On March 14th, according to the Guangdong branch of the General Administration of Customs, Guangdong's foreign trade imports and exports reached 1.35 trillion yuan in the first two months of this year, a year-on-year increase of 24.9%. Among them, exports reached 885.94 billion yuan, an increase of 26.8%.
The "opening" performance of Guangdong's foreign trade is consistent with the overall performance of China's foreign trade in the first two months of this year, and in terms of import and export growth rate, it also "outperformed" the whole country (8.7%). The Guangdong Branch of the General Administration of Customs also stated that overall, Guangdong's foreign trade has maintained development resilience, continuing the stable and positive momentum since the end of last year. It is expected to achieve rapid growth in the first quarter and achieve a "good start".
On March 13th, the human resources and social security department of Guangdong Province announced at the press conference of the 2024 "South Guangdong Spring Warmth" large-scale job fair that a survey showed that 88.7% of enterprises expected a stable or positive production and operation situation in 2024, and 70.3% of enterprises said that their employment scale would remain stable or increase. According to a survey conducted by relevant departments in Guangdong in February, orders from key foreign trade enterprises in the province have rebounded, and expectations for this year have stabilized.
"This year's expectations are better than last year," said several Guangdong foreign trade practitioners in the past month.
"I've come through it now"
"A good start" is not easy to come by.
For Chen Lan, who is 39 years old this year, the more specific manifestation of "hard won" is that "the company has survived". "I have almost halved the number of employees, from 1000 at the beginning of 2023 to 500 by the end of the year, which is more serious than every time we have had a layoff, and my income has also decreased," Chen Lan said on March 12th. The headquarters of its company is located in Foshan, Guangdong, and it is an established local enterprise with an annual revenue of approximately 500 million yuan, and its export business accounts for over 80%.
"As far as my own business is concerned, I actually felt that there was a slight difference in orders in the second half of 2022, and it became even more obvious in 2023, especially for European and American customers. Old customers placed fewer orders, and there were almost no new customers." Chen Lan said that her company's situation is quite common in the industry, with a certain scale and technology. She has been relying on "large orders" from European and American customers for a long time, and its development is relatively stable.
"Our boss still has a sense of crisis. In fact, he has been interested in cross-border e-commerce for a long time. The markets of ASEAN and the Belt and Road countries are also the direction we planned to explore last year." Chen Lan said that she is a veteran employee of the company. Although she also suffered salary cuts, she also felt that "it is better to be familiar than to be a stranger".
"Last year, I went to Vietnam and Thailand with my boss a few times, and there were definitely opportunities, but I was still quite conservative, mainly doing some preliminary research and experimental cooperation. This year, many projects will be officially launched." Chen Lan said, "In 2023, the company's series of adjustments will be very difficult, but everyone still believes that it will get through." We took on both large and small orders, some of which did not make much profit, just to keep the company going, and the fact has proven to be right. ".
Similarly, Chen Minhua and his company have also survived. Chen Minhua is the head of the new energy business line of a copper processing enterprise in Guangzhou. "Our previous clients were mainly home appliance companies. Last year, the competition was fierce and we only got the business of new energy vehicles. There were too many people competing for it, and it was very difficult." On March 12th, Chen Minhua said that in order to compete for this business, the company established a new department and opened a new production line last year.
"Change" is the normal condition
"These small orders are our 'good start' for this year. We didn't finish them last year and will continue to work on them at the beginning of this year. We still need to recruit more people next," said Chen Lan. In terms of expectations for this year, she said, "It should be better than last year. Europe and America are recovering, and we have also made many improvements in our products. Continuing to cooperate is not a problem, but our dependence on them will decrease."
"Profit is not the most important thing now, and the business needs to be on track, which is a long-term development consideration." Chen Minhua also said that at least now they have indeed secured orders. "The factory has been quite busy in the past one or two months.".
The data from the Guangdong branch of the General Administration of Customs also responded to the feelings of Chen Lan and Chen Minhua.
Data shows that in the first two months of this year, Guangdong's foreign trade import and export reached 1.35 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 24.9%. Among them, exports reached 885.94 billion yuan, an increase of 26.8%; Imports reached 462.4 billion yuan, an increase of 21.5%. During the same period, the import and export of general trade and bonded logistics grew rapidly, with a total of 820.48 billion yuan and 240.87 billion yuan respectively, an increase of 34.9% and 32.8%.
Meanwhile, Guangdong has achieved positive growth with its major trading partners. In the first two months, ASEAN, the United States, Hong Kong, the European Union and Taiwan, China were the top five trading partners of Guangdong, up 17.3%, 32.3%, 17.1%, 12.1% and 20.3% respectively, accounting for 15.5%, 11.6%, 11.4%, 11.3% and 7.1% of Guangdong's total import and export value. In addition, import and export to countries jointly building the "the Belt and Road" reached 515.33 billion yuan, up 23.1%, accounting for 38.2%.
In addition, both electromechanical products and labor-intensive products have seen double-digit growth. In the first two months, Guangdong's exports of mechanical and electrical products increased by 19.9%, accounting for 63.8% of Guangdong's total export value. Among them, automatic data processing equipment and its components, household appliances, audio and video equipment and its components, and integrated circuits increased by 18.2%, 29%, 29.4%, and 51.1%, respectively. During the same period, the export of labor-intensive products also grew rapidly, increasing by 33.7%, accounting for 15.1% of Guangdong's total export value.
It is worth noting that in the export of mechanical and electrical products, the export of containers and ships has increased significantly, with growth rates of 178% and 211.1%, respectively.
On March 13th, when discussing expectations for this year, Chen Minhua said that change is the norm in foreign trade, and welcoming change is also the norm. This has always been his work attitude.
"Survival of the fittest, facing difficulties bravely, and challenging new goals!" He said, this is the encouragement for himself in the new year.
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