Case and bag exports in Yiwu market rebounded strongly

“Now it is the peak time of shipment. Every week, there are about 20000 to 30000 leisure bags, which are exported to South America through the way of market procurement. The orders we received in September have been scheduled to the end of December.” On November 8, after experiencing a precipitous decline in orders under the impact of the epidemic, Bao Jianling, the general manager of Yiwu Sunshine Packaging Industry, told reporters that the company’s foreign trade orders had a strong rebound this year. Now, factories in Taizhou are rushing to make orders every day, and the total number of orders for the year is expected to grow by 15% year-on-year.

According to the published data, China is the largest country in luggage manufacturing, and the proportion of luggage exports in the global market is close to 40%. Among them, Yiwu, as a global distribution center for small commodities, is one of the largest distribution bases for luggage sales in China. Its products sell well in Europe, the Middle East, South America, Africa and other regions, with an annual sales volume of nearly 20 billion yuan. However, the global tourism industry has been impacted by the COVID-19. China’s luggage export situation in the past two years is no longer prosperous, and the luggage industry export in Yiwu market is inevitably affected.

This year, with the liberalization of epidemic control in many countries around the world and the rapid recovery of the tourism market, the demand of overseas consumers for travel bags and suitcases has increased significantly. Yiwu’s luggage exports also ushered in a golden age again. In addition, due to the increase of the overall average unit price of luggage, the growth rate of its export amount has also increased significantly. According to the statistics of Yiwu Customs, the export of cases and bags in Yiwu from January to September 2022 was 11.234 billion yuan, up 72.9% year on year.

The luggage industry in Yiwu is mainly concentrated in the second district market of the International Trade City. There are more than 2300 luggage merchants, including Bao Jianling’s sunshine luggage industry. On the morning of the 8th, she got busy in the shop early in the morning. She sent samples to foreign customers and arranged for warehouse delivery. Everything was in order.

“At the bottom of the epidemic, our foreign trade exports fell by 50%.” Bao Jianling said that in the tough times, more enterprises maintain their basic operations by reducing production capacity and transferring foreign trade to domestic sales. The strong growth of foreign trade orders this year has enabled them to regain their vitality, which is expected to return to the pre epidemic state throughout the year.

Different from other industries, the luggage industry is a large category, which can be subdivided into travel bags, business bags, leisure bags and other small categories. Bao Jianling’s products are mainly leisure bags, facing customers in Africa, South America and other places. According to the market before the epidemic, it is now the off-season for leisure bags, but this year’s market is unusual. The off-season has become the peak season, thanks to the favorable factors such as the liberalization of epidemic control abroad and the recovery of the tourism market.

“Last year, customers in South America basically did not place orders, mainly because of the local epidemic control, and many consumers cancelled their travel. Schools were closed, and many students took ‘online classes’ at home, reducing the demand for luggage.” Bao Jianling showed the reporter the WeChat message sent by the merchants. This year, Brazil, Peru, Argentina and other countries gradually liberalized the isolation measures and resumed economic activities. The people started to travel again with backpacks. Students can also go to school to attend classes. The demand for all kinds of luggage has been fully released.

At present, although overseas purchasers cannot come to Yiwu market for the time being, this does not prevent them from placing orders for bags and suitcases. “Old customers view samples and place orders through WeChat videos, and new customers place orders through foreign trade companies. The minimum order quantity of each style is 2000, and the production cycle takes 1 month.” Bao Jianling said that, because the supply of the entire industrial chain and the workers on the production line of her own factory had shrunk during the epidemic prevention and control period, when the foreign trade market of bags and suitcases was recovering strongly, the current overall production capacity of the enterprise was only about 80% of that before the epidemic.

According to the practice in previous years, Bao Jianling will design some new products in advance during the off-season of the industry, and then send them to customers to see samples. If a product is highly rated, it will be produced in batches, which is called stock in advance. This year, due to the epidemic situation and production capacity, enterprises have been unable to spare time to stock up, and the development of new products has also been delayed. “Under the normalization of epidemic situation, the traditional low and peak season market has been basically disrupted. We can only take one step at a time to adapt to the new trade model.” Bao Jianling said.

An important reason for the recovery of luggage is the recovery of overseas economy and demand. At present, many European and American countries have released restrictions on tourism and commerce. With the increase of outdoor activities such as tourism, there is more demand for trolley boxes.

From May this year to September this year, the export of trolley cases has been particularly prosperous, with 5-6 containers per day. Su Yanlin, the owner of Yuehua bags, said in an interview that South American customers were the first to return orders, and the most colorful and unrestrained trolley cases were purchased. We just finished shipping in October. Now the peak season has come to an end, and they will also prepare new models for next year.

The reporter learned that the sea freight has slightly dropped this year, but it is still at a high level. For the route from Ningbo Zhoushan Port to South America, the cost of each container is between 8000 and 9000 dollars. Trolley box is a large “parabolic” box. Each container can only hold 1000 finished products. Many customers’ profits are “eaten up” by freight, so they can only increase the sales price, and finally local consumers will pay the bill.

“Now, we have divided the trolley case into 12 sets, which is more than half smaller than the finished product. Each standard container can hold 5000 sets of trolley cases.” Su Yanlin told the reporter that the semi-finished trolley cases were transported to South American countries for assembly and processing by local workers, and then sold on the market. In this way, the profit of the purchaser can be guaranteed, and the consumers can also buy the trolley boxes at affordable prices.

Facing the rebound of luggage export. Liu Shenggao, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce of the Luggage Industry of Yiwu China Small Commodity City, believes that China’s overseas sales of luggage are still due to its outstanding cost performance advantage. He said that after 30 to 40 years of development, China’s luggage industry has cultivated a complete industrial chain, including supporting equipment, talents, raw materials and design capabilities. It has a good industrial foundation, strong strength, rich experience and strong production capacity. Thanks to the solid domestic luggage production and design capacity, Chinese luggage also has enough advantages in price, which is also a major factor that overseas consumers attach great importance to.