In the past one or two years, the furniture industry as a whole has been sluggish, domestic sales are not smooth, and exports are not smooth. The European Union recently officially passed the "Wood and Wood Products Regulations and the New Environmental Design Directive", further raising the threshold for my country's wood products to be exported to Europe. The pressure in this regard has caused the export of my country's furniture industry to continue to slump, and export furniture companies are anxious to resolve it. The current crisis, therefore, the first thing to do before solving the problem is to find out the root of the problem, so that it can be targeted. Based on the opinions of industry insiders, they believe that the most important factors hindering the export of furniture are the following aspects:
(一) The debt crisis in the United States and Europe continues to spread, and external economic uncertainties increase the variables of furniture exports.
At the beginning of August, the international financial market experienced sharp turbulence, and the short-term economic performance of the three major economies of the United States, Europe, and Japan was not optimistic. The report released by the U.S. Department of Commerce shows that the U.S. economic situation in the first half of the year was lower than expected, and the current round of economic recession is deeper. At the same time, Europe is in deep debt crisis, and Japan has experienced negative GDP growth for two consecutive quarters. The United States and the European Union are the main markets for my country's furniture exports. In 2010, the export value accounted for 53.9% of the total furniture export value. The uncertain economic situation in the United States and Europe has a negative impact on my country's furniture exports that cannot be ignored.
(二) Soaring costs and corporate profits are compressed. First, the price of raw materials such as wood has risen sharply.
With the strengthening of global protection of the ecological environment, major log exporting countries have reduced their timber export quotas, and domestic large and small Khingan Mountains ecological function zones have also completely stopped logging, which has greatly reduced the supply of logs in the market and driven prices soaring. Price increases of up to 20%. Second, the appreciation of the renminbi against the U.S. dollar accelerated, and corporate profits continued to be "evaporated". On August 12, the central parity rate of the U.S. dollar exchange rate was 6.3972, breaking through the 6.4 mark and hitting a new high since the reform of the foreign exchange rate. The third is that "difficulty in recruiting workers" and "shortage of labor" have driven labor costs to rise sharply. According to the company's report, the talent problem is also a major problem that plagues the company. It is very difficult to recruit skilled workers, so the wage cost has greatly increased. At present, the average salary of car workers in coastal areas is at least 3,000 yuan, and a minimum quota of 2,800 yuan must be set, otherwise no one can be hired.
(三) There are many trade barriers and the export threshold is raised. In recent years, the technical barriers of my country's traditional furniture market have been continuously upgraded:
In April 2009, the United States announced the "Quarantine Requirements for Exporting Chinese Wooden Handicrafts to the United States", stipulating that all bamboo and wood products exported from China to the United States must be fumigated or heat-treated and issued a phytosanitary certificate and affixed with a traceable label; "Amendment requires that the legal source certificate of wood must be provided every time imported forest products are shipped; the United States "Formaldehyde Standards for Composite Wood Products Act" will come into effect on January 3, 2011, and the formaldehyde limit standard will be greatly increased from July 1. [4]. At the same time, the European Union's "Country of Origin Labeling Law" will also come into effect on March 3, 2013. The new regulations require that wood products imported into the EU market must obtain an "FSC certificate", which proves that the wood purchased by the production company is produced from legally developed forests. The export threshold is constantly raised, making it more and more difficult to export furniture.
(四) Emphasis on manufacturing, ignoring design, and ignoring brands, and the export competitiveness has declined.
In 2010, a total of 282 enterprises in Jiangxi Province had furniture export records. There were only 2 production-oriented enterprises with an export value of more than 10 million US dollars, all of which were private enterprises in Longnan County, and most of the rest were small enterprises with an export value of less than 1 million US dollars. At present, furniture export enterprises in Jiangxi Province have serious product homogeneity, lack of original design, and little investment in brand development. Most enterprises stay in the low-end market for low-price competition. Under the influence of rising costs, RMB appreciation, and upstream real estate regulation policies, its competitiveness has been weakened continuously.
Therefore, the recommendations are:
On the one hand, vigorously develop emerging markets, appropriately increase the proportion of domestic sales, and diversify the risk of export market concentration;
On the other hand, strengthen daily monitoring and early warning and guidance of industry norms, increase research and early warning of changes in foreign trade barriers, and help companies understand and respond to foreign trade barriers in a timely manner;
The most important thing is to speed up the transformation and upgrading of the furniture manufacturing industry, increase the research and development of independent brands, continuously improve product quality, improve product technology, and enhance the core competitiveness of enterprises.