Problem faced by productive foreign trade enterprise

Problems and Countermeasures Faced by Productive Foreign Trade Enterprises In the current macroeconomic situation, the profits of many productive foreign trade enterprises in China have plummeted or even closed down. Then, what are the characteristics of the current macroeconomic situation, what problems are the production-oriented foreign trade enterprises facing under such characteristics, and how should the production-oriented foreign trade enterprises deal with them? This paper gives the countermeasures of productive foreign trade enterprises from the above three aspects.

According to customs statistics, in the first half of this year, China's foreign trade showed a trend of declining exports, increasing imports and decreasing surplus, which is developing along the previous control goal of reversing excessive surplus. However, it is worth noting that exports, as one of the "Troika" driving economic growth, have also shown signs of slowing down too fast, which has had a certain impact on the national economy, even though the National Bureau of Statistics announced the GDP growth in the first half of the year 10.4%. From May to June, exports showed a rapid downward trend. In June, China's trade surplus was US$ 265,438+US$ 35 million, down 20.6% year-on-year, with a net decrease of US$ 5.54 billion. According to customs statistics, in the first half of this year, the growth rate of traditional commodity exports slowed down significantly. Among them, the export of clothing and clothing accessories decreased by 18.3% year-on-year, and the export of footwear decreased by 4.7% year-on-year. Affected by the sharp decline in exports, many domestic production-oriented foreign trade enterprises face many problems, and even often close down. According to an interview with China Business News, Jinjiang, the largest shoe base in China with an annual output of 654.38 billion pairs of sports shoes and a market share of 40% in the country and 20% in the world, closed down hundreds of export-oriented small and medium-sized shoe enterprises in 2007, which is even worse this year. So what is the current macroeconomic situation? What kind of problems are productive foreign trade enterprises facing? What are the countermeasures?

First, the characteristics of the current macroeconomic situation

1. Energy prices soared.

Since the beginning of this year, international oil prices have hit record highs, from 100 at the beginning of the year to 140 at present, and there is an upward trend. With the oil price exceeding $0/00 per barrel becoming a reality, Goldman Sachs believes that in an "emergency", the oil price may rise to $200 per barrel in the near future. With the increasing demand for oil in the world, although the supply of oil may decrease in the future, the rise in oil prices has become an accepted fact.

In addition to oil prices, iron ore prices rose by 65% this year compared with last year, which stimulated copper prices to break through the high of 8,000 US dollars and stimulated copper stocks to soar. Affected by the 65% increase in iron ore, the metal price of the London Futures Exchange rose across the board. In particular, Rentong broke through the $8,000/ton mark in one fell swoop.

2. Monetary policy continued to tighten.

The Central Economic Work Conference was held in Beijing from 3 to 5 February 2007. According to the deployment of the Central Economic Work Conference, the monetary policy will be directly changed from "prudent" to "tight", and the tight monetary policy will be "completely new" and will play an important role in macro-control next year. In the first half of this year, the rapid growth of bank loans and excess bank liquidity are two prominent problems in China's current economy. In order to curb excess liquidity and slow down the excessive growth of loans, the central bank raised the deposit reserve ratio six times, raised interest rates three times and reduced interest tax, and successively issued a number of policies, playing a combination of macro-control.

3. high 3. CPI and wage increase

Since the beginning of 2008, affected by the snowstorm, CPI has become a hot word. In the first four months of 2008, it maintained an increase of more than 8%, with an increase of 7.7% in May and 7. 1% in June. The rising CPI has aroused the concern of ordinary people about inflation. Among the factors that lead to the rise of CPI, the rise of food is still the main reason.

According to the survey results released by China Entrepreneur Survey System on June 1 1, the purchasing price and labor cost of materials of enterprises in different regions, different scales, different economic types and different industries have generally increased. Entrepreneurs who think that labor costs are "rising" account for 85.6% of the total number of surveys, which is 85 percentage points more than those who think that labor costs are "falling".

