Wu's angel company in Yiwu is known as a plastic toy manufacturing enterprise. The main product is PVC inflatable toys, and the annual export value is more than 80 million yuan. However, under heavy pressure, she now feels sad and hard to imagine the difficulties faced by other small businesses.
As Yiwu, one of the country's largest export bases for plastic toys, companies are generally facing tremendous pressure to survive.
After more than 20 years of hard work and development, prices of chemical raw materials have increased. At present, there are 2254 joint ventures and industrial and commercial households engaged in the toy industry in Yiwu, of which about 400 are enterprises, employing more than 20,000 people and an annual output value of 1.2 billion yuan. .
Yiwu goods are cheap, but the quality is not good, which is almost a global consensus. In spite of this, Yiwu's products have taken advantage of price advantages and good market mechanisms to move toward the country and even to the world. Every year from July to October, Yiwu will usher in a holiday season for Christmas goods, and this year is no exception. Data from the Zhejiang Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau shows that from January to October this year, Christmas items exported from Zhejiang Province were US$169 million, a year-on-year increase of 12.15%; in Yiwu, only China Commodity City’s cumulative transactions from January to October The amount reached 21.15 billion yuan, an increase of 4.93% over the same period of last year.
However, behind the growth of domestic and foreign trade, the profits of enterprises are being greatly reduced. Yixin Li, the secretary general of the Toy Industry Association of Yiwu City, stated that the increase in production is because demand still exists. However, as international oil prices continue to rise, the prices of chemical products in the domestic market have risen and the cost of toys has risen rapidly. Enterprises generally report that profits are not as good as last year. It is understood that in the first half of this year, the average price of PE plastic, which is one of the main raw materials for the production of Christmas gifts, rose by more than 15% year-on-year. With such a high rate of increase, the impact on the toy companies with low profits is self-evident. When the huge gift of Christmas toys, the plastic toy industry, was delivered to the door, some small and medium-sized enterprises in Yiwu had even dared not take orders, and large enterprises with relatively strong strengths were also very cautious when taking orders.
The low price pass made it difficult to make it. In recent years, due to the low price of Yiwu toys, the proportion of exports has increased year by year. At present, there are more than 600 domestic foreign trade agencies in Yiwu City, nearly 500 overseas business offices in the compulsory commercial representative office, and more than 6,000 foreign-owned permanent residents living in Yiwu to purchase small commodity exports. Yiwu toy products are exported to Europe and the United States, Japan, Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and other countries and regions. In 2004, the industry achieved a trade volume of 270 million U.S. dollars. The export volume accounts for 60% of the city's total volume of export containers. The current proportion of foreign trade in the industry has reached about 45%.
However, this year, Yiwu people began to feel that the cheap is no longer an invincible pass, especially in developed countries, began to set a threshold for toy imports. The first was the European Union, and later Canada and Japan. Three countries and regions successively proposed to impose restrictions on imported toys in China. The EU Circular No. 82 intends to expand the use of phthalate ester auxiliaries prohibited in toys to all childcare products. The content of phthalates DEHP and DINP must not exceed 0.1%. Japan subsequently issued Technical Regulation No. 114, which revised the specifications and standards for equipment, containers or containers, toys, and detergents, emphasizing the importance of replacing harmful additives and improving the accuracy of analysis. These standard or specification products may not be used or sold.
Under pressure only change type
In addition to the unfavorable factors such as rising raw material prices, increased trade barriers, and exchange rate adjustments, Yiwu’s labor costs are constantly increasing. This is an irreversible trend. Smart Yiwu entrepreneurs understand: If you continue to take the low-cost, low-quality road, it will not work. It is necessary to transform its own enterprise from a traditional workshop type to a new type of enterprise with a modern concept of competition.
'Although companies can barely maintain a little profit, they will definitely go on a dead end in the long run. Under pressure can only change. 'Ms. Wu said.
When asked by reporters how she intends to change, she said there are two main reasons: first, the introduction of talent. Angel is a company she founded. She has long followed a family-owned management system. After full consideration, she decided to transfer the company to a professional manager for professional management, complete the transformation of family management to modern professional managers, and another one was to increase the capital investment for the research and development of new products and technology introduction, and the product structure. Make adjustments and focus on high value-added high-end toy products.
Like Little Angel Company, many toy companies in Yiwu began to explore the path of modern enterprises. The unfamiliar words of quality, patents, and brands have now become the topics of greatest interest to entrepreneurs. A group of well-known companies with scale, grade, brand, and self-export rights began to emerge. Their products are deeply favored by domestic and foreign merchants.
Yiwu's plastic toy companies are becoming 'type' under multiple pressures.
'It's not an influence. It's a very big influence. 'Wu Wu, the owner of Yiwu Little Angel Toys Co., Ltd. complained to reporters, 'The price of raw materials has risen so badly, the yuan has appreciated, the threshold for foreigners is getting higher and higher, and now the labor is also difficult to find, and the days of business are certainly not good. It's better. '