The present situation of small and medium-sized export enterprises in China (problems and reasons) and related information email address chenxinglihuangfei @163.com.

Relevant information on the present situation (problems and reasons) of small and medium-sized export enterprises in China

In recent years, domestic macroeconomic policies have been tightened, the prices of resources and labor have risen, and the exchange rate of RMB against the US dollar has accelerated. At the same time, the prices of primary products in the international market soared, the US subprime mortgage crisis dragged down the economic growth of major economies in the world, and the external demand for China's exports declined relatively. In the context of the tightening situation at home and abroad, China's export growth rate has gradually declined, and the pressure on export enterprises (referring to export-oriented production and processing enterprises, the same below) has increased significantly, especially for small and medium-sized export enterprises, and enterprises with losses and operational difficulties have increased. This paper mainly analyzes the difficulties faced by export enterprises at present, trying to grasp the situation of export enterprises objectively and comprehensively.

First, the export growth rate has dropped year by year.

Since China's entry into WTO, the total export volume of China has exploded, with an average export growth of 28.8% from 2002 to 2007. In 2007, the total export value jumped to one trillion dollars, reaching121800 million dollars, an increase of 25.7%, which was 3. 1 percentage point lower than the above-mentioned average annual growth rate. Observing the data of these six years, we can find that the annual growth curve of the total export value decreased slowly after reaching the peak in 2004, from the highest growth of 35.4% in 2004 to 25.7% in 2007, which decreased by nearly 10 percentage point. Among them, foreign-funded enterprises and collective private enterprises, which accounted for more than three quarters of exports, turned around after reaching the highest point in 2003, and showed a sharp downward trend in the following four years; During the same period, the export of state-owned enterprises increased slightly, reaching a new high of 17.5% in 2007.

The decline in export growth rate of foreign-funded enterprises is mainly due to the leading role of processing trade. The export growth rate of processing trade of foreign-funded enterprises decreased from 4 1.4% in 2003 to 2 1% in 2007, with an increase of 20.4 percentage points. However, the export growth rate of collective and private enterprises declined at a high level, and its main trade mode-general trade export decreased from 78. 1% in 2003 to 39% in 2007, down by 39. 1 percentage point. The general trade of state-owned enterprises maintained a steady growth trend. Although the proportion of processing trade is less than one third, it is growing rapidly, from 1.5% in 2003 to 16.2% in 2007.

From June to April, 2008, China's export growth rate dropped further, with the total export value increasing by 2 1.5%, down by 6 percentage points compared with the same period of last year and 4.2 percentage points compared with the whole year of 2007. Among them, the export growth rate of state-owned, foreign-funded and collective private enterprises dropped by 65,438 0.6, 4.5 and 6.5 percentage points respectively compared with 2007. While the export growth rate has slowed down, the profit growth rate of major export industries has slowed down, and the loss of enterprises has expanded, especially small and medium-sized export enterprises are facing greater difficulties, and enterprises in some areas have closed down and moved out.

Second, the main difficulties faced by export enterprises at present

Shenzhen, Dongguan and Zhongshan, located in the Pearl River Delta, have a high degree of economic extroversion and are important export commodity production bases in Guangdong Province and even the whole country. The same characteristics of the three cities are: there are many foreign-funded enterprises and private enterprises, most of which are small and medium-sized enterprises; Mainly engaged in processing trade, there are many OEM enterprises, and the products are mainly exported; Mainly in traditional labor-intensive industries; A mutually supporting industrial cluster has been formed. Judging from the situation of the three cities, the main problems faced by export enterprises at present are:

