Fewer manufacturers, but export prices up
18/07/2008
The official state news agency in China has confirmed that the number of footwear exporters in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region in the southern part of the country has diminished, but the authorities insist that the footwear manufacturing industry there is still in a strong position and point to a rise in the average price of shoes made there for export markets as proof.
The official number of footwear exporters with production facilities in PRD is 2,428, which is 2,331 fewer than last year.
As a result, the volume of pairs of shoes exported from the region during the first five months of 2008, 940 million, is 25.7% down on the same period last year. Nevertheless, the value of these exports was up by 8%, reaching $3.46 billion.
The news agency said most of the firms that had ceased production or moved to lower-cost Chinese regions served the lower end of the market. Those that remain are still growing and developing well, it concluded, with eight companies now bringing in more than $100 million a year in footweear exports, compared to only two last year.
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