PR Resource – Muarateweh.net

Foreign buyers at China’s 103rd Import and Export Fair, or Canton Fair, are positive about the competitiveness of Chinese toys, although average prices have risen by 20 percent over the past year, participants interviewed at the event said.

Toy makers had been worried that orders might fall sharply this year. But “the situation is better than we expected,” an exhibitor from toy maker Jiangsu Hongye said. “The toy market may get better after April, and we are expecting more orders.”

Chinese toy exports slowed last year due to increased prices and the yuan’s appreciation. Large-scale quality recalls also hurt the industry. Statistics from the Guangdong Toy Association showed that the province exported 14Ǔ billion yuan (2.1 billion U.S. dollars) of toys in񎧗, up just one percent year-on-year.
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The government on Tuesday cut import duty on steel, imposed export duty on steel products, modified the duty structure on cement and brought down duty on skimmed milk powder as part of anti-inflationary measures that are likely to cost the exchequer Rs. 1,500 crore.

Replying to the debate on the Finance Bill in the Lok Sabha, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram announced the measures aimed at increasing the domestic availability of cement and steel. He said the two items were the single largest contributor to inflation.

Mr. Chidambaram imposed 12 per cent ad valorem duty on bags costing over Rs. 250 a 50 kg, against the current specific duty of Rs. 600 a tonne.
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Messrs. Trendex Furniture Industry Company Limited, a Taiwanese company is going to set up a furniture manufacturing industry in the Karnaphuli Export Processing Zone.

This100 per cent foreign-owned company will invest about Taka 408 crore and will produce table, chair, hutch buffet, bed, night stand, chest, dresser, TV stand, coffee table, end table, sofa, commercial/office furniture. The company will also create employment opportunity for 10,085 Bangladeshi and 17 foreign nationals. This is the first time that a foreign company is going to invest in furniture manufacturing industry in an EPZ, which is expected to play a significant role in product diversification.

An agreement to this effect was signed between the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority and Messrs Trendex Furniture Industry Company Limited in BEPZA Complex, Dhaka recently.
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The collapse of the US housing market and the shutting down of retail stores in the US have put Indian furntiture exporters in a fix. The orders have dried up by as much as 70% in the past few months forcing exporters to cut jobs.

A Jodhpur-based leading furniture exporter Prince Art Exports, which has US furniture retailers Cost Plus and Pier 1 Imports as its clients, has seen its order book shrink continuously for the past six months, following the breakout of US subprime crisis.

“This is the worst situation we have faced in the past 30 years. We used to ship 22 containers every month to Cost Plus, but haven’t sent any in the past three months. Similarly, orders from Pier 1 too have completely dried up,” says Prince Art Export owner Mahavir Jain.
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/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Danny M. Chien, a Taiwanese citizen and resident of Shanghai, China, and Style Craft Furniture Co., Ltd., were each indicted today by a federal grand jury in
Newark, N.J., on one count of smuggling, announced Ronald J. Tenpas, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and Christopher J. Christie, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey.

The company, a manufacturer of wooden baby furniture located primarily in China, imported approximately $15 million in declared value of wood furniture in 2004-2005.

According to the indictment, on approximately May 23, 2005, Chien, the day-to-day manager and president of Style Craft Furniture, shipped a container of furniture from China into the United States at Port Elizabeth, N.J., containing a wood commonly called “ramin.” The indictment alleges (continue reading…)

China’s largest distribution center for small commodities Yiwu recorded a 4.07 percent year-on-year drop in export to the United States in the first quarter, the first decline since the marketplace was launched three decades ago.

Yiwu exported 48.47 million U.S. dollars worth of goods to the United States in the first quarter, after its export to that country surged 35.2 percent last year to 255.52 million dollars, according the local bureau of industry and commerce.

The decline was a result of a number of factors, including the subprime crisis, the tight monetary policy adopted by China, Renminbi appreciation, price rises of raw material, the ice and snow crisis early this year and the market’s closure for the Spring Festival, according to an observer with the Yiwu Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau. (continue reading…)

China, the world’s factory, exported US$109 billion worth of goods in March, 30.6% higher than in the same month last year. The performance was far better than in February, when exports grew by just 6.5% as the country was plagued by the worst snowstorm in half a century.

To some extent, however, the surge in March resulted from delayed orders from February as well as the low growth rate of 6.9% posted in March last year.

The growth rate of exports in the first quarter was 21.4%, 6.4 percentage points lower than the in same period last year. In contrast, imports grew by 28.6%, up 9.4 percentage points year-on-year. As a result, net exports decreased by 10%. It seems that after peaking in 2007, China’s trade surplus is losing its momentum this year. (continue reading…)