1, enterprises accept fewer foreign orders, and the export growth rate slows down. Since the second half of last year, enterprises have been afraid to accept foreign orders. In order to guard against exchange rate risks, many enterprises also change long-term orders into short-term orders and large orders into small orders, resulting in a decrease in the total order volume and a decline in export value. In the first quarter of 2008 and during the 103 Canton Fair, enterprises further reduced the number of orders and production scale. In the first quarter, the total export value of Shenzhen and Zhongshan increased by 14.9% and 8.4% respectively compared with the same period of last year, and the growth rate dropped by 18 percentage points and 6.2 percentage points compared with the same period of last year. As the processing trade in Dongguan accounts for nearly 90%, and the processing trade contract is generally one year, the export is temporarily unaffected. From the main products, the exports of traditional bulk products such as textiles and clothing, shoes, bags, furniture, plastic products, machinery and electronics in the three cities have fallen sharply or declined. For example, the export of bags, shoes and hats in Shenzhen increased by 3.9%, down by 16.2 percentage points over the previous year, the export of furniture and parts increased by 16.3%, down by 23.7 percentage points, and the export of clothing and textiles decreased by 14.5%. Dongguan furniture exports increased by 1.7%, down by 22.9 percentage points year-on-year, while clothing and garment accessories exports increased by 0.4%, down by 20 percentage points. The export of plastic products in Zhongshan decreased by 10%, and the export of lamps and lighting equipment decreased by 2%.

2. The reduction of export exchange cost can't keep up with the appreciation of exchange rate, and enterprises are on the verge of losses. The export exchange cost refers to the RMB cost that an export enterprise needs to pay for each dollar of net foreign exchange income, and it is an important indicator for enterprises to analyze the export profit and loss balance. If the exchange cost is higher than the average bank exchange rate, the export income is a loss; if the exchange cost is lower than the average bank exchange rate, the export is a profit. Therefore, generally speaking, the lower the exchange cost, the better the economic benefit of export. Generally speaking, goods with low processing level have higher exchange cost and poor exchange rate risk tolerance, while goods with deep processing and high added value have lower exchange cost and stronger risk tolerance.

According to the survey of thousands of export enterprises in China contacted by the Ministry of Commerce, the cumulative average exchange cost in 2007 was 7.36 yuan/US dollar, of which 7.45 yuan/US dollar in Guangdong was higher than the national average of 0.09 yuan/US dollar, but both were lower than the annual average exchange rate of 7.604 yuan/US dollar in 2007, indicating that the export of sample enterprises was still profitable on the whole. The opening situation in 2008 has changed. In the first quarter, the exchange cost of 1000 export enterprises was 7. 17 yuan/USD, including 7. 14 yuan/USD in Guangdong, which was close to or slightly higher than the average RMB exchange rate of 7. 1626 in the same period, indicating that all sample enterprises were on the verge of export profit and loss. Among the sample enterprises in Guangdong Province, the foreign exchange cost of textile industry is 7.29 yuan/USD, the foreign exchange cost of clothing is 7. 17 yuan/USD, and the export profit and loss rates are-1.78% and -0. 1% respectively. In the words of enterprises, it is "the more you earn, the more you owe". Guangdong export enterprises, which mainly focus on processing trade, have both raw materials and market sales, with short domestic industrial chain and low processing degree. Although the cost of export exchange is also decreasing, it can't keep up with the appreciation of exchange rate, and the ability of enterprises to bear exchange rate risks is weak.

3. The profit growth rate of major export industries slowed down and loss-making enterprises increased. Since last year, affected by the tightening situation at home and abroad, the benefits of major export industries in the three cities have declined and losses have increased. In the first quarter of this year, the output value of textile and garment industry above designated size in Zhongshan increased by 9.0%; Sales revenue (1-February) increased by 3.6%, while total profit (1-February) decreased by 12.3%, of which sales revenue and profit decreased by 7.9 and 182.3 percentage points respectively. The total profit of Dongguan furniture manufacturing industry decreased by 67.5%, and the number of loss-making enterprises increased by 22.6%. The total profit of textile industry decreased by more than 2 times, and the number of loss-making enterprises increased by 24. 1%. The total profit of textile manufacturing industry above designated size in Shenzhen decreased by 4 1% year-on-year, and the number of loss-making enterprises increased by 36.4%.

Three, the current difficulties faced by export enterprises are the result of the joint action of subjective and objective factors.