4. RMB appreciation

Statistics show that since 2008, the pace of RMB appreciation has obviously accelerated, and the cumulative appreciation of RMB against the US dollar has exceeded 4%. According to the exchange rate of 8. 1 1 on July 2005, the cumulative appreciation has exceeded 15%. On May 2006 15, the appreciation of RMB against the US dollar broke 8 for the first time, and then it rose to 7.5 yuan for the first time after nearly one and a half years, that is, on October 24, 2007/kloc-0. This time, it took less than six months for the RMB to appreciate again in 0.5 yuan.

Second, the problems faced by productive foreign trade enterprises

In this paper, a productive foreign trade enterprise is defined as a foreign trade enterprise that has its own production base and all its export products are produced by itself. Faced with the above macroeconomic characteristics, what problems will production-oriented foreign trade enterprises face?

1. Due to the price increase of raw materials, the production cost rises.

In recent years, international oil prices have soared to record highs. After a period of transmission, the soaring oil price has been gradually reflected, and the gradual increase in costs is eroding corporate profits. According to the survey of the National Bureau of Statistics, in June 2004, the ex-factory prices of 24 major means of production products of 378 enterprises in 42 cities nationwide/KLOC-0 increased by 3.5% on average, with an increase of 3.2 percentage points. Among the 24 major means of production, such as petroleum, coal and nonferrous metals, the ex-factory price of 15 products is on the rise. The rise in oil prices has led to an increase in the prices of means of production, which has led to a substantial increase in the costs of enterprises in transportation, metallurgy, petrochemical, light industry, fishery, agriculture and other related industries. The rise in oil prices has also driven the prices of related products in the middle and lower reaches of oil. Products such as plastics and chemical fibers are based on basic petrochemical products. Because the cost of raw materials accounts for a large proportion in the production cost, they are very sensitive to the change of crude oil price.

2. Monetary policy leads to financing difficulties for enterprises, especially small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises.

In China, the financing difficulty of small and medium-sized enterprises is a long-standing problem. In 2008, due to the tight monetary policy implemented by the central bank, banks tightened the credit scale one after another, which made it more difficult for SMEs to raise funds. This year, the new loans of ICBC, ABC, BOC and CCB in Zhejiang Province decreased from148.727 billion yuan in 2007 to109.369 billion yuan, a decrease of one quarter.

According to a survey conducted by the reporter of Xiaokang Caizhi, due to the tight credit scale, many banks tend to support large enterprises with high safety factors, which makes the symptoms of "financing thirst" of SMEs more serious. A questionnaire survey of 100 small enterprises conducted by Nanjing Branch of the People's Bank of China shows that during June to March 2008, 35% of small enterprises in Nanjing reported "financial shortage". Some enterprises with low proportion of their own funds said that if they can't get the support of incremental funds or the loans are compressed, their production and operation will be in trouble.

3.high 3。 CPI leads to rising living costs and rising labor costs.

Due to the increase of CPI, especially the structural increase, mainly food, especially meat, poultry, eggs and some articles closely related to people's lives, it has brought some pressure to people's lives and led to an increase in people's living costs. The rising cost of living will inevitably require an increase in wages, which will eventually lead to an increase in the labor cost of enterprises. At the same time, due to the rapid economic growth in our country in recent years, the enterprises' expectation of future benefits is better, and the system reform of state organs, the wage growth level of the whole society should be accelerated in the past two years, which has exceeded the growth rate of GDP. After the implementation of the Labor Contract Law, the labor cost of enterprises has generally increased by 5%- 10%, especially in labor-intensive enterprises.

The appreciation of RMB makes productive foreign trade enterprises overwhelmed.

