Hebei'S Export Enterprises Were Caught Off Guard In September.

Since the reform in 2005

"For our pure foreign trade, two factors are uncontrollable, one is raw material, the other is exchange rate."

Speaking of the recent market situation, Li Yue, who has done more than 4 years of foreign trade clothing business in Shijiazhuang, told reporters reluctantly.

Li Yue, a small foreign trade company, mainly deals with clothing, and its customers are mainly for the US and Europe. Almost all of them are settled in US dollars.

In the last two months, she has been caught off guard by the sudden acceleration of the appreciation of the renminbi.

Li Yue told reporters that under normal circumstances, from customer enquiries to company quotations, deposit in place and then to the factory, the order of clothing needs at least two months, if the exchange rate changes too fast, foreign trade companies will bear a larger exchange rate risk.

Take an order of 1 million US dollars, for example, if the order at the beginning of June was RMB 1:6.8 against the US dollar, and by September 21st, the RMB against the US dollar had reached 1:6.69.

"Do not belittle this 0.1 yuan, 1 million dollar list, our exchange rate losses will be as high as 100 thousand yuan at a time."

Li Yue told reporters that the profit margin of clothing trade in normal years is about 5%-10%, which means that even if the exchange rate remains at 1:6.8 level, the profit of the order of 1 million dollars is only about 350 thousand yuan.

"Only exchange rate, we lose nearly 30% of our profits."

Li Yue told reporters that in the past half a month, the orders of the peers had basically been determined in advance, and foreign traders who had no orders at the time were afraid to pick up the new ones.

"If the appreciation of the renminbi continues, then a single list will probably blow up its own hands, so it is better to not do it for the time being."

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Over the past 3 months, the total appreciation of RMB has exceeded 1.8%.

In September 27th, the central parity of RMB against the US dollar was 6.7098, which rose slightly compared with the previous trading day. However, the exchange rate of banks still lingers around 6.69 yuan.

According to the historical data of the central parity of RMB against the US dollar of the people's Bank of China, the reporter calculated that the appreciation rate of RMB against the US dollar was about 1.87% from June 21st to September 21st.

From 1:6.7907 in September 8th to 1:6.6997 on the 21 day, only 9 trading days, the speed is very fast.

Li Yue told reporters that in order to cope with the rapid appreciation of the renminbi, foreign trade enterprises generally have two ways, one is to raise the quoted price, and the other is to postpone the delivery of the two.

But raising the offer is clearly unwise.

Figures from the Hebei Foreign Trade Department of the commerce department show that as of now, Hebei's foreign trade business record enterprises have totaled 14691.

A textile and garment industry told reporters that Hebei's foreign trade enterprises, steel and textile and garment industry accounted for the bulk.

According to his understanding, only Baoding and Shijiazhuang have nearly 1000 enterprises engaged in foreign trade in textiles and clothing.

"In such a competitive environment, if you offer a higher price, the buyer will run away."

Li Yue told reporters.

And trying to delay delivery is not a permanent solution.

Li Yue told reporters that if it is an old customer and the scale of the paction is large, foreign trade providers can postpone delivery time briefly, but most orders may have a risk of default if the delivery is extended.

Moreover, in the context of the continued appreciation of the renminbi, delayed delivery is not safe. "Maybe a renminbi will appreciate again, and the losses will be even greater."

The survival space of foreign traders is double squeezed.

"To be honest, we have not paid much attention to the issue of RMB appreciation recently, because the cost of upstream costs is far greater than the appreciation of the renminbi."

Xiao Bai, the head of the marketing department of a large textile company in the northern suburb of Shijiazhuang, told reporters that the price of raw materials for the production of fabrics has increased by 15%-20% during the last week. For a textile enterprise integrating production and foreign trade, this means that the original meager profit is being eaten up from both upstream and downstream.

The textile and garment industry is only a microcosm.

Wang, the manager of a steel foreign trade enterprise in Langfang, told the reporter that the appreciation of the RMB has destroyed a lot of small and medium steel trade merchants.

Manager Wang said, Hebei's steel exports are mainly concentrated in the plate and other low profit margins varieties, so the small fluctuations in the exchange rate will have a great impact on traders.

In recent months, due to the sharp fluctuations in domestic steel prices and the large change in the RMB exchange rate, a large number of foreign steel traders with less capital strength have stopped taking orders.

The figures from the customs confirm the predicament of the enterprises, which is affected by the drop of steel export. In August, the export volume of our province decreased, the export volume was only 1 billion 810 million US dollars, and the ratio fell by 16.5%.

In terms of the trend of RMB appreciation, Hebei's export situation in September is still not optimistic.