Objectively speaking, although China's exports have grown rapidly since China's entry into WTO, the traditional extensive growth mode has not been fundamentally reversed. To this end, the Chinese government has comprehensively reformed import and export, exchange rate formation mechanism, labor force, resources and environmental protection in combination with the 11th Five-Year Plan and economic and social development, and issued a series of relevant policies. In the long run, these policies will certainly promote the sustainable development of foreign trade and national economy, and will also have a positive impact on export enterprises. However, in the short term, enterprises do not adapt to it, causing temporary difficulties, mainly in the following aspects:

1, the traditional export-oriented policy has changed, and it is difficult for enterprises to adapt quickly. Since 2005, many policies have been adjusted, such as export tax rebate, processing trade, temporary export tariffs and quota management. In 2006 and 2007, relevant policies were introduced frequently, the export tax rebate rate was adjusted six times, and more than 3,000 products were reduced or cancelled. The processing trade policy has been adjusted five times, and the Catalogue of Prohibited and Restricted Processing Trade has been added, with more than 3,300 commodities (ten tariff codes). Among them, the Catalogue of Commodities Restricted by Processing Trade, published on July 23rd, 2007, not only added new categories of commodities involving plastic raw materials and products, textile yarn, cloth, furniture, crude metal products and other industries, but also stipulated that the commodities listed in the restricted categories should be managed by changing their bank deposit accounts into real ones. In 2008, 18 16 commodities were added to the Catalogue of Prohibited Processing Trade; Export license management and provisional export tax rate shall be implemented for products with "two highs and one capital" such as steel and coke, and quota management shall be implemented for particularly important resources such as coke and grain. The above policies have a short buffer period from release to implementation, which makes it difficult for enterprises to adapt. In addition, there are many enterprises engaged in the production of processing trade restricted commodities in the Pearl River Delta region, and the implementation of bank deposit accounts has turned into a large amount of funds, which has also aggravated the difficulty of enterprise fund scheduling. Since 2008, with the change of macro-control from moderate to tight, the central bank has repeatedly raised the deposit reserve ratio, which has reached the highest level of 17.5%. Tightening the scale of loans has increased the difficulty of financing for SMEs. Even if some enterprises can get loans, the interest cost will increase greatly.

2. The comprehensive cost of production and operation of enterprises has risen, squeezing profit margins.

First, the labor costs of enterprises are rising year by year. In recent years, with the acceleration of industrialization and urbanization, the number of employees in enterprises has increased greatly, and the problems of tight labor supply, difficult recruitment and high turnover rate in the Pearl River Delta region have become increasingly prominent. In order to recruit workers and retain skilled workers, enterprises have correspondingly raised wages and welfare benefits. Especially with the implementation of the new labor contract law, enterprises have to handle "three insurances" for workers and pay overtime wages according to law, resulting in a general increase in labor costs. At the same time, some areas have raised the minimum wage accordingly. For example, in 2008, Guangzhou was upgraded to 860 yuan, Shenzhen to 850 yuan (within the special zone), Dongguan to 760 yuan, and Zhongshan to 770 yuan. The survey shows that in the first quarter of this year, the average labor cost of the three cities increased by 8%- 10% year-on-year, which has a particularly prominent impact on small and medium-sized labor-intensive enterprises and export processing enterprises such as clothing, furniture and electronics, because the international market competition in these industries is fierce, and there are also a large number of cheap commodity suppliers in Southeast Asia, South Asia and Latin China, and the competitive advantage of American enterprises mainly relying on low wages has obviously declined.

Second, the prices of raw materials and energy have risen across the board. In recent years, driven by the high prices of primary products in the international market, the prices of related products in the domestic market, such as oil, coal, steel, agricultural and sideline products, have also risen sharply, and the cost pressure of export processing enterprises is greater. The rise in oil prices has driven up the price of chemical fiber products. At the same time, the prices of domestic cotton and imported cotton have also risen sharply. Enterprises in Dongguan and other places reported that the price of textile raw materials rose by about 20% to 30% last year. The price of coal needed for steam ironing clothes was around 350 yuan a few years ago, but it has risen to 680 yuan last year, and now the price is as high as 780 yuan; Recently, the cost of shipping and land transportation has also increased greatly. In the first quarter, the shipping price from Beigang to Guangzhou Port increased by 70% compared with the same period of last year.

