2011-10-18
The value produced by companies in the industry with over sales revenue of 20 million were 532.8 billion yuan RMB in the first eight months of this year, marking a year on year growth of 25.9% and ranking the seventh in the light industry production value, 0.2 percentage higher than previous year in the growth rate.

The export value represents 28.7% of total sales value in the industry, which slows down 3.1% than the same period of previous year.

But the rate of production and marketing is slight improved with 0.3% increase and reach 97.8%.

2011-10-18
Wanly Shoemaking Company near to the office of Dongguan Leather Industry Association suddenly closing business caused attention to the industry. The owner of the company has run away, and the local court can’t locate his whereabouts.

The latest data released by Dongguan Industrial and Commercial Bureau shows that 104 shoemakers were closed as of August, while there were 261 new shoemakers registered and opened in Dongguan city.

The executive secretary-general Wang Zhuo Ling in Dongguan Leather Industry Association expressed his concern on an interview with the reporter of Daily Economic News, and said these newly opened companies may over optimize to the industry and marketing, on the other hand the sudden increasing has showed that the shoemaking has lower threshold.

The bankruptcy of Wanli Shoemaker brought more people coming for recruitment and left debt behind them. As a matter of fact over 100 shoemakers in Dongguan like Wanli closed down in August.

According to official Statistics Dongguan has more than 1500 shoemakers and 2000 supporting companies and traders so far, and produced 1.5 billion pairs of various shoes and provides 2 million of employment. Dongguan is the world largest shoemaking city and produces 65% of the world high-end shoes.

2011-10-18
Nowadays the world famed Huajian Group starting its shoemaking in Dongguan city comes to its 15th year birth day, the group creates a legend with over 100 million pairs of lady’s shoes produced in 15 years.

Huajian Group focusing on production of lady’s shoes since its establishment has been expanded rapidly in recent years, ten years ago it opened Huajian International Complex in Ganzhou area to make medium-end lady’s shoe of 7 million pairs annually, so far Huajian has 10 shoemaking factories in Yuduo, Xingguo, Shicheng and so on, which can generate production value of over 3 billion yuan and provide 23,000 jobs.

The group president Zhang Huarong said on the next five years Huajian will reach 10 billion yuan on production value, based on OEM business Huajian will expand its ODM and OBM business and plan to IPO in security market.

2011-10-18
The profit for large scale companies in the industry increased by 33.7% and reached to RMB 26.84 billion yuan in the first seven months, taking up seventh position in the light industry with sharing of 6%。

The profit margin for these companies with over sales revenue of 20 million was 6.01%, and rose by 0.34%, among them the leading and large scale companies gained 11.6% of profit margin, while these companies in relative small scale earned profit margins that are lower than the average rate.

2011-10-19
On October 19, 2011 Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Shoemaking Standardization Committee approved to issue two footwear standards: Footwear Fit Assessment Measures and Footwear Control Movement Assessment Methods.

The experts believe that implementation of these standards will help Chinese shoe realize its goal from the made in China to the created in China and mark a technical breakthrough on improvement of shoes comfortable and functions.

2011-10-19
Dongguan Daily cites the city industrial and commercial bureau as saying that more shoe retail stores in Dongguan city opened in August although the report of 104 shoemakers closed down. Under the circumstance of weakened overseas market the shoemakers begin to speed up the expansion of internal sales.

The responsible person of Qisheng shoemaker Ye Dehui told the Dongguan Daily as a high-end of shoemaker our company saw a stead growth on business order from overseas, internal sales gained 15% to 20% in the first quarter of this year, we are planning to open more retail stores in the areas of Xinghecheng, Humen and Changan town.

Huajian Group also expressed to develop their own brand and to increase the sales to domestic market. Due to heavily relying on overseas orders many shoemakers in Dongguan city faces the challenges of shortage of orders, production costs hiking and scant profit margin, as well as fiercely competition on price.

The general manager of Jucheng Shoemaking Company said we may loss several million yuan this year as shortages of orders and half operation in our the production.

Some industrial experts proposed that government should take measures to support the small and medium sized shoemakers and help them overcome current difficulties because situation in rest of year may hard for these shoemakers in Dongguan city, they also urged the shoemakers to increase the sales in internal market by building up the network of sales.

2011-10-19
According to national authority website report the sales value of lady’s shoes on the third week of September increased to 5574341.77 yuan, and 32890 consumers brought the shoes through shoes store on Taobao website.

The report also shows the brands of Belle, Daphne and Staccato were most favorable shoes by consumers.

