Near the end of 2020, two furniture trade data is quite interesting.Data from the General Administration of Customs showed that from January to November, the export volume of furniture and its parts totaled 356.07 billion yuan, up 11.2 percent year on year.The accumulated imports of logs and sawn timber reached 102.00 billion yuan, down 10.8% year on year.
The first is that the rapid growth of furniture export is good for the whole industry, but there are some concerns: the price of upstream raw materials and parts is rising and the supply may not be stable. After completing furniture orders, it is found that the shipping space booking is not only rising in price but also unable to go to sea for a long time. After the goods are shipped overseas, overseas warehouses are full.In addition, the rise of the RMB exchange rate will reduce the export profits of enterprises, and foreign merchants may cancel orders or be unable to pay for goods due to the epidemic.
Second, imports of logs and sawn timber fell year-on-year, making it difficult for foreign trade enterprises to relax.Many enterprises mainly import raw materials for furniture production from abroad. In recent years, China's important furniture importing countries often have changes in the supply chain, so that Chinese furniture enterprises can not have no worries about the supply of raw materials, but constantly suffer pressure and tests.For example, Equatorial Guinea used to be an important source of timber imports to China, but has banned log exports since January 1, 2019.Laos and Myanmar, which are large suppliers of tropical logs to China, saw their exports to China drop sharply in the first half of 2020.In the field of wood and furniture, the international Forest Steward Council (FSC) certification has also become a "tiger in the way" for the transformation and upgrading of furniture foreign trade enterprises, because the certification requires wood and wood products to have a legal source of proof, which puts forward higher requirements for the supply chain management ability of Chinese furniture enterprises.
From these two data to the joy and sorrow of furniture foreign trade enterprises can be seen, in recent years, especially in 2020, foreign trade enterprises are in urgent need of access to foreign trade comprehensive service categories and focus has changed a lot.One of the key points is that the pressure on the management of the industrial chain and supply chain has increased significantly, which needs to be supported.However, if we look at the contents provided by the well-known foreign trade service platforms such as OneTone and Yuman Global, the six functions of financing, customs clearance, tax refund, logistics, insurance and foreign exchange collection are basically included.Although the services they provide carry the words "supply chain", if you look closely at the details, the focus is mainly on supply chain finance, and the "financing" of the six basic functions can be grouped together.This and this year foreign trade enterprises feel pressure supply chain management and supply chain security and stability demand has an obvious gap.
It can also be seen from the above situation that the comprehensive service platform for foreign trade enterprises is not a "one-stop" service.In fact, the integrated foreign trade service can not only increase the supply chain management function, but also add the exchange rate hedging function, export market research (consultation) and other functions, so as to truly meet the urgent needs of enterprises in an all-round way.
Of course, we should also see that this involves the revision and expansion of the definition of foreign trade integrated services and foreign trade integrated service platform, and also involves the further improvement of policies and regulations. Only by the support and recognition of policies and regulations, can more comprehensive and more relevant foreign trade integrated service platforms emerge.
In retrospect, foreign trade services evolved from "foreign trade agents" to "foreign trade integrated services", which also experienced a very long historical stage. Many foreign trade integrated service platforms also said that they were obviously different from the foreign trade agents in the past.To this end, we to the foreign trade integrated service function expansion toward the real "one-stop" might as well keep optimistic and patient.