2011-11-15
A leather complex that includes shoemaking, leather processing and bag making is planed to be built by Stalla Group in Shaoyang city, Hunan province, said Hunan provincial party secretary while meeting with Stalla Group CEO Jiang Zhigang.

Stalla footwear is one of ten shoe giants in the world and takes a lead in making lady’s shoes and walking shoes. The company, listed in Hong Kong stock market in 2007, mainly produces shoes for Nike and many world brands. Due to actively promoting cleaner production and green products Stalla won the honor of award of environment and creation for energy saving and reduction emission and eco-leather certification.

So far the group has set up three shoemaking factories in the city, and this year they have decided to build shoemaking factory with the 10 billion yuan annual production capacity in Shaoyang city, which is expected to provide 40,000 jobs and give an impetus to relevant industries in local area.

The purpose of the trip to Hunan province is preparing for building a leather industrial park in Shaoyang city to make leather, shoes, and leather bags for world brands.

Jiang said his original family home is in Shaoyang city and he is proud of dramatic changes taken place in his home town. Jiang felt confidence to do business here and willing to make more effort to his home town.

2011-11-15
Frank Leung, the owner of a women’s shoemaker based in Hong Kong, has flown to places he never imagined he would visit this autumn.

The owner of New Wing Footwear has been to Dhaka and Addis Ababa, looking for other production bases as well as his -factory in Dongguan in southern China. However, despite searching far and wide, he has been disappointed.

The pressure to move is clear. Labour costs in China have risen 15-20 per cent annually over the past couple of years, squeezing margins and creating testing times for Guangdong, the engine room of Chinese manufacturing.

The higher costs – along with the rise in the renminbi – have forced Mr Leung to reduce headcount in Dongguan from 8,000 three years ago to 3,000 today.

Wages in Bangladesh, he reports, are about 20-30 per cent of those in China. People also work 48-hour weeks against the legislated norm of 40 hours in China. The government is offering a 10-year tax holiday.

But, instead of sounding ebullient, Mr Leung is shell-shocked. “They have crazy traffic congestion and every-one uses a generator in factories [because the power supply is erratic],” he says. “The logistics make it very hard to work efficiently.”

A couple of weeks after his trip to Dhaka, Mr Leung flew to Addis Ababa. Wages were even lower than those in Bangladesh but he could not find the supporting industries, such as manufacturers of shoe soles and cardboard.

“Ethiopia has less congestion but it is in the middle of nowhere,” he says. India’s oppressive poverty put him off altogether after a visit to Chennai. Now, Mr Leung is uncertain whether he will move production from China after all.

The climate for manufacturers in Guangdong has prompted many to move to countries in south and south-east Asia. Last week, Gavekal Dragonomics, a research firm, forecast that export growth in China would reduce to just 9 per cent next year. Deduct the price increases Chinese manufacturers have passed through to consumers in the west this year, and export volumes rose only 12 per cent in the first three quarters of this year.

2011-11-15
The number of tanneries in China is expected to drop from the current 1,800 to 1,500 in three years’ time, said Su Chaoying, president of the China Leather Industry Association, at the World Leather Congress in Rio de Janeiro.

“A new standard for waste water discharge will come into effect in China at the end of this year,” Su said, “with stricter requirements”.

What this means is that smaller tanneries are going to find it difficult to make the investment required to meet these new standards and some are not going to be able to continue operating.”

2011-11-15
According to CLIA’s report the export of traveling luggage and bags surged by 37.1% to US$17.16 billion in the first nine months, 0.3 percentage points higher than previous year.

In terms of luggage 39.68 million pieces were exported and earned US$390 million, which marks the growth of 26% in volume and 35% in value. The price for exported luggage reported a 7% growth while the bags growth of 35% in price, the exported value of bags increased 35% to US$12.72 billion.

The imported value for the same products were US$970 million, up 52.9% from previous year.

2011-11-16
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.

2011-11-16
Xinji city in Hebei province is regarded as the national largest leather garment and sheep leather production base, for a long time their products mainly depend on overseas market, the weakness of global economy has greatly hit the leather sector.

The world financial crises happened several years ago gave them a lesson, now they are fully aware of important domestic market.

A new leather market to be built in Xinji city that aims to help the leather sector to expand the internal market is expected to complete in 2014. The new leather complex consists of sales center, R & D center, headquarter and fur trade market, RMB3.4 billion is projected to invest on the market building.

