BEIJING, Dec. 3 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Himfr.com (http://www.himfr.com/ ), one of China's leading B2B search platforms with more than 30 B2B industry websites to its name, suggests China Shoe industry (http://www.chinaqualityshoes.com/ ) look for breakthroughs in overcoming the global financial crisis, which is hitting hard on the industry.
Prices of export shoes (http://www.chinaqualityshoes.com/products ) have fallen sharply in 2008. In 2007, for a pair of USD15 shoes, pre-tax profit was 1.2 U.S. dollars, while the profit has dropped to USD0.2 in 2008. While 70% of the world's shoes are China-made, and a quarter of them from Dongguan in the Guangdong province, China's Shoe industry is facing an unprecedented crisis under the current global economic downturn.
Each year, China produces more than 10 billion shoes, that accounts for a global total of 70% and is the world's largest footwear (http://www.chinaqualityshoes.com/quality-products/ ) manufacturing base. From January to September 2008, China's footwear total exports amount was USD22 billion, down 15.1% year-on-year. China is also the biggest consumer of shoes in the world, with 2.3 billion pairs of footwear sold in 2007.
Himfr.com's analysts pointed out that China will continue to be an important footwear (http://www.chinaqualityshoes.com/on-sale/ ) manufacturer, but with the market increasingly affected by the global economic downturn, there is an urgent need to innovate the market structure by opening up new shoes (http://www.chinaqualityshoes.com/wholesale/ ) markets both domestically and internationally.
At present, China's per capita consumption of shoes is less than 2 pairs, while data shows that in 2012, Asia's per capita consumption of footwear (http://www.chinaqualityshoes.com/list-product-Footwear-02020000-1.html )will reach 2 pairs and that China's per capita consumption will exceed 2.5 pairs. By then, China will consume an estimated 3 billion pairs of shoes per year, a 30% growth, based on the current figure of 2.3 billion pairs
Analysts also pointed out that with the traditional markets in Europe and the USA becoming saturated, the industry needs to open up new markets in Russia, the Middle East, South America, Asia and other places, so that the risks from exporting to a single market can be reduced. To do so, manufacturers must explore product varieties and research on different grades of products, in order to suit the different markets and customers.
For European and American markets, opportunities are still around with the sub-loan crisis changing the consumption patterns of Americans. The first to recognize the new consumption pattern will the first to seize the most opportunities that arise from the change. With a weakening economy, consumers are more likely to choose cost-effective high-quality shoes, or shoes with multi-purpose, instead of buying several shoes at one-time. Shoe producers should thus speed up the effort in developing new products.
More and more China brands are showing great strength. A successful brand is a tangible asset for an enterprise. Himfr.com believes that the shoe industry can overcome the challenges ahead by stronger brand building efforts, strengthening product and research development. These fields will be the major competition fields for shoe enterprises.
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