Chinese "Craftsmen" Need To Practice Their "Internal Skills" To Survive In The Foreign Trade Market

More than 50 years ago, at the age of 16, Zheng Xiukang began to learn to make mechanical molds. Coincidentally, this small "craftsman" learned how to make shoes and developed step by step. In the 1980s, he founded his own shoe factory in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, the birthplace of China's private economy.

Today, this "craftsman" is nearly 70 years old, and his shoe brand "Kangnai" is a benchmark for the manufacturing of high-end leather shoes in China. More than a decade ago, Kangnai went abroad and made its debut in the Italian market. Subsequently, a large number of specialty stores "flooded" into the world.

However, he was also troubled by common problems: "If Kangnai sells 500 yuan (RMB, the same below) and Nike sells 520 yuan, consumers will definitely buy Nike shoes."

Made in China has no choice but to be trusted in foreign trade. “ Orez ”Zhang Wei, the successor of the brand, told the reporter that the current average price of his own brand is more than 1000 yuan, and some well-known brands can sell more than 3000 yuan.

"If our products can also sell for more than 3000 yuan, we will certainly make the quality better," Zhang Wei said frankly.

Zhang Wei's father is Zhang Zhouquan, a "craftsman" with machining experience. Since the 1990s, he has started the bathroom industry and founded his own brand "Aurex". In 1997, their products began to go abroad.

"At the beginning, I used a calculator to bargain with foreigners and made a hard start step by step," Zhang Wei recalled. Today, enterprise products have been sold to more than 30 countries and regions. In 2015, the export volume of the enterprise was 15.22 million US dollars, an increase of 17% over the previous year. However, there are still many "branded goods".

In his opinion, in today's foreign trade Under the situation, to continue its vitality, we also need to ensure quality and expand our own brand.

Shengwei International Holding (China), which is engaged in high-end safes and communication equipment, has participated in the database construction of Google, Facebook and LinkedIn. Today, the brand's share has been greatly improved. In the first quarter of this year, the company's orders still grew well.

However, in recent years, these "craftsmen" engaged in foreign trade also fell into a certain dilemma.

According to the statistics of China Customs, in the first quarter of 2016, the total import and export value of China's goods trade was 5.2 trillion yuan, down 5.9% from the same period last year.

Cost rise, complex environment, and international market decline... Faced with the severe situation, "craftsmen" took measures to actively respond.

Take Kangnai Group as an example. In recent years, like its Chinese counterparts the labor The pressure of rising costs and raw material costs has an average annual growth of about 10%.

In the face of pressure, Kangnai Group chose to develop towards high-end manufacturing. The average price of leather shoes exported for foreign trade was 25 dollars per pair, avoiding low-end competition and ensuring reasonable profit margins and attractiveness to the foreign trade market.

At the same time, accelerate technological innovation, improve the added value of products, and implement measures such as machine replacement, energy conservation and consumption reduction to improve their own "internal skills".

"Don't forget the original intention." Zheng Xiukang said, "If Chinese enterprises want to go out, they must first improve their manufacturing capacity and let themselves' live for a long time 'before they can slowly enter other countries." He said that in the current foreign trade situation, only by controlling quality can they actively embrace the new normal.

"At present, the European market is not optimistic", Zhang Wei said that developing new technologies to reduce costs was his choice.

He said that the enterprise is also trying to launch some products of mobile phone interconnection in the bathroom industry through "addition" with the Internet. "For example, cooperation with hospitals to launch health functions, or to add music, voice control, etc., can be added to the products."

It is the mentality of Chinese "craftsmen" to be long and not easily "inflated". As Zheng Xiukang sighed: "It is the premise of going global to make a good pair of shoes and articles and let the world know our manufacturing brand."