The male consumer buying accounts for 23.71% of total sales of lady’s shoes, young men brought for their girl friends or their wife, fathers brought for their daughters, sons for their mothers, the report said.

2011-10-20
In first nine months the shoes export in Quanzhou sets record high and accounts for almost half of total export in Fujian province, 449 pairs of shoes were exported and earned US$2.517 billion, according to Quanzhou Bureau of Inspection and Quarantine. The Quanzhou city ranks national second in sports shoes export, next to Dongguan city of Guangdong province.

Quanzhou-based sports brands of Anta, 361 Degrees, Xtep and Peak have set up business centers or retail stores in more 20 countries that include America, Russia and Southeast Asia countries. Further more the average export price also posted a growth of 19.4% to 5.61 US dollars for per pairs.

2011-10-20
According to statistics from Italian tanning federation, in 2010 strong recovering was seen in Italian leather sector, the total output of Euro 4.523 billion in tanning sector were generated, 18.1% higher than the year earlier and taking up 66% of the value in EU countries.

In terms of export the leather export saw an increase of 14.4% in volume and 28.2% in value. The exported leather reached 323721 tons and EURO3.368 billion that represents 74.5% of total leather production value.

China has become the largest sourcing country for Italian leather, and almost half of production was sold to Chinese market through Hong Kong and the export earning grew 29.6% and volume up 14.3%.

2011-10-20
Light leather production on the basis of large scaled enterprises increased 10.4% to 440 million square meters in the first eight months of this year.

The large scale shoemakers produce 2.73 billion pairs of leather shoes in the first eight months, reporting a growth of 18.1% from the year earlier.

For the same period of time 1.866 million pieces of fur clothing were made and 19.3% rising in production.

2011-10-24
According to local customs statistics the export in Yangyuan County of Hebei province surged by 39.4% to US$24.94 million, ranking second in Zhangjiakou city total export value. The fur and fur products take up 90% of the city export by value of US$22.63 million.

The local commerce department optimistically predicts the export value in fur sector may reach US$35 million as the winter sales season coming.

2011-10-25
In accordance with a notice issued by Fujian provincial government the tanneries with production capacity below 100,000 pieces of leather will be eliminated by January 1, 2012, production less than 300,000 pieces will be closed by the end of 2014.

Only one tannery in Kemu Tanning Zone in Fujian province reaches the requirement on production capacity, the rest of 62 tanneries are facing elimination by the end of this year.

Three more months are left for these tanneries to think their survival in the tanning zone, the responsible person of the tanning zone said they have set the integration and merger plan, based on the plan 63 tanneries will be regrouped into 4 large scaled tanneries in the zone, the plan also sets high standards for these 4 tanneries on production technology and environmental protection.

2011-10-26
East China Fur Trade Market that is thought to be largest one in Shandong province opens its business in Linyi Economic and Technology Development Zone today, transaction value in the newly built market is expected to reach 4 billion yuan each year and US$ 100 million in export value.

The market has directly created 150,000 jobs for local people, meanwhile other supporting and service sectors will benefit from the opening of the market.

2011-10-26
2011 Wendeng International Fur Trade Fair concluded with sales value of 30 million yuan, which was held in Wendeng city, Shandong province on October 15. The organizer said there are over 300 exhibitors presented and 100,000 visitors visited to the fur trade fair, in addition 10 cooperation agreements on animal farming investment signed during the trade fair.

300 exhibitors came from more than 20 countries and regions and displayed their varieties of fur fashion on the fair, and they were also buyers of raw skins for 8600 local fur animal farmers who produce 8 million pieces of fur skins each year.

The fur bearing animal stock in Wendeng city reaches 12 million head, and 8 million slaughtered head that meet 30% of national market demand in fur raw skins.

2011-10-28
Imports of fur apparel into the u.s. continued their upward swing in august, with mink again taking a back seat to other furs as retailers sought to maintain their most popular price points in the face of rising skin costs.

In sharp contrast to the historical pattern in which mink dominated the American retail fur scene, a variety of other furs are now replacing mink at the price points retailers find to be most popular with their clienteles. To be sure, mink still dominates furriers' sales in the upper brackets, especially in the designer-label category, but it has been losing out to a range of other furs and combinations below $5,000.

August fur imports from all sources rose a whopping 52% to a total of $24.7 million, according to the latest Commerce Dept. data. Considering that this year's fur apparel prices are up about 25%, this would indicate that August imports were up sharply in terms of units as well.