The appreciation of RMB has a great influence on foreign trade enterprises in the short term (because most foreign trade is calculated in US dollars, after the appreciation of RMB against the US dollar), the profits of export enterprises are reduced because of the depreciation of the US dollar. Although currency appreciation does not actually affect the value of import and export commodities, it only changes the relative prices of commodities in international trade and weakens their competitiveness in the international market. A 3% appreciation of RMB is equivalent to a 3% increase in the cost of export products and a 3% decrease in export competitiveness. After the appreciation of a country's currency, the foreign currency price of export commodities rises, which has a substitution effect in economics. The demand for foreign consumers to buy imported goods at the same price is reduced, which restricts the export of enterprises. The scale of imports has expanded.

Third, the countermeasures of production-oriented foreign trade enterprises

In the face of the characteristics of the current macroeconomic situation, from the above analysis, we can see that production-oriented foreign trade enterprises are facing many problems. How to solve these problems? This paper holds that the problems faced by productive foreign trade enterprises should be solved from three levels: the country, the industry and the enterprise itself.

1. National level

For the country, facing the grim situation of foreign trade enterprises, we can increase the support for foreign trade enterprises from two aspects: fiscal policy and monetary policy.

1) fiscal policy

In order to cope with the severe export situation in the second half of this year, China can increase the export tax rebate rate to maintain export growth. What macroeconomic theory really contributes to economic growth is not the total export, but the trade surplus. In the first half of this year, the trade surplus between import and export was US$ 22.6 billion, an increase of US$ 4.8 billion or 26.6% over the same period of last year. This situation of oversupply of foreign exchange makes it impossible for RMB to depreciate, but there is pressure for appreciation. Lin Yifu, director of China Economic Research Center of Peking University, believes that an increase of 8 percentage points in export tax rebate will stimulate exports equivalent to RMB depreciation 16%. Lin Yifu believes that there are many ways to stimulate exports to the United States, Europe, Africa and other countries without financial crisis, and raising the export tax rebate rate is one of the most important methods. If the export tax rebate is further raised, the stimulus to exports will also increase accordingly. At present, China's export tax rebate rate is basically the same as the legal tax rate of value-added tax, but the average tax rebate rate in China is adjusted to about 12%, which is far lower than the average tax rate of 17%, which is not conducive to China's export commodities to participate in international competition fairly at duty-free prices. According to the calculation of relevant institutions, the decrease of export tax rebate rate is roughly equal to the increase of export cost. Every reduction of export tax rebate rate by 1 percentage point is equivalent to an increase of general trade export cost by about 1 percentage point, and the export tax rebate rate is negatively related to general trade export cost.

2) Monetary policy.

In terms of monetary policy, in addition to directly increasing low-interest foreign trade loans, we will foster the export of productive foreign trade enterprises. Mainly to solve the financing problem that has long plagued small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises. Although big banks have launched many service brands in the field of SME credit, they pay more attention to SME customers than before due to the influence of policies. However, at the specific implementation level, it is not easy for SMEs to get loans from big banks. On the one hand, no matter the business inertia formed from the long-term "big base" or how to "use good steel in the cutting edge" under the current limited credit line, big banks are more willing to choose large enterprises as lending targets; On the other hand, despite the policy advocacy, the financing environment is improving day by day, but the small and medium-sized enterprises have high risks, and the scale diseconomy caused by the small loan amount is difficult to change much in the short term. Therefore, from the cost-benefit analysis, excluding policy reasons, big banks often do not attach importance to the loan business of SMEs. To solve the financing problem of small and medium-sized enterprises, we not only need to differentiate small banks by market competition and force them to enter this field, but also need to give full play to the advantages of the five state-owned commercial banks in network and capital. At the national level, we should encourage "big banks" to focus on large enterprises and large groups in the past, and begin to adjust the credit structure and turn to small enterprises. Compared with those big banks, the state should encourage many small banks to tilt their lending policies towards small and medium-sized enterprises, which is more meaningful. In the specific operation process, the People's Bank of China and the China Banking Regulatory Commission should issue specific SME loan policies, and give appropriate preferential treatment in terms of loan amount and loan-to-deposit ratio case during the implementation process. At the same time, we should vigorously develop private and local small and medium-sized financial institutions to solve the financing problem of small and medium-sized enterprises. Accelerating the construction of SME service system, establishing a perfect SME service organization system nationwide, actively promoting the construction of SME credit system, and giving full play to the role of SME guarantee institutions will also help to overcome information asymmetry and provide information support for SME financing. [2. Industry level

