Analysis Report On The Export Of Chinese Shoes In The EU Market

The European Union is the second largest import market for footwear products after the United States.

In 2006, the import value of footwear products in the EU reached US $17 billion, an increase of 11.3% over 2005, an increase of 120.9% over 1999, including 2 billion 140 million pairs of imported shoes and 15 billion 200 million US dollars, respectively, which increased by 8.6% and 10.3% respectively over 2005.

In terms of EU footwear imports, leather shoes account for the largest proportion. In 2006, the import volume was 630 million pairs, the import amount was 8 billion 940 million US dollars, accounting for 52.5% of the total imports of footwear products, followed by plastic shoes, the import volume was 860 million pairs, the import amount was 3 billion 490 million US dollars, accounting for 20.5% of the total imports, textile face shoes 630 million pairs, 2 billion 660 million dollars, accounting for 15.6% of total imports.

Over the past few years, the footwear production and export volume of EU member countries has been decreasing year by year, while imports are on the rise. Due to the adjustment of EU industrial institutions, the EU footwear market is increasingly dependent on imports.

At the same time, the EU's consumption of footwear and per capita consumption are also increasing year by year.

China's footwear industry exports to the EU. Although the EU has imposed a 16.5% anti-dumping duty on Chinese footwear products since 2006, the EU is still the second largest export market for Chinese footwear products. China's footwear exports to the EU 792 million pairs, the export amount is 2 billion 579 million US dollars, the unit price is 3.25 US dollars / double, compared to 7.43%, 12.49% and 4.71% respectively.

China's footwear exports to Europe have advantages and disadvantages. Compared with Europe, the advantage of China's footwear products lies in the middle and low market.

It mainly includes the following advantages: (1) production cost advantage: low labor cost. At present, shoe making materials, spare parts, shoe making equipment and so on have basically been localized, and the cost is relatively low. (2) increasing labor productivity and technology level is also one of China's strengths.

In recent years, China has introduced and absorbed a lot of advanced technology, management and other advanced experience abroad to improve the productivity of China's footwear industry; (3) the scale advantage of China's footwear industry.

China's footwear industry has strong professional production capacity, complete industrial chain, stable employees and high technical quality.

Take the scale of enterprises as an example, the size of the medium-sized enterprises in China is 1000-2000, while the average number of enterprises in Italy is only about 50, and the average cost of each pair of shoes is shared. Chinese enterprises are much smaller than Italy enterprises.

Therefore, the advantages of China's medium and low class shoes that need mass production are obvious, which is unmatched by EU enterprises. (4) the pfer and adjustment of European industrial structure also create opportunities for Chinese products to enter Europe and fill up the middle and low market in Europe.

Existing problems and obstacles to anti-dumping duties. Since the beginning of 90s twentieth Century, the EU has adopted a variety of trade protection measures to restrict the import of footwear.

In 1995, the EU began to import quantity restrictions on some of our footwear products; in October 1997, 49.2% of the anti-dumping duties on some of my textile surface shoes were collected; in February 1998, the price of imports of some of my leather shoes and plastic shoes was set at a minimum price.

According to the relevant provisions of the protocol on accession to the WTO, the quota for Chinese footwear products in the EU has increased by 5%-15% per year in 2001-2004 years.

Quotas were abolished in January 1, 2005.

Since the second half of 2004, the European footwear Federation, Italy Footwear Association and other industry organizations began to actively deliberate and request the European Commission to take restrictive measures on footwear products imported from China.

In April 7, 2006, the European Commission decided to impose a gradual 4.8%-19.4% provisional anti-dumping duty on Chinese leather shoes.

In October 7th, the European Commission announced the final result. A Chinese enterprise received the market economy treatment and was given a 9.7% separate tax rate. The rest of the Chinese enterprises had a tax rate of 16.5%, and the tax period was two years.

Technical standard: (1) green environmental protection standard formaldehyde standard: content less than 75mg/g.

Azo: specific data refer to directive 2002/61/EC issued by the European Union.

Pentachlorophenol: the limit of this substance in leather products is 5mg/g. Some customers are more strict in meeting the requirements of green environmental protection, and their content can only be less than 0.5mg/g.

