Resilient exporters ride the waves as competitors falter

Successful companies have shifted to added-value sectors to weather a stormy foreign trade market

Chinese exporters are sailing into head-winds of sluggish demand overseas and rising costs for domestic manufacturers.

According to data released by the General Administration of Customs on Thursday, China's exports dropped by 1.2 percent to 6.5 trillion yuan ($1.04 trillion) in the first half of the year, with the trade surplus declining by 6.5 percent to 630.6 billion yuan. If calculated in dollars, the exports registered a slight increase of 0.9 percent in the first six months.

Although figures by region have not been updated to June, previous data suggested that some provinces are weathering the storm better than others.

Jiangsu province's exports increased by 4.9 percent year-on-year in the first five months, are markable result compared with most other exporters in the country, which had to rely on new orders from the United States and Europe amid their weak recovery.

Jiangsu has come up with 21 measures to support foreign trade, focusing on generating business orders through financial and fiscal incentives.

Sound growth figures also were reported in the Yangtze River Delta region - especially in Shanghai and Zhejiang province.

Shanghai's foreign trade grew by 14.7 percent year-on-year in April, nine percentage points higher than the previous month.

Zhejiang also reported double-digit growth for its exports for March and April.

Foreign trade volume for the Yangtze River Delta region accounted for one-third of the nation's total, thus stabilizing growth in the region is essential to the entire country, said Ning Yuemin, director of the Institute of Urban and Regional Planning at East China Normal University.

In Shanghai, traditional labor-intensive industries are still facing difficulties, as exporters of textiles, furniture, plastic products, suitcases, footwear, lighting and toys saw revenue from overseas markets decline by 1.4 percent in the first quarter.

But high-tech exports fared better, driving up overall growth.

In April, Shanghai's exports of technology products grew by 13.9 percent year-on-year, while mechanical and electronic exports soared by 17.2 percent.

By and large, the results were echoed in Zhejiang.

In the first quarter, exports of computer and telecommunications products grew by 18.4 percent amid slowing growth in its traditional sector of clothing and shoes.

But Guangdong province, the country's largest export engine, is still struggling to find a way to maintain its leading status.

In the first five months of this year, its exports fell by 14.9 percent year-on-year to $229.4billion. Despite the drop, Guangdong remained the country's largest exporting province with a 26.2 percent share of total exports, with runner-up Jiangsu accounting for 13.5 percent.

Exports from labor-intensive manufacturers continued to grow in Guangdong, by 5.1 percent by June. But exports of mechanical and electronic goods, as well as high-tech products, which accounted for two-thirds of the province's total outbound goods, dropped by 18.9 percent and 30.3 percent, respectively.

Guangdong Governor Zhu Xiaodan said the province has been facing "larger than expected" pressure to achieve its economic growth target.

"This is a combined result of industries' long-term structural problems and the seasonal economic downturn," he said at a meeting to review the province's half-year performance.

Wang Wei, owner of Betta Footwear Factory, a Dongguan-based shoemaker, said: "There are still orders coming in, but it's hard for us to make profits."

Footwear prices remain low because of sluggish Western markets. As a result, many companies are not taking new orders.

"A lot of factory owners in the Pearl River Delta region, who started their businesses in the 1990s, have shut down their factories, and their children are not willing to carry on the family business," Wang added.

The better-performing exporters in the Yangtze River Delta region have achieved success due to a shift in business models years ago.

In Ningbo, an export-oriented city in Zhejiang, for example, companies that are thriving are those that adapted to change a decade ago.

Mei Dafu, vice-president of Zhejiang Shipbuilding Co, one of top 10 exporting companies in Ningbo, said his company has buffeted the storms in the shipping industry because of a decision made in 2004.

That year, the company received a big contract for 76 ocean engineering vessels. Back then, most of its production capacity was for cargo and container ships.

"So we invested 2 billion yuan in upgrading our production line. And that was where we began to grow into the industrial leader we are today," he said.

More than 80 percent of the ships the company builds now are ocean engineering vessels, which have higher technical added value and a larger profit margin.

Other manufacturers in Ningbo moved their production base overseas.

According to Wang Lei, a board member of safe-maker Safe well Group: "Sales channels are vital for manufacturers. Through purchasing the United States brand, the Ningbo-based company has acquired new technologies and put its products on the shelves of US stores."

Chen Hongyu, an adviser to the Guangdong government, said it is no longer viable for the province to maintain export growth by cutting production costs.

Guangdong's manufacturing sector is falling behind in technology, he said, because of two reasons: inadequate infrastructure investment and ill-suited industrial structure.

Its investment in ports and highways is lagging behind other coastal provinces, he said.

Fixed-asset investment in Guangdong grew by 10.1 percent to 770 billion yuan in the first five-months of the year. But in Jiangsu, the figures were 20.6 percent and 1.2 trillion yuan for the same period.

Chen also said Guangdong-based manufacturers are heavily dependent on light and textile industries, which do not generate much added value.

Zhu has called for more infrastructure investment in the province in sectors like public transport, airports and intercity high-speed railways.