2020 is undoubtedly the winter of foreign trade. In February, the company was worried that it would not be able to return to work and production. Every day, the company was busy reassuring customers, worried about going abroad to participate in the exhibition, worried about not being able to enter the country, and was afraid that it would not be able to come back. In march, before the upstream supply chain had fully recovered, there was concern that there was no demand downstream.
"I can feel the atmosphere of this year's difficulty in making money. Everyone is waiting for the free subway at 6:30." "Said Owen, who works in a foreign trade company in ningbo.
There were no orders and he was paid a basic salary, but Owen was one of the lucky ones in his circle of friends.
According to the latest import and export data released by the general administration of customs recently, China's exports fell 11.4% and imports fell 0.7% in the first quarter of 2020 compared with the same period last year.
Imports and exports rebounded significantly in March, with the decline in exports narrowing to 3.5% and imports turning from negative to positive at 2.4%.
A spokesman for the general administration of customs said the rebound in exports in March was due to a backlog of export orders being delivered due to delays in returning to work.
Obviously, this rebound is not a sign of a rebound in foreign trade. After all, many foreign trade enterprises began to produce orders at the end of February. According to the agreement, the foreign trade company can only receive a small part of the payment after the goods are delivered.
An even bigger crisis lurks, as factories run out of production after all the pre-epidemic orders have been shipped. "The orders that factories are making now are orders that were made before march," he said. "Existing orders can be made until the end of may or early June. "That's the biggest worry right now," Owen said.
In the predicament, foreign trade enterprises opened a fancy self-help, some enterprises began to use the production line to produce epidemic prevention materials, there are also enterprises busy with the strength of the platform to export for domestic sales.