The market responsible person said they have completed the first phase complex and 650 leather companies have opening the stores there. The transaction value has reached to 8 million yuan for daily sales in the market.

2011-11-17
According to Haining Leather Market report, they will invest 1.363 billion yuan to build a new leather market in Chengdu city of Sichuan province. The report said this is one of the moves to implement their expansion program.

The new market located in Xindu district will cover an area of 132,100 square meters, the first phase project with business area of 159800 square meters will start the construction next month and is expected to complete in the fourth quarter of 2012.

The report said they will spend five years to complete the whole building of market.

2011-11-21
The latest data released from Quanzhou Bureau of Inspection and Quarantine shows that shoes export in the city sets a historic high, accounting for half of total export in Fujian province. The shoes export in the first ten months amounts to 481 million pairs and value of 2.705 billion, in terms of value the shoes export grows 19.91%. The United States and EU countries have become the important markets for the city’s sports shoes, where consume 45.8% shares of shoes export in the city while that was 42% in 2010.

Currently there are 3,000 shoemakers in Quanzhou city including supporting industries, among them 700 are foreign-orientated companies. Sports shoes takes up 80% of their production, which range from children’s shoes to adult’s shoes.

Further more shoes made in Quanzhou city are sold to the markets in Russia, Southeast Asia, more than 80 countries and regions. Up to now there are 30 companies in Quanzhou city established close relationship with world brands on production and selling.

2011-11-22
Groundbreaking ceremony of Bailian Shangduo Tannery took place yesterday morning in Suzhou Economic Zone in Jiangsu province. The city’s leaders presented on the ceremony and expressed congratulations to opening of construction.

The tannery is a joint venture to be built by Belle International, Hong Kong Shangduo Leather and Xinxiang Leather Co., the tannery has planed to produce 50 million square meters of leather for making shoes.

The city’s leaders urged the related government official to make their efforts to support the building of economic zone and provide their best services for those transferred companies to the city, so as to achieve their goal to build a shoemaking base in the city.

2011-11-24
According to foreign trade department in Wenzhou city, shoes export in value has reached to US$3.98 billion in the first ten months that is equal to the total export value in previous year, up 25.09% year on year.

As of this October there were 1246 foreign trade shoemakers in Wenzhou city, 204 more than the numbers in the same period of last year.

Due to shrinking of exported profit the shoes made in synthetic material were most one in growth, following by fabric and leather shoes. The sales price was up 10.41% from previous year of 5.67 US dollars to 6.26 US dollars per pair, this is because of 20% of production costs surging in the industry.

The shoes exported to Switzerland and Croatia saw a high growth of 79.12% and 60.84% respectively, followed by Russia, the United States and Germany with the growth of above 25%.

2011-11-24
OkBuy and Letao are the two main online shoes stores in China, they all face the tough choice that is to establish self-distributing center or rely on the logistics companies.

The logistics cost takes up 10% of cost of online shoes sale price, nowadays Okbuy announced they have started build the self distribution centers in the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu, and then will expand to all first and second tier cities in China. Letao expressed they will not build own distribution system because it is huge cost, but they have storage centers in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Chengdu cities.

Delivering a pairs of shoes we will pay 10 yuan to the Logistics Company, if the shoes were not fit to client’s feet and then it could be sent back we have to pay ten yuan more for them, so the logistics company earned money is much more than we have, said one of online shoes stores.

2011-11-24
The products including travel luggage and handbags reported a 1.3 times growth to US$1.49 billion in export during the first ten months, which is higher than the other commodities of exports in the province.

The exports for apparel dropped by 39.3% for the same time, 3% growth in shoes and boots export, the value stands at US$660 million.

2011-12-01
Today in Ukraine 70% of artificial leather shoes are made in China, president of the League of Footwear Producers Oleksandr Borodynia said at a round table "Prevention of Infringements of legislation on Protection of Economic Competition in Non-Food Markets".

"Last year, Ukraine imported 109 million pairs of Chinese shoes, of which only 6% - of genuine leather. That is, to date, 70% of the footwear in the market is from China and it is almost all made ??of artificial leather," he emphasized. At the same time, Borodynia said the majority of Ukrainians believe that they buy shoes made of leather. "When we survey consumers, almost three-quarters of the buyers say they buy shoes only from genuine leather," he added. In this context, Borodynia urged to accelerate the introduction of the Cabinet of Ministers' order concerning compulsory indication of the leather type on the footwear, of which it is made.

2011-12-02
The annual session of Fujian Commodities Fair closed nowadays in Singapore with a fruitful achievements on business orders.

