Exports from Guangdong feel pinch of global turmoil

01 Nov '08

2 min read

Under the shadow of volatility in global economy, exports from Guangdong province are witnessing a negative trend. In the first three quarters of 2008, from among those companies from Guangdong which had exported last year, 6823 companies have dropped from the list in the current year of which 3499 are from the private sector.

According to records of the Guangzhou Customs Statistics Office, in first nine months of current year, exports registered US $301 billion, a year-on-year increase of 13.5 percent but the growth rate fell 10.9 percent from the same time last year. These exports accounted for 28 percent of the country's total exports.

Data shows that exports by SMEs in Guangdong dropped significantly. In the period under review, 18,000 SMEs from the private sector shipped products worth $10 billion of which 47 enterprises cumulatively achieved an export value of US $100 million, while 9800 enterprises realized an export value of less then US $1 million to collectively reach $3.14 billion.

Clothing, footwear, furniture, textile yarns and toys constitute five categories of the largest and traditional light industrial products in Guangdong's basket of exports. However, in the first three quarters, Guangdong garment exports totaled to nearly $18 billion, down by 30 percent.

It is learned that exports to the main global markets from Guangdong have shown signs of slowing down this year. In the period Jan-Sept, export growth rates of Guangdong to most markets lowered significantly, however shipments to the EU and South Korea increased corresponding to the same period of 2007. Growth rates to the two major emerging markets of Latin America and Africa also fell sharply by 22.9 and 40 percent.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - China

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