Flexible supply chain to ensure the growth of small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises

On April 20, xtransfer and CCPIT jointly released the report on export trade (B2B) index of small, medium and micro enterprises in March 2022. The report shows that the collection volume of China's small, medium-sized and micro foreign trade enterprises increased by 15.7% year-on-year in March, slightly higher than the growth rate of goods trade export in March released by the General Administration of customs. "This highlights the strong growth momentum of small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises." The report said.
Since this year, various unexpected factors at home and abroad have brought challenges to the development of China's foreign trade industry. In February, changes in the international situation pushed up the prices of various raw materials. Since March, city covid-19 has been frequently seen in Shenzhen, Shanghai and other core foreign trade cities. The further upgrading of epidemic prevention and control has led to the blocking of some domestic supply chain links, which makes many foreign trade enterprises face various problems from raw material procurement to post production shipment.
To this end, this report includes the leading index of China's foreign trade exports in March and the competitiveness index of China's small, medium-sized and micro foreign trade enterprises in March. It also specially launched the leading index of foreign trade exports in Shenzhen and Shanghai to show the export performance of core foreign trade cities under the influence of this round of epidemic.
Deng Guobiao, founder and CEO of xtransfer, said that the above index quoted the representative sample data of the same batch of customers in March this year and the same period in previous years, combined with the collection performance of small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises on xtransfer platform and the export data of China Customs, to reflect the export performance of Chinese small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises under the influence of sudden factors at home and abroad, Provide important guidance and strategic basis for the global exhibition of China's small, medium-sized and micro foreign trade enterprises in the second quarter of 2022 and the whole year.

According to Deng Guobiao, in the B2B foreign trade collection data, advance collection accounts for a large proportion. Combining this indicator with other indicators can reflect the relevant changes in the operation of China's foreign trade industry in the future.

The foreign trade industry continues to maintain strong resilience
According to the statistics of the General Administration of customs, the total import and export value of China's goods trade in March was 3.2 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.8%. Among them, the export was 1.75 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.9%. According to the above report, although many unexpected factors have exceeded expectations, China's foreign trade industry has maintained strong resilience.
According to the data released by xtransfer, the leading index of China's foreign trade exports rose steadily in March 2022, showing a relatively consistent trend compared with the same period last year; The fluctuation of the index stems from the normal cyclical performance of foreign trade receipts. Sudden factors at home and abroad have not affected the development trend of China's small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises in March. The report shows that in March this year, the collection volume of China's small, medium-sized and micro foreign trade enterprises increased by 15.7% year-on-year. The report predicts that in the second quarter of 2022, China's foreign trade exports are expected to gradually get rid of the impact of adverse factors at home and abroad and continue to achieve steady growth.
In order to quickly control the risk of epidemic spread, Shenzhen conducted closed management of the whole city's communities in March. The short-term closure did not have a great impact on small, medium-sized and micro foreign trade enterprises in Shenzhen. According to xtransfer platform data, the collection volume of small, medium-sized and micro foreign trade enterprises in Shenzhen increased by 18.4% year-on-year in March, and the growth rate is still slightly higher than the overall national level. The report shows that after a seven-day closed-end management from March 14, the Shenzhen foreign trade export leading index quickly corrected after a short decline and returned to the normal level. The report believes that Shenzhen, as one of China's most active foreign trade cities, will usher in steady growth in the second quarter.
In contrast, the collection volume of small, medium-sized and micro foreign trade enterprises in Shanghai increased by 12.2% in March. Although the growth rate was slightly lower than the overall national level, the leading index of foreign trade and exports did not show a significant decline due to the spread of the epidemic and the upgrading of prevention and control. The report believes that this is due to the decentralized and flexible supply chain of small, medium-sized and micro foreign trade enterprises in Shanghai, and the upstream and downstream suppliers of some enterprises spread all over the country, effectively improving the anti risk ability.
As of the day of release of the report (April 20), the current round of epidemic in Shanghai has not subsided. In order to reflect the impact of the epidemic on the export trade of small, medium-sized and micro foreign trade enterprises in Shanghai, the data analysis from April 1 to April 15 this year and the same period in previous years are added to the report. The report shows that the collection volume of small, medium-sized and micro foreign trade enterprises in Shanghai decreased by 1% year-on-year. Due to the further impact of the epidemic, there is uncertainty in production and manufacturing, logistics warehousing and container truck transportation, which slows down the collection of small, medium-sized and micro foreign trade enterprises.
The leading index of Shanghai's foreign trade exports rose steadily in March and fell slightly in the first half of April. The sudden epidemic has brought a certain degree of crisis and test to Shanghai, an international port city and related foreign trade enterprises. Under the continuous disturbance of the epidemic, the report believes that small, medium-sized and micro foreign trade enterprises in Shanghai will be under short-term pressure in the second quarter of 2022. After significant progress has been made in epidemic prevention and control, the index is expected to rebound again.
Small, medium and micro enterprises maintain high competitiveness
The report believes that since March, small, medium-sized and micro foreign trade enterprises have maintained a high level of competitiveness and demonstrated strong resilience and vitality in the face of complex domestic and international situations. The competitiveness index of China's small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises in mid March 2022 shows that China's small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises will be under pressure in the short term in 2022, but the fundamentals of long-term improvement will not change.
The index is comprehensively evaluated from three dimensions: buyer trust, product attraction and export operation efficiency. In March this year, the index rose steadily and returned to the level at the end of 2021. However, due to the short-term pressure on logistics warehousing, container truck transportation and port transportation in key foreign trade cities caused by multiple domestic epidemics, the efficiency of the supply chain is relatively low, and the average delivery time is extended from 29 days with the best performance in November 2021 to 31 days.
At the same time, more and more small, medium and micro foreign trade enterprises have certain digital capabilities, and the home isolation brought by the upgrading of epidemic prevention and control has not caused trade stagnation. In addition, some upstream and downstream suppliers of small, medium-sized and micro foreign trade enterprises are scattered in many places across the country, with a more decentralized and flexible supply chain, which effectively improves the anti risk ability.
The ups and downs of the epidemic have had a general impact on foreign trade enterprises. The constantly emerging "variables" such as changes in the international situation and the growth of sea, land and air logistics costs are also in front of foreign trade people.
In addition, the failure to deliver goods in time caused by the closure and control of the epidemic has also become the focus of many foreign trade enterprises, bringing a chain reaction to the upstream and downstream of the whole foreign trade industry chain.
To this end, some foreign trade enterprises are further consolidating internal collaboration and supply chain management by improving their digital capabilities. The measures taken by some small, medium-sized and micro foreign trade enterprises in Shanghai and Shenzhen to stabilize foreign trade and open up blocking points are also of reference significance to all localities.
The person in charge of a foreign trade enterprise in Shanghai said: "now everyone is trapped in Shanghai and there is no way to fly to other cities to inspect the goods. We have begun to consider inspecting the goods through photos, videos and other means." In order to cope with the risk of the epidemic and the possible reduction of overseas orders, many foreign traders also began to adopt new methods. Some foreign traders choose to accelerate the decentralization of the supply chain, such as investing in other places to set up factories or looking for new partners.