Metal: some metals are essential in dye, but excessive concentration can be harmful to human body.

If the nickel exceeds the standard, it can lead to lung cancer. The six valent chromium exceeding the standard can destroy the blood of the human body. Its content should be less than 3mg/g and TeCP less than 0.5mg/g.

(2) EU "eco label" system, in order to encourage the production and consumption of "green products" in Europe, the European Union launched the eco label system in 1992. In 2000, it passed the EU 1980/2000 Ordinance. Manufacturers and traders can apply for Eco labels for their products.

The eco label is a green flower pattern, and the product that gets the eco label is called "applique product".

(3) green trade barrier "green barrier" is a trade protection measure in modern international trade, in order to protect the environment, protect the health and safety of human beings and animals and plants, and enact strict environmental regulations and strict technical standards in order to achieve the purpose of restricting the import of foreign products.

Green barriers are very covert and have a wide range of restrictions, including product design, production, packaging, pportation, consumption, waste recovery and so on. Products can not meet the requirements in any link, and may be rejected by green barriers.

Because of its strong concealment, green barrier has gradually become the main way of international trade protection.

Since October 6, 2006, EU has imposed anti-dumping duties on leather shoes from China for a period of two years and 16.5%. In May this year, it extended the scope of the levy to the leather shoes that were re exported through Macao, resulting in a significant slowdown in the export of footwear products to the EU in the near future.

European Union footwear manufacturers have publicly announced that they will ask the European Commission to extend the anti-dumping measures on Chinese leather shoes for another 3 years, and propose interim review and sunset review to further raise anti-dumping duties.

Lack of market recognized private brands. China's exports to the EU are mainly OEM, with almost no brand owned by the EU market.

The competition in the world shoe market is increasingly fierce. If we continue to rely on quantity expansion to increase trade exports, it will lead to more trade friction and the trade environment will further deteriorate.

Since October 2006, the EU has imposed a 16.5% anti-dumping duty on leather shoes imported from China.

In the face of such a market environment, Chinese enterprises should speed up their own brand building, change the mode of trade growth, improve the overall competitiveness of products, and gradually expand the share of our own brand products in the EU market.

Analysis of the prospects for developing the EU market: the footwear products imported from the EU are mainly from China, Vietnam and Romania.

According to statistics from the European Union statistics bureau, the European Union imported more than US $1 billion from these three countries, reaching US $6 billion 800 million, US $2 billion 610 million and US $1 billion 800 million respectively.

The three countries accounted for more than half of the EU's footwear market share, reaching 65.9%, of which China is the largest supplier of the EU footwear market.

In the EU footwear import market, the market share of China's plastic shoes and textile shoes is 64.2% and 65.3% respectively, ranking the first. The largest imports of leather shoes now exceed Vietnam, ranking first.

China footwear products have obvious advantages in the EU market, but they are not irreplaceable.

The EU's 16.5% anti-dumping duty on leather shoes imported from China will lead to unfair market competition. Therefore, Chinese enterprises should continuously improve the competitiveness of our products, while preserving the original market share, and gradually expand the share of the middle and high end market.

To strengthen the early warning and monitoring system of footwear export, we should give full play to the role of trade associations such as import and export chambers of Commerce and so on. We will closely follow the EU's import and export data, price changes, relevant trade policies and technical standards, and domestic industries and export situations, and timely notify them so that enterprises can adjust their business strategies according to market changes.

To enhance the competitiveness of products and rebuild the overall image of "made in China". At present, in the cooperation with the European Union, the value added components of high quality raw materials, core technology, R & D, marketing and so on are mainly in the European Union, while China's export growth still depends mainly on quantity expansion, and the overall profit margin is low.

Therefore, the Chinese footwear industry should change the mode of trade growth, gradually improve the quality and efficiency of trade growth, improve the overall competitiveness of Chinese shoes, and rebuild the overall image of "made in China".

To strengthen brand building, China's export footwear should create its own brand name as soon as possible, enhance its innovation capability and enhance its core competitiveness.

While establishing a brand, a powerful company can consider acquiring foreign shoemaking factories or brands, and achieving complementary advantages at home and abroad through brand sharing and the introduction of advanced management systems abroad.