In the first quarter of 2008, the purchase price of raw materials, fuel and power in Guangdong Province rose by 8. 1%, which was 4.7 percentage points higher than the ex-factory price of industrial products in the same period, continuing the trend that the purchase price of raw materials in Guangdong Province rose more than the ex-factory price of industrial products since 2003, and the price inversion gap widened month by month since 2007. This year1-February, the main business cost of Guangdong industrial enterprises increased by 19.2% year-on-year, which was 0.4 percentage points higher than the income growth of main business 18.8% in the same period, and the profit margin of enterprises was further narrowed. A large number of small and medium-sized export processing enterprises in the Pearl River Delta region are already at the end of the industrial value chain, with weak price transfer ability and fierce competition in the textile, clothing, light industrial electronics and other products markets. In the buyer's market, it is difficult for enterprises to make up the cost by raising prices, and the profit space is further squeezed.

On the other hand, some areas in the Pearl River Delta are short of electricity, and the power supply policy of "stopping three and opening four" is generally implemented. Enterprises use their own diesel engines to generate electricity when there is a power outage, and the rise in oil prices further increases the cost of enterprises.

Third, the environmental protection expenditure of enterprises has increased substantially. Many small and medium-sized enterprises have inherent deficiencies in production technology and equipment at the beginning of construction, which has laid a hidden danger for future pollution and high energy consumption, while the relatively "loose" environmental protection policy at the beginning provided the possibility for the survival of this model. This kind of business mode of obtaining higher profit space at the expense of the environment has made the natural environment in some places deteriorate day by day. In recent years, under the guidance of Scientific Outlook on Development, governments at all levels have begun to strengthen environmental law enforcement and punishment. Compulsory environmental protection measures such as sewage treatment, waste gas recovery and purification have become prerequisites for enterprise management. Enterprises that fail to meet emission standards and enterprises that violate environmental laws are rectified within a time limit and closed down according to law, which fundamentally increases the environmental illegal cost of polluting enterprises. If the emission standards of COD, total phosphorus, total nitrogen and ammonia nitrogen, which are mainly controlled by textile dyeing and finishing industry, are raised, enterprises will be forced to reduce pollution from the source process and intensify the transformation of terminal treatment facilities. These measures will naturally increase the costs of some SMEs that fail to meet environmental standards or violate the environment.

3. The appreciation of RMB exchange rate has accelerated, and a large number of products have lost their comparative advantage in price. Since the beginning of this year, the appreciation of RMB has accelerated, with an appreciation of 4. 1% in the first quarter, which is the highest quarterly appreciation since the RMB exchange rate reform. On April 10, the exchange rate of RMB against the US dollar broke through the 7 yuan mark, and the cumulative appreciation of RMB since the exchange reform has reached 15.4%. Recently, due to the increasing domestic inflationary pressure, the sharp interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve and the further weakening of the US dollar, the pressure of RMB appreciation has continued to increase. The export of traditional labor-intensive industrial products such as textiles, clothing, household appliances, toys and furniture in the Pearl River Delta region is mostly settled in US dollars and Hong Kong dollars. The rapid appreciation of RMB directly leads to the decline of export competitiveness and the loss of price advantage in these industries. It usually takes about half a year for textile enterprises to receive orders and deliver them. During this period, the appreciation of RMB eroded most of their profits. Although enterprises can lock forward exchange rate settlement when taking orders, the fluctuation range of exchange rate is extremely difficult to grasp, which brings unpredictable exchange rate risks and exchange losses to export enterprises. In addition, due to the increasing uncertainty of the trend of the US dollar, the fluctuation of the RMB exchange rate has also increased accordingly. Dealing with the risk of exchange rate fluctuation has become a problem that enterprises must face, which indirectly increases the financial cost of enterprises.

Subjectively speaking, in recent years, most small and medium-sized export enterprises in China rely on small profits but quick turnover to maintain a huge export scale, ignoring their own quality of enterprise and the improvement of product quality. So at this stage, they are caught in the dilemma of rising costs and gradually losing the price advantage of products.