This year slippers become one of most favorable products said the organizing committee, adding that overseas buyers increased to 60% this year from 40% in previous session and most of them come from Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Japan.

The some shoemakers on the trade fair said many buyers came here for buying slippers made in Fujian province on purpose. We have received more orders from buyers in East Asia countries because we have strong competitive in making such products. Singapore imports more slippers from China to meet their market demand.

2011-12-06
The statistics from Niningbo Customs shows 1.551 million pairs of leather shoes from NIngbo city were exported to EU during the first ten months with the value of UD$13.67 million, both of volume and value increased by 38.4% and 86.9%.

The leather shoes export to EU accounts for 25.1% of the city’s total leather shoes export.

The increasing export to EU from Ningbo city attributes to the cancellation of EU anti-dumping duty on Chinese shoes since March 31, 2011.

2011-12-08
Yesterday afternoon the delegates from over 30 footwear industrial organizations arrived on Houjie, Dongguan city for attending the third World Footwear Development Forum, Long Yongtu of secretary-general of Asia Boao Forum and other premier industrial experts will attend today's forum. The further upgrading and transition footwear industry under the situation of world economic downturn is set as the theme of forum.

The forum has been successfully held twice and caused huge attention and gained more influence in the world footwear sector, said the organizer, adding that CLIA, China Chamber of Commerce for I/E of Light Industrial Products and Arts and Crafts, Asian footwear association and footwear organs from a dozen countries and regions will take part in this session of forum.

According to the organizing committee the forum has established the strategic cooperation with CLIA and will announce a five-year trend on the development of world and China footwear industries. The trend announcement marks the forum to play more roles on information release for the footwear trend and technology.

2011-12-08
According to a new research report by RNCOS entitled “China Footwear Market Analysis”, the women’s footwear seems to be the largest and fastest growing footwear segment in China, owing to the increasing financial independence and rising social status of women. The demand for women footwear is expected to be driven by footwear companies launching new styles and the desire of women to purchase new shoes. Due to rise of economic independence, new styles and products are being launched more frequently in the women’s footwear segment than the men’s and children’s sections. The size of women footwear market in China is likely to account at US$ 8.9 Billion by 2014, growing at a CAGR of around 10% during 2011-2014.

The demand for China footwear has continued to witness rapid growth over the last few years, owing to inherent advantage in price. According to the latest report by RNCOS, growth in footwear market is characterized by competition in product, price, and channel. Moreover, China footwear exporters are shifting their focus to the ASEAN and Middle-East countries so as to reduce their dependence on the major exporting countries.

Our report, “China Footwear Market Analysis”, provides an extensive research and detailed analysis of the current status and expected position of the footwear industry in China. The report facilitates the future forecasts of the footwear market in terms of consumption and exports along with the shares of different shoe segments on the basis of product type-like leather shoe, rubber shoe, and plastic shoe and on the basis of user type like women’s footwear, men’s footwear, and children’s footwear. Additionally, analysis of the major regional hubs is also included in the report to provide a reasonable viewpoint on the potentials of the China footwear industry.

2011-12-08
CLIA released statistics on its website show that export of semi-finished leather dropped by 21% in volume to 8,374 tons and 2% in value to US$25.94 million compared with the first ten months of previous year. In import terms the value increased 6.8% to US$1.15 billion and 1.3% up in volume, 19.8 percentage points and 43.7 percentage points were reported slowdown respectively in growth rate than that in previous year.

Although the 28,000 tons of finished leather worth US$340 million were exported in the first ten months, posting a growth of 3.9% in volume and 11.3% in value, 37.8 percent of decline in volume and 63.9 percent in value were seen in growth rate compared with previous years.

At the same time 16.6 tons of leather with value of US$2.22 billion were imported, dropped by 7.5% in volume and 1.6% in value, compared with previous year 28.9 percentage points were reduced in volume and 26.7 percentage points were less in value in the growth rate.

2011-12-09
The data released from Fujian Bureau of Inspection and Quarantine show that 371 million pairs of shoes with value of US$1.971 billion were exported from Jinjiang city during the first 11th months, 4.11% growth in exported pairs and 23.23% rising in value.

Jinjiang is a city known as producing sports shoes in Fujian province.

2011-12-12
According to xinhua.net report, National consumer prices grew 5.5% during the first 11 months from previous year. The growth price for wears was 3.5%, for the shoes the prices rose 2.7%, 3.6% up for apparel.

