

Across the Tens of Thousands of Kilometers of the Pacific Ocean, when the payment inexplicably "evaporates", small exporters may lose dozens of businesses to earn back profits.

Today (17), the reporter learned from China's policy-oriented export credit insurance institution - CITIC Insurance Chongqing Branch that the overseas epidemic situation is still severe, superimposed on factors such as currency depreciation and market turmoil in some countries and regions, and the overseas credit risk faced by Chongqing enterprises' exports has risen.

Mr. Nie is the head of a biomedical company in Chongqing, and his products are exported to more than a dozen countries abroad. The foreign buyer is a large pharmaceutical company with a long history, and before that, the two sides have traded many times.

In the first half of 2021, according to the contract, Mr. Nie sent the goods to the local area as scheduled. This time, the balance that should have been due for payment has not been heard for a long time, and under repeated questioning, the "old buyer" has told the truth: the company's funds are tight, and there is no money on the account to pay the remaining balance.

Considering that the purchase price of this order exceeded 10 million yuan, Mr. Nie was very worried about the security of accounts receivable, so he reported a loss to China Credit Insurance Chongqing Branch in September 2021.

"After receiving the report, we immediately started the claims process. After trial, it was found that the trade in this case was genuine, the documents were complete, the limit was valid, and the cause of the damage was the buyer's arrears, so he immediately paid a lump sum of US$2.1 million. ”

While alleviating the operating pressure of the enterprise, the CITIC Insurance team also entered the local area to investigate this "old buyer".

"Although the company has tight cash flow, it is relatively strong and has a lot of influence in the local area."

The relevant person in charge of the Chongqing branch of China Credit Insurance told the upstream news reporter that after investigation, it was found that the main reason for the buyer's arrears of payment was that in the first half of 2021, the company was required by the local government to concentrate on the production capacity of vaccines, and it was impossible to produce other normal drugs, resulting in a sharp decline in the sales collection of enterprises, resulting in liquidity difficulties, thus causing arrears to chongqing companies.

The CITIC Insurance team also noted that this "old buyer" also has multiple suppliers in other provinces and cities in China, and there are also cases of arrears.

"Under the overall planning and support of the head office, we jointly put pressure on the buyers with branches and suppliers in other provinces and cities, and also entrusted overseas channels to conduct surveys and linkages, and promoted buyers to sign arrears payment agreements and clarify the deadline." The person in charge said that with the joint efforts of many parties, just recently, the buyer had just paid off all the balance owed to Mr. Nie's company.

According to reports, the current overseas epidemic situation is still severe, superimposed on the currency depreciation and market turbulence factors in some countries and regions, and the overseas credit risk faced by Chongqing enterprises' exports is rising.

According to the data, in 2020, CITIC Insurance paid US$12.44 million, equivalent to more than 80 million yuan, for various breaches of contract encountered by Chongqing export enterprises. Overall, as of December 17, 2021, Sinosure has paid more than 1.1 billion yuan in compensation to Chongqing export enterprises in the 20 years since its establishment.

Among them, industries with high sensitivity to the economic environment, such as general machinery, motorcycles, and pharmaceuticals and chemicals, have become "high incidence areas" for overseas accounts receivable arrears.

Credit insurance experts suggest that at present, the new crown virus Olmi kerong mutation strain has cast a shadow on the unbalanced global recovery, and the repayment willingness and repayment ability of overseas buyers are undergoing new tests. The traditional assessment of customer creditworthiness and ideas must be adapted to the current epidemic background. Export enterprises should pay close attention to the progress of the affected countries, find any risk changes, and the sooner they report the case, the greater the probability of recovery in the later stage.

■ A little more news

Sinosure has supported Chongqing enterprises to export US$46.4 billion in 20 years

In 2021, in order to stabilize the basic plan of foreign trade, Sinosure Chongqing Branch will continue to expand the coverage of export credit insurance, actively support the adjustment and optimization of trade structure and the transformation of foreign trade development mode, and promote the high-quality development of foreign trade.

By optimizing the quota approval mechanism, strengthening digital services, and providing enterprises with services such as buyer credit inquiry, quota application, and risk warning in a timely manner, we will actively guide enterprises to use export credit insurance to respond to changes in the international market and expand export business. From January to November 2021, it supported Chongqing enterprises to export 6.09 billion US dollars, an increase of 35%, and served 755 customers.

Through continuous innovation of products and services, the industrial chain underwriting policy supports Chang'an, Jinlong Copper Pipe, Zhongji and other enterprises to play a key role in the industrial chain of vehicle construction machinery, home appliances, biomedicine and other industrial chains, and supports 29 "specialized and special new small giant enterprises" to export 760 million US dollars through differentiated services, an increase of 34%.

According to statistics, in the 20 years since its establishment, Sinosure has supported Chongqing enterprises to export a total of US$46.4 billion.

Upstream journalist Guo Xinxin