Report highlights risk confronting exporters

A major report on world trade warned that Chinese exporters face growing risks in 17 countries, amid the lingering sovereign debt crisis in the European Union and the global slowdown.

The report, by export credit insurer China Export & Credit Insurance Corp, also known as Sinosure, is aimed at helping Chinese companies hedge risks of doing business overseas.

The analysis, released on Wednesday, looked at 192 countries excluding China. Of those, 45 countries were upgraded, while 17 were downgraded because of the trading risks they represent, including the United Kingdom and Sweden.

Sinosure also flagged 40 countries for closer risk watch, including Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Hungary, Ukraine and Belarus.

"We received an increasing number of claims from our clients trading with countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America," said Xie Zhibin, assistant president of Sinosure, the country's only export credit insurer.

Sinosure insured goods in the EU worth $63.3 billion in the first 11 months of this year. This is up 11.1 percent from the same period last year.

"The financial position of importers in the EU is unstable, and small and medium-sized buyers have seen a growing risk of bankruptcy," Xie said.

Countries that were upgraded were mainly located in Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe.

But as developed countries have slashed their financial support to Africa, the risks of default have risen, Xie said.

Due to the global economic situation, more Chinese enterprises are purchasing export credit insurance.

By Sunday, the amount insured by Sinosure in 2012 hit $325.6 billion.

This was up 31.7 percent over the same period of last year. And the insurer has paid $1 billion for claims from Chinese banks and exporters so far this year.

"We've increased our export credit insurance coverage by 40 percent in 2012, as our export markets are mainly in the EU, the US and Japan," said Pei Yu, assistant general manager, accounting, at China National Light Industrial Products Import & Export Corp.

"Given the gloomy global economy, we will increase our insurance coverage in 2013," Pei added.