The appreciation of RMB, the rising labor cost and the implementation cost of labor contract law have caused the factory cost to rise, but the rising cost does not necessarily lead to the closure of the factory. The cost of Nike shoes is also rising. Why didn't it close down? If these are not enough to explain the closure of productive foreign trade enterprises, what is the real reason for the closure of productive foreign trade enterprises? Quite simply, these shoe factories have no pricing power. After the appreciation of RMB, rising labor costs and the implementation of the Labor Contract Law, shoe factories can't raise product prices, because such enterprises simply don't have any strength to talk about pricing power. The pricing power is almost entirely in the hands of foreigners, and the increase in product costs cannot be passed on. Once the cost exceeds the price, bankruptcy is inevitable

Take the shoe industry in Dongguan as an example, the price cannot be raised, which is determined by the inherent attributes of the shoe industry. The footwear industry belongs to a completely competitive market. In such a market, no enterprise has pricing power. The market price of shoes is the result of the interaction of all shoe factories and consumers in the world, just as the price of food is determined by all producers and consumers. In this sense, there is no difference between making shoes and growing food. All shoe factories can only accept this market price, but they are unable to change it. Although Dongguan is known as the "shoe capital of the world", its output accounts for one tenth of the world's, in terms of total output, as far as a single shoe factory is concerned, no shoe factory is big enough to affect the price, just as the largest farm in the world is not big enough to affect the world food price. The core problem is that the shoes in Dongguan are not Nike or Adidas, but ordinary shoes that can no longer be ordinary, and every country can produce them as long as it is willing. Dongguan can produce it, as can Vietnam, Israel and Mexico. When the RMB didn't appreciate, when the labor cost was still relatively low, the shoes in Dongguan had an advantage over those in other countries, that is, the price was cheap.

In China, not only large foreign trade companies, but also small shoe factories lack pricing power in today's rising cost pressure. Why is pricing power missing? The main reason is that the strength of a single company is too weak, the market share is small, the product technology content is low, and the homogenization phenomenon is serious. When an enterprise raises its price, foreign investors can choose other enterprises as its suppliers. How to solve the above problems? From the industry level, the industry needs to come forward, integrate the strength of productive foreign trade enterprises in the industry, and negotiate prices with foreign investors collectively. As long as the quotation is still lower than that of manufacturers outside the China market, China manufacturing is still fully attractive.

3. Enterprise level

1) In the face of rising energy, reducing energy consumption has become the first choice.

Facing the rising price of energy resources, reducing energy consumption is an inevitable choice for ordinary production-oriented foreign trade enterprises to ease the constraints of energy resources, change the mode of economic growth and improve economic competitiveness. Establish a long-term mechanism for energy conservation and consumption reduction, and accelerate the pace of industrial restructuring. Production-oriented foreign trade enterprises should vigorously carry out research and development of high-tech products with high technology content, low energy consumption and high added value, establish an industrial system suitable for a resource-saving society, and gradually reduce the dependence of enterprise development on energy through the adjustment of their own enterprise structure.

2) Facing financing difficulties, broaden financing channels.

As a productive foreign trade enterprise, we should not only pay attention to banks, but also focus on building an effective and multi-level financing system, starting with indirect financing and direct financing. The deep-seated reason behind the loan difficulty is information asymmetry. Many small and medium-sized enterprises in China belong to non-state-owned enterprises, and many small and medium-sized enterprises have irregular management and chaotic accounts, which leads to high management costs and high loan risks, thus making the credit of small and medium-sized enterprises, especially private enterprises, relatively low, resulting in so-called ownership discrimination. Therefore, small and medium-sized enterprises should strengthen their own management, especially financial management and long-term planning, and strive for financing opportunities as much as possible. At the same time, while expanding indirect financing channels, we should pay full attention to the expansion of direct financing channels, which is the fundamental way to solve the financing bottleneck of SMEs at present. Enterprises need different financing methods at different stages of their life cycle. For example, equity financing is more suitable for the start-up period and growth period of enterprises, and debt financing is more suitable for enterprises entering a stable period.