2011-10-31
The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) has released the 9th version of the Restricted Substance List to update restricted substance related to regulations and laws for both apparel, footwear and home textiles.

In the latest version, the members of the Global Apparel, Footwear and Textile Initiative (GAFTI) have collaboratively produced recommended test methods for certain chemicals in cases where the test method is not stipulated by the regulation. The goal of GAFTI is to reduce complexity and remove costs from common industry practices and prevent increased scrutiny from press and governments, which could lead to increased regulation.

2011-11-01
China will raise thresholds for levying value-added and business taxes on small enterprises starting from Tuesday, the Ministry of Finance said Monday.

The value-added tax (VAT) threshold for small enterprises will be increased to between 5,000 yuan (791.14 U.S. dollars) and 20,000 yuan, in terms of monthly sales revenues, from the previous threshold of 2,000 to 5,000 yuan, the ministry said in a statement on its website.

Meanwhile, the threshold for levying the business tax for small enterprises will be raised to 5,000-20,000 yuan from the previous 1,000-5,000 yuan.

The adjustments came after a decision announced earlier this month by the State Council, or China's cabinet, to enhance financial support for the country's cash-strapped small enterprises.

Last week, the State Council also announced a pilot program to replace the business tax with VAT in certain service sectors, such as the transportation sector, in Shanghai starting from January 1, 2012.

If the pilot program is successful and the conditions are right, the program will be extended to service businesses nationwide, the State Council said.

2011-11-03
The total retail sales in Sichuan province posted a rising of 17.9% in the first three quarter.

At the same time the sales of apparel and footwear were surged by 28%.

2011-11-04
So far there are more than 3,000 shoemakers in Huidong county of Guangdong province, where is known as one of Chinese lady’s shoes production bases.

Shoemaking has played a big role on boosting local economy growth, 700 pairs of shoes were made here in 2010 and shoe production value amounted to RMB21.2 billion yuan.

Five-year of EU anti-dumping duty imposed on Chinese shoes has reduced their shoes export to EU by 20% to 30%, EU countries account for one fifth of total shoes export in Huidong city with value of 100 million yuan.

Orders from EU gradually returned since the end of EU shoe anti-dumping in the early of this year, but now they are confronting with new challenges of European debt crises, appreciation of RMB, production cost hiking and so on.

Many shoemakers said that EU places less shoes orders on Canton Fair which is being held in Guangzhou, they said shoemaking in Huidong has lost their competitive of low price, coupled with European debt crises, some small and medium sized shoemakers fell into hard time with shortage of fund and orders.

The official of Huidong County said shoemaking comes to point to create their own brands and reduce the reliance on OEM trade, Xianglian brand sets a good example on brand creation for local shoemakers, and the brand of Xianglian is jointly created by seven shoemakers and achieved a great success on internal market.

The county has taken series of measure to help the industry expanding internal sales, such as holding trade fairs in national wide and building a shoemaking complex that is expected to complete next year.

2011-11-07
The Dispute Settlement Body of the World Trade Organization decided on Oct. 28 that the anti-dumping measures adopted by the European union against leather shoes made in China have violated the rules of the World Trade Organization.

Long-term unfair treatment

Chinese leather shoes had long become a pain for some E.U. member states, particularly major footwear production countries such as Italy and Spain. The European union imposed two-year anti-dumping duties of 16.5 percent on Chinese leather shoes on Oct. 5, 2006, which affected more than 1,000 Chinese enterprises.

The European union initiated a sunset review on October 2008 prior to the expiration of the penalty duties and approved a 15-month extension of the anti-dumping duties on Dec. 22, 2009.

Chinese enterprises filed a complaint against the European union to the World Trade Organization in February 2010 after negotiations broke down. The World Trade Organization set up an expert panel in May to investigate the case and concluded that related regulations of the European Union's Basic Anti-Dumping Regulation are against the rules of international trade and the E.U. anti-dumping arm used incorrect articles during anti-dumping investigations.

Mei Xinyu, a senior researcher from the Research Institute under the Ministry of Commerce, said that this marks a significant progress that China is able to correct irrational trade measures of some trade partners through the channel of the World Trade Organization one decade after its accession into the body.

China's growing influence in Europe

Chinese shoemakers won the victory after more than four years of suffering and huge losses. According to statistics from China Leather Industry Association, the anti-dumping duties led to a 20 percent reduction in demand, which is equivalent to 40 million pairs, in China's exports of leather shoes to Europe and cost nearly 20,000 Chinese workers their jobs.

