Europe and the United States economic decline or involving domestic toy gift providers

This Christmas will make the toy and gift industry unhappy.

Dongguan's gift toys exports to the EU dropped by 20% year-on-year

“As I expected, this year's orders have fallen by more than 20% from previous years, and the number of consultation telephones has dropped. The Christmas gift and toy market is very difficult to do this year.” Yesterday morning, Dongguan Toys Manufacturer Li Yongping was interviewed by the reporter. When talking about the status quo of the toy industry, he said, "Now we can only say that we can maintain our operations. The reason why we did not change our business is because we are trying to open up the domestic market. This is a practice of many export processing counterparts."

Consistent with Li Yongping’s statement, relevant information shows that in the third quarter of this year, the number of national gifts and toy products exported to EU countries decreased by 20% compared with the same period of last year, and at the 110th Canton Fair that ended earlier this month, Europe’s The actual transactions of US buyers at the meeting decreased by 19% and 24% respectively. Dongguan many toy industry employees said in an interview, will fully explore the domestic market.

Text, map / reporter Chen Ming toy maker: Christmas did not bring demand growth in the product model display room, toy maker Li Yongping looked dazzling, cute expression of toy products, his face did not smile, he said that it was originally expected this year Orders in the third quarter will rise to a certain extent, but the actual situation is still declining, which is more than a 20% drop from last year.

Consistent with Li Yongping's statement, Xiao Lin, chairman of the Harbin generation known as the first Chinese toy brand, said in an interview with reporters that due to the downturn in the international market, he has focused on the domestic market. Christmas products he did not intervene to do this year. "I didn't do Christmas products, but as far as I know, the Christmas market has been sluggish this year, and the 20% reduction in exports is credible."

Xiao Lin said that due to the problems of cost and recruitment difficulties, even in the domestic market, this year's generation of Kazakhstan has also reduced sales by 20%. He said that the profit of the Kazakhstan generation has been reduced this year. This is a dilemma for the industry as a whole, and it has little to do with the individual's production and management behavior.

In Xiao Lin's opinion, the reason why the toy industry, including its own companies, is not performing satisfactorily this year is that the company's operating costs have risen sharply, rising by about 20%. Among them, raw material prices are subject to input-type inflation and domestic inflation has risen. Employees' salaries are a big one, and they have also risen by about 20%. In addition, small-cost items such as electricity and transportation have also risen. As a result, the company's only profit was squeezed to almost zero.

A person from the Dongguan Toy Association told reporters that in previous years, half a year before Christmas was the peak season for the demand for toys and gifts. Manufacturers of these products often greeted the peak of a wave of orders. Many manufacturers even Profits throughout the year depend on the Christmas market.

The economic downturn in Europe and the United States, involving domestic toy and gift business sources, revealed that Christmas gifts, toys and other supplies were mainly produced in Asian countries, while China accounted for at least 90% of the share, of which Guangdong accounted for 70%. Starting from the second quarter of each year, Chinese toy makers and gift makers began accepting orders for Christmas products, which were subsequently produced according to plan. The products were continuously transported to the European and American markets via the sea. They did not end until the beginning of December.

However, this year's situation is quite different. Affected by the economic downturn in the European countries and the shrinking market demand, the number of orders placed by international buyers to China has dropped significantly compared with previous years. Lin Yu, a gift foreign trade company, revealed that the market downturn has caused buyers to dare not to place large orders, and at the same time, prices have also been more severe.

She said that an old Belgian customer used to ask her to order 50,000 Christmas trees every year. This year, she only ordered 20,000 of her, and her price was the same as last year. Not increasing prices means that profits are falling. “But we still have to take this list. Why? Because there is generally such a market, there is no way to do it. Others do it.”

Li Yongping said that in June and July, even if foreign customers were to place large orders, he and more of his peers dared not take over, because raw material prices rose steadily on the one hand, and on the other hand, the appreciation of *** was very high. Do not dare to take a long list.

“In the past, every Christmas order will bring a huge profit. This year is totally different. There is no one to pick up until finally there is no one to pick up.” said a manager of a foreign trade company. To undertake some high-quality, trustworthy orders from old customers, some are not even to make money, but only to maintain the good cooperative relations formed over the years, in order to continue to cooperate after the market conditions become better.

Li Yongping said that 90% of the world's Christmas toys and gifts are produced in China. At present, it is less than a month from the traditional Christmas in Europe. However, the EU economy in the international market, especially the main market for Christmas products, has been sluggish, which has directly led to the loss of the profits of a large number of toy and gift companies in Dongguan relying on export processing.

Where is the direction of the toy market?

Dongguan Toy Association, an unnamed source told reporters that this Christmas gifts, toy market shrinking in addition to the EU economic downturn, in fact, there are increasingly strict European and American toy import testing standards, following the EU 2011 7 After the implementation of the most stringent toy regulations known as the "European New Zealand Toy Safety Directive" (hereinafter referred to as the "New Directive"), the United States also started implementing a new regulation for lead in children's products in August, setting the lead content standard to 300 ppm from the current regulations. , reduced to 100ppm. This is also a major obstacle to China’s toy exports.

At the just-concluded 110th Canton Fair, the Canton Fair spokesperson Liu Jianjun disclosed that the features of this session of the Canton Fair are: European and American markets have sharply decreased transactions, and emerging markets are relatively active. Among the participants, the largest number of purchasers was Asia, which accounted for 54% of the total attendees. Buyers from Europe and the United States are more likely to wait and see inquiries, and actual transactions have dropped by 19% and 24% respectively. In India, Russia, Brazil, and other emerging economies, transactions increased by 9%, and sales in potential markets such as Africa, Asia, and Latin America increased by 39%. Emerging markets have also become new important destinations for Chinese exports.

"In addition to the domestic market, perhaps the biggest direction in the future is the emerging countries' markets. However, for enterprises, these countries' markets must become a major trading target, and it will take some time to adapt." Said Xiao Lin, chairman of the generation of generations.

In order to get rid of the embarrassment of the European Union and the American market as early as possible, the Hardy toys created by Xiao Xiaolin began experimenting with the operation of the domestic market two years ago. At present, he has developed channels for joining franchisees in many large and medium-sized cities in China. Has achieved considerable results. He believes that the domestic market is always an indispensable direction in the future.

However, Li Yongping believes that “the toy is not a necessity for life. Therefore, it can only be developed in the middle and upper classes in all countries. There is a certain demand in large and medium-sized cities in China, and there is basically no big market in small cities and rural markets. Demand, therefore, the main market is still waiting for developed countries and regions."