3) In the face of RMB appreciation and rising labor costs

(1) Build a big brand and improve the scientific and technological content of products.

China is a big manufacturing country. If a product sells well, there will be many homogeneous products with various names overnight, especially export enterprises. Many domestic enterprises are in the survival stage, lacking long-term brand planning, and most of their export products win at low prices. Production-oriented foreign trade enterprises should increase investment in technological transformation, speed up product upgrading, strive to improve product quality and added value, reduce the export of low-grade products with low prices and low profits, expand the export of their own brand products, improve the comprehensive competitiveness of export products, and take the road of differentiation and branding. The appreciation of RMB may force some enterprises to upgrade their products and enhance their export competitiveness in terms of quality and brand. At present, among many products, especially those exported from light industry, there are still few products with high added value and high technology content. Enterprises should gradually adjust product structure and integrate resources, vigorously explore the international market, implement export diversification strategy, realize product export to capital and brand export, adjust product structure, and improve product quality and grade. Intensify the structural adjustment of export commodities. Seize the favorable opportunity of RMB appreciation and import cost reduction, actively import advanced equipment technology and key parts, promote the structural transformation and technological upgrading of export industries, and change the growth mode of foreign trade.

(2) From extroversion to "domestic demand"

In the process of China's economic transformation from outside to inside, RMB appreciation is only one of the links. It is reported that since 2007, the state has continuously introduced a number of macro policies, such as environmental protection, utilization of foreign capital and adjustment of import structure, to promote the transformation of China's economy from export-oriented to domestic demand. The new labor contract, the merger of two taxes, the prohibition of processing trade catalogue and the reduction of export tax rebate in related industries have made export-oriented enterprises gradually lock their eyes on the domestic market. The profit of production-oriented foreign trade enterprises is meager, and the enterprises themselves must adjust the corresponding strategic deployment. The impact of RMB's continuous appreciation forces enterprises to speed up the adjustment. China itself is a huge market with strong demand, so it is easy for enterprises to avoid the influence of exchange rate fluctuations when conducting domestic trade. For productive foreign trade enterprises, the appreciation of RMB is not good news, but objectively, it also forces these "Made in China" to consider moving closer to "China brand".

(3) Foreign settlement instruments are changed to other currencies.

In the face of the continuous depreciation of the US dollar, the practices of the members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries are worth learning. Because oil transactions are denominated in US dollars, the depreciation of US dollars directly affects the income of OPEC members and oil exporting countries such as Russia and Angola, while the import and export transactions of other products are settled in non-US dollars, which makes oil exporting countries suffer from the loss of export income and the increase of import costs caused by the depreciation of US dollars. Therefore, at the Riyadh meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries on June 5438+065438+ 10, 2007, the two countries proposed to replace the US dollar with a basket of currencies as the oil trading currency of the member countries of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. At present, Iran has completely stopped using the US dollar and switched to a non-US dollar currency for oil transaction settlement. Due to the depreciation of the US dollar, production-oriented foreign trade enterprises suggest not to negotiate settlement in US dollars. In order to avoid exchange rate losses, they should adopt non-US dollar settlement method (euro) or RMB negotiation settlement. Even if the price is negotiated in US dollars, the validity period will be shortened from 1-2 months in the past to one week now. Even a production-oriented foreign trade enterprise can set the exchange rate of RMB against the US dollar at a fixed ratio when signing a bill within three months.

Four. abstract

The international macroeconomic situation is changing every day. As a productive foreign trade enterprise, there will be many difficulties. No matter what countermeasures are taken, becoming bigger and stronger is still the only way out for productive foreign trade enterprises. ◆