Jiang Xianling, deputy dean of the School of International Trade and Economics under the University of International Business and Economics, said that several domestic and international factors are crucial to the victory. Of the factors, two domestic factors are the establishment of Chinese shoemakers' unions and China's growing influence in Europe. Internationally speaking, the European debt crisis has made Europeans aware that the development model of imposing high duties on foreign products is defective. They have noticed that over the past two years since the global financial crisis, China has continued to shoulder its international responsibility as a world power, and made remarkable achievements in carrying out market-oriented economic reforms. Given China's important role in pulling Europe out of the economic crisis, Europeans have started to take the feelings of Chinese into consideration.

Harsh international trade environment

Industry insiders noted that China has not gained E.U. recognition of market economy status, and should not be satisfied with temporary success. Chinese exports will continue to face harsh international trade environment. Wang Zhentao, vice president of China Leather Industry Association and chairman of Aokang Group, said that although the abolishment of the anti-dumping taxes has reduced the burden on Chinese shoemakers, they should not become blindly optimistic. Instead, they should take the future of the Chinese footwear industry into consideration, enhance self-reliance, increase spending on research and development, add value to their brands, and diversify their products and services.

2011-11-07
Leather making is the most important industry in Wuji county of Hebei province where has 770 enterprises that mainly produce leather for sofa and auto seats, leather for handbags and shoes.

The industry has boosted the local economy growth but also brought pollution to local environment, particularly threatening to rivers and agriculture irrigation water resources.

This November 3 with operation of three newly built waste water treatment plants such bad situation ended. These plants are invested 300 million yuan by the county government and will take the way of build—operate—transfer to operate. One plant is updated from an original small water treatment plant and raise its treatment capacity from 40,000 tons per day to 60,000 tons; the second is located in north of city with capacity of 20,000 tons per day; third one mainly focus on the treatment of tanning effluent, the first term of project designs to treat 30,000 tons of water per day. The effluent is qualified to national Standard A.

2011-11-08
Over 400 delegates are attending the two-day World footwear Congress which is taking place in Rio de Janeiro today and tomorrow. The congress is taking place at the Hotel Sofitel on Rio's famous Copacabana beach.

During the first session on November 7, Steve Lee, consultant, Steve Lee Associates provided an overview of where the global footwear market is heading. In 1994 global consumption of shoes was 12 billion pairs. In 2010 the figure reached the 20 billion pair mark and by the 2024 global consumption is expected to increase through the 30 billion pair barrier.

Lee also highlighted that consumption per capita was also increasing. In 1994 it was an average of 2.3 pairs, in 2010 the figure was 3.0 and by 2024 the figure will rise to an average of 3.7 pairs.

The WFC continues tomorrow before the start of the World Leather Congress which takes place on November 9th. 220 delegates have registered for the WLC.

2011-11-09
The women’s footwear market is estimated to be Rs 8,000 crore which is projected to grow at a CAGR of 10 per cent to reach Rs 12,900 crore by 2015. Of this, 65 per cent is the unorganised segment and the rest 35 per cent, totaling Rs 2,800 crore, is the organised segment.
The casual footwear segment forms the maximum (60 per cent) share in the total market, followed by formal shoes at 30 per cent.
The major brands present in the formal and party wear segments include Catwalk, Aldo, Charles & Keith, Bata, Red Tape, Metro etc.
The major growth driver is the increase in career women (doubled from 5 to 10 million in the last decade).
The number of career women is estimated to increase fourfold to an estimated 45-50 million working women in the age group of 20-40 years in urban India by 2020.

2011-11-11
According to the report from China Leather Industry Association, China exported 10.78 million pieces of leather garment that is worth US$530 million in the first nine months, both volume and value dropped 22.0% and 19.0% respectively from the same period of last year.

The import for the same products posted the growth of 106.2% in volume and 104.8% in value, the imported leather garment were 290,000 pieces with value of US$82.79 million.

2011-11-14
Nowadays Zhejiang provincial government announced the five industrial pilot zones in Zhejiang province that include the industrial area of Wenzhou Shoemaking Capital.

These selected pilot areas will be given more priorities on development policies, financial aid and services, so as to create international brands in these pilot zones.

The establishment of pilot zone is part of overall provincial brand creation program, the provincial government has drawn up a program to create brands and transform the traditional industries into a modernization. The pilot zones will set example on exploring the new way to upgrade the local manufacturing.

Wenzhou Shoemaking Capital was also named as one of 59 national foreign trade pilot areas on August of this year by Ministry of Commerce.