In March this year, Dongguan, a well-known export enterprises, "Wal-Mart barbecue grill the world's largest supplier" - Golden Cow Industrial Co. The company owner Zhu Shanbao disappeared because he owed wages to employees, suppliers, bank loans and taxes. Learned the news, we try to contact the company's remaining staff, trying to find the crux of the export business from this debt-ridden, uncertain future of the export business, the crux of the export business. Today, we and the reporter together to find out.
One of the lying "Golden Cow"
After several contacts, the reporter saw the Golden Cow stayed behind the general manager Lu Malu. He just rushed back to Guangdong from Wuhan. LuMaLu originally is the golden cow company's ordinary administrative personnel, factory shutdown after a month, he was promoted to the general manager of the golden cow company in the line of fire. He went to Wuhan because the company owed two local suppliers money.
Lu Malu told reporters, "One of them is more than 20 million (payments), more than 21 million, he hoped that we will be able to pay off before next month, and then the pressure is not so big, we are still talking to him."
On the way to the Dongguan Golden Cow company, Lu Malu told reporters that the chairman of the Golden Cow Zhu Shanbao will contact him alone every day. And it is indeed difficult to find Zhu Shanbao for other employees and hundreds of suppliers in the factory. "It's true that everyone can't see the chairman during this time. But he is in contact with me every single day. It's true that so many managers, and also some suppliers, they didn't find their boss that easily. Because that period was a critical moment in the life and death of the entire company." "Why is that?" "Because one was the decision that was faced was the question of bankruptcy, or staying in business."
Let Zhu Shanbao difficult to choose the gold sleeper cattle, in the end into what kind of predicament? What is the reason for the gold lying cattle so quickly fell? With a variety of questions, the reporter came to Dongguan City, Qingxi Town, gold cow factory, in the assembly workshop reporter saw, here has been cut off the electricity, production line equipment and semi-finished products were taken by the court of preservation measures, do not allow the sale and transfer.
Here the reporter met Zheng Xiantao, director of the office of the Golden Crouching Bull Industrial Company. "How many workers are needed for a workshop like this one, if it produces?" "The busiest time to reach 500 people, under normal circumstances are about 300 people, on the previous stage, before the dissolution, that is, before the shutdown of production is about 200 people like this." "Where are all these workers now?" "Now all these workers are after getting their salaries, all went home on vacation."
The reporter saw that behind the plant is the company's dormitory building for employees, now also has been empty. "Now all have been empty?" "Empty no one lives." "Where are the workers who work here workers?" "A little more from Anhui, followed by Hubei, Henan, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan, Hunan, and very few, very few, from the real Guangdong." "The vast majority are from the mainland?" "Mainland."
After the shutdown, the workers were demobilized back to their hometowns, and a few who did not want to leave Dongguan continued to wait here. Faced with the camera, many chose to avoid it. After some maneuvering, a young man from Nanyang, Henan Province, finally agreed to say a few words. He is the former deputy director of the workshop of the Golden Cow Industrial Company Xu Qingyong. "If the factory does not stop production, people's hearts are still stable. You now stop production, he did not know what to do next, so (workers) he hopes to get their wages, the go away, the go away, the business I do business, what to do what to do, is not it? I then look for another way out, you say how you plan the next step, that the next step no one can see, but with this situation in front of us, no one dares to estimate the next step so optimistic, is not it?"
Small Xu told reporters that in the gold sleeper cattle before the shutdown, the company has defaulted on all employees' wages, even the general manager LuMaLu is no exception, some employees are even owed 20 months of wages. "You were the deputy director of the workshop on the factory side, how much did you earn in a month at that time?" "More than four thousand dollars." "More than four thousand dollars. At that time you were owed wages, the highest time reached how much?" "A little over forty thousand dollars." "Nearly ten months?" "Ten months."
Lu Malu also lives in this dormitory building. In his home, the reporter saw Lu Malu's employee salary passbook, which is the only proof of the wages owed. "It is from October 12, 2006, on this part of the wages deposited into the company escrow." "From what it shows here, it looks like you were paid in August and signed in on October 24th." "Right, right, right." "And then the September paycheck was signed in on December 7th?" "Right." "And that's when the company was having money flow problems?" "It was one of the tougher situations during that time."
Lu Maru told reporters that since 2006, workers rarely got paid on time, which signaled that the company's performance was starting to go downhill. In order to solve the problem, the company found a way to borrow millions of dollars from the local town government to save the day. At the moment, only the company's top management such as him has not been paid back wages. Not only that, but it's also a headache for the people who are left behind, one thing after another.
The news that general manager Lu Malu has returned to the company, the local court staff came one after another. This court summons has just been received because the company owes the gas bill attracted the lawsuit. In addition to the supplier's payment, the gold lying cattle need to repay the bank loans and taxes due. "What are your total assets about now?" "Probably around 450 million." "How are the liabilities constituted now?" "The company's liabilities, we are mainly concentrated in the suppliers of this piece of the supplier's liabilities from more than three thousand dollars there, all the way up to 12 million also, the total * * * is in about 500 households suppliers of creditors." "A * * * total indebtedness, how much is owed by suppliers?" "According to this statement of the company shows that the supplier liabilities this piece in is about 230 million."
According to the statistics of the Golden Crouching Bull Company, their gearing ratio is now as high as 95%, on the verge of bankruptcy. Now every day there will be debt collection suppliers blocked in front of the office building. The reporter met one of them here. "What raw materials for them?" "Supply of screws." "How many years to supply here?" "For 3, 4 years." "3 or 4 years. Now owe you how much is the payment?" "More than 600,000."
Lu Malu said, "More often than not, they come to find out about some of the company's conditions. Basically every day, even several sets of them a day, three or four sets of them, there is this situation." "What issues are they most concerned about?" "Or some of the company's intentions. Because there are some suppliers, some of his inquiries inside the phone, maybe he is not quite convinced that your whole business was running well, why would the production stop in a short period of time."
Second, who knocked down the "Golden Cow"
In 2004 to 2005, the Golden Cow company had 4.5 million different types of barbecue grills were sold overseas, these products labeled with the Golden Cow's own trademarks were exported to the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany and five countries. Now the Made In China barbecue grill can only lie quietly in the finished product warehouse, do not know what fate will face tomorrow.
The reporter met Zheng Xiantao, the company's office director, in the assembly workshop of Golden Cow. "These if the production is finished, the original these products are ready to send where?" "This sent to the United States, Europe and the United States these countries." "What should be the selling price of a unit?" "About four