2011-12-14
Mexico this week made good on a trade deal with China – inked 10 years ago when China joined the World Trade Organization – by slashing tariffs on more than 200 Chinese goods.

Mexico’s native shoe, textile, toy and other industries will now face new, tough competition from Chinese imports that are likely to undercut Mexican products’ pricing. That could lead to widespread layoffs and create tension between the two trade partners.

Mexican tariffs on Chinese products previously ranged from 50 percent to 250 percent; now the range has been dropped to between 20 percent and 35 percent. Textiles, shoes and toys make up four-fifths of the products affected by the falling tariffs, according to Karen Hooper, Latin America analyst with Stratfor, a publisher of geopolitical analysis. Those industries have voiced concern about competing with Chinese imports, many of which are heavily subsidized by China’s financial structure.

Mexico Economy Secretary Bruno Ferrari told the Mexican press on Monday that the government is working with national industries “to ensure that trade between China and Mexico is handled in equitable conditions and strictly adheres to international norms.”

Ferrari spoke from Guanajuato state, where 63 percent of the 266,000 jobs in the shoe industry are situated, according to the shoe industry’s national chamber, CANAICAL.

Asian shoe imports currently comprise 19 percent of the shoe market in Mexico, according to CANAICAL, with the majority originating in China. That share is likely to swell now that tariffs have been sharply reduced.

“So far,” Hooper said, “it looks like the Mexican government has been saying ‘Tough cookie—you had 10 years advance notice on this. If you don’t try to compete with Chinese goods, then you will lose your market share.’”

“This is all part of Mexico’s slow-rolling liberalization process,” she added. “And I think, in the end, it will help those industries modernize.”

Alma Montes shopped on Monday for a pair of dress shoes for her son, who needed something spiffy for his first Communion. A saleswoman at La Ribera shoe store in Mexico City’s downtown delivered Montes two pairs of short black boots. Both had tags inside that read “Made in Mexico.”

Montes said she is more interested in quality and less interested in where the product is made – although she didn’t have a favorable opinion of Chinese-made goods. But she also said she didn’t want to spend more than 400 pesos, or about $29.

“The Chinese stuff just falls apart,” she said, fingering the real leather soles of both pairs of boots. By contrast, the Mexican shoes “are more expensive, but they last,” she said.

2011-12-15
The reporter of Quanzhou Net arrived on Shetan village in Anhai town of Quzhou city yesterday afternoon following the report of pollution taking place there. A strong foul smell came to him when the reporter got off the car, the local farmer showed the black pool and said to reporter these polluted water were discharged by the tanneries in neighbor village of Kemu. Several tanneries were operated there, these effluent was running down to our village as slightly higher terrain in Kemu village.

An old farmer complained their farmland with planting vegetable was polluted by their discharge. The drinking well water and nearby pool didn't avoid the pollution.

The official of Environmental Protection Department of Jinjiang city told the reporter that these tanneries that caused pollution have forced to close this morning, and also said these small tanneries have listed as illegal factories according to national related documents, and the town government and environmental department and power department will take joint action to overall eliminate these polluted tanneries in the city.

2011-12-15
The latest news from Ministry of Commerce show that the main world trade partners of China reduced the shares imported from China this year, among them the export of footwear, luggage and bags, furniture and textile dropped significantly. The ministry calls on to improve the export with an effort to stress the building of production bases and expanding the overseas sale outlets.

The vice Minister Zhong Shan said the market shares of Chinese products in EU and America dropped instead of rising this year, particularly for those products of textile, furniture, and footwear and luggage and bags.

The minister pointed out that there are many negative factors impacted the Chinese products export, but weakness on creation and brand building is the biggest issuse for Chinese enterprises. The minister urges the enterprises to make more effort on innovation and creation, so as to improve their products competition.

In regarding to the products of luggage and bags, footwear and furniture the minister said to facility foreign buyers connection with these enterprises the industries should build some export bases, which are condusive to boosting Chinese brand products.

As for creation of Chinese brands in the world the minister said it is the most important to establish overseas marketing outlets, particularly to develop the markets in emerging countries.

2011-12-15
The enterprises in leather sector with annual sale revenue of 20 million yuan produced 69.47 billion yuan of output value in the first 10 months, up 25.3% from the previous year, the value ranks the 7th and takes up 5.6% of value shares in national light industry.

The total production value produced in the provinces of Fujian, Guangdong and Zhejiang amounts to more than half of the national production value in leather and leather products sector.