1. Enterprises lack core competitiveness. First, independent brands and independent innovation capabilities are insufficient. Small and medium-sized enterprises have meager profits and lack of talents, so it is difficult to cultivate their own brands and core technologies. According to the investigation of the Ministry of Commerce, the average profit rate of China's textile export enterprises is only 3%-5%, and the export mode is mainly OEM, with private brands accounting for only about 10%. Some small export enterprises act as the processing and assembly workshops of multinational companies, relying on well-known brands and sales channels of multinational companies to survive. The export products are single, the added value is low, and the motivation and ability of product innovation and industrial upgrading are insufficient. Second, the quality of employees is obviously low. At present, about 40% employees of small and medium-sized enterprises in China have high school education or above, of which only 1 1% have college education or above. From the perspective of professional titles, about 10% of employees have technical titles, of which about 5% have intermediate or above technical titles. Lack of excellent talents or retention of talents is one of the main obstacles to the development and growth of small and medium-sized enterprises. Third, the effectiveness of enterprise management is not high. In many small and medium-sized enterprises, the modern enterprise management system has not yet been established, and quite a few still implement family management, which has great arbitrariness in management, thus weakening the management efficiency of enterprises and unable to compete effectively with advanced enterprises.

2. Poor credit foundation increases the financing difficulties. The general financial management foundation of small and medium-sized enterprises is relatively weak and the transparency is poor; Insufficient self-restraint, extensive management mode, small scale of operation and insufficient risk control ability; Low credit, high operational risk, and short sustained profit time. These shortcomings have led many enterprises to fail to meet the bank's risk control standards. However, due to the principle of prudence, the financial industry has formulated relatively strict business rules to ensure its safety, effectiveness and liquidity. Coupled with the information asymmetry between financial institutions and small enterprises, the problems that financial institutions encounter when looking for high-quality small enterprises suitable for their investment direction are insufficient information, high risk and high cost. There is an imbalance between the risks taken by banks and the benefits obtained from SME loan business, which makes SMEs at a disadvantage in terms of loans.

In addition, the trade frictions and contradictions faced by China are more prominent, which also have a certain impact on small and medium-sized export enterprises. In 2007, China's foreign trade friction escalated. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Commerce, there are nearly 80 trade remedy investigations such as anti-dumping, countervailing and safeguard measures initiated by 19 countries (regions) around the world, and the United States initiated intellectual property investigations 17. After being the country with the largest number of anti-dumping investigations in the world for many years, in 2007, China became the country with the largest number of anti-subsidy investigations in the world, and the field of trade friction continued to expand, from anti-dumping and intellectual property rights to new areas such as product quality, climate and environment, and countervailing. The annual trade losses caused by technical barriers amount to about $20 billion. Since the beginning of this year, in the context of the global economic slowdown, trade protectionism in various countries has obviously risen, and the number of anti-dumping and countervailing investigations initiated against China products has continued to rise. China building ceramics encounter Indian anti-dumping investigation; American textile restrictions on China are still valid, and supervision and restrictions through other means may increase. Although the EU's quantitative restrictions on China 10 textiles ended in June 2008, under the pressure of market transfer and intra-regional trade protection, the restrictions on China's textiles will be strengthened by various means; The annual review of the US anti-dumping case against wooden furniture imported from China continues; This year, the American Toy Industry Association and the American National Standards Association jointly announced a new toy testing and safety certification system plan, which came into effect on May 1, and will further raise the threshold for China toys to enter the American market. Small and medium-sized enterprises in textile, clothing, furniture, toys and other fields. The above-mentioned trade protection measures have formed a big obstacle to the export of these enterprises.

Four, to solve the difficulties of small and medium-sized export enterprises need a two-pronged approach.

At present, solving the difficulties faced by small and medium-sized export enterprises requires not only the active guidance and promotion of the government, but also the efforts of export enterprises themselves.

From the government level:

First of all, we should fully understand the contribution of export enterprises to economic growth and employment. In the past 30 years of reform and opening up, China's export scale has grown from small to large, and export enterprises have experienced difficult development and made remarkable achievements. From 1979 to 2007, China's exports grew at an average annual rate of 18. 1%, of which the average annual growth rate of exports rose to 28.8% in the six years after China's entry into WTO, and the contribution rate of net exports to GDP growth rose from 1% to 2 1.5% in six years. Among them, export enterprises have made great contributions, especially small and medium-sized export enterprises have developed rapidly. No matter foreign-funded enterprises, private enterprises, processing trade enterprises or general trading enterprises, they all constitute the main force of China's exports, become the most dynamic economic groups, and are an important foundation for China's economic growth, market prosperity, structural adjustment and employment expansion.

Secondly, it takes a process to promote the fundamental transformation of trade development mode. It takes time to promote the transformation of trade growth mode from labor-intensive to capital-intensive and technology-intensive, and from simple processing and assembly to high-tech and advanced industries. There are not only the adjustment of industrial structure and regional structure, but also the improvement of economic policy and legal environment The export-oriented industrial pattern and regional pattern gradually formed in the 30 years of reform and opening up are unlikely to be reversed in three to five years. For example, the Pearl River Delta region has formed a complete industrial chain that matches the production capacity. Some enterprises move to the mainland or Vietnam, which can reduce labor costs and environmental pressure, but the incomplete industrial chain leads to the increase of raw material supporting costs and transportation logistics costs. At present, the export of labor-intensive products still occupies a very important position, because China is a populous country with great employment pressure, and labor-intensive industries play an irreplaceable role in attracting ordinary employees. On the other hand, the export of processing trade accounts for more than 50% of China's total export value. The transformation and upgrading of processing trade, the extension of industrial chain and the improvement of added value also need a process, which cannot be achieved overnight. Government departments should strengthen guidance and indirect regulation to give enterprises a space for adaptation and self-adjustment.

Third, actively help enterprises to transform and upgrade and get through the painful period. The first is to provide credit support. Improve the financing environment of small and medium-sized enterprises, such as continuing to encourage and vigorously develop direct financing channels for enterprises and improving the current situation of insufficient sources of funds for small and medium-sized enterprises; Vigorously develop small and medium-sized commercial banks, promote the marketization of the guarantee system, guide and standardize the private lending market, and provide more abundant financing channels. The second is to give tax reduction and exemption support. Give certain tax incentives to enterprises that meet the industrial policy orientation and new product research and development enterprises to help them tide over the difficulties. Enterprises engaged in the production of prohibited and restricted products in processing trade should also be given more guidance to urge them to transform and upgrade as soon as possible. The third is to encourage enterprises to innovate and develop. A town in Dongguan takes three measures to guide enterprises to improve R&D design, quality supervision and marketing planning, accelerate the transformation of wool industry from product management to brand management and from production base to regional distribution base, and reward enterprises to build their own brands; In a town in Zhongshan, the town government concentrated on developing new products and technologies, and then transferred them to local enterprises at low prices, which not only improved the technical level of local products, but also avoided the weaknesses of small and medium-sized enterprises such as insufficient innovation motivation, and played a good demonstration effect.

From the perspective of enterprises:

First, adapt to the development of the situation and actively adjust yourself. As an enterprise, we must have a clear understanding of the current macroeconomic situation, and we must not have the wrong understanding of the hope that the state will continue to protect it, let alone adopt a passive wait-and-see attitude. Consciously turn pressure into motivation, actively adapt to the needs of macro-control policies, adapt to the endless stream of trade protection measures and means in international trade, and actively explore new development models according to their own specific conditions.

The second is to strive to improve competitiveness. Under the new historical conditions, on the one hand, we strive to adjust the organizational management mode, improve the management level, overcome the randomness of family management, and consciously move closer to the modern enterprise system. On the other hand, we attach great importance to the construction of independent brands, expand R&D investment, actively seek foreign aid in the case of insufficient strength, cultivate independent brands with the help of scientific research institutions and local government forces, continuously improve product quality and added value, expand market share, and make ourselves invincible in the fierce market competition.

Not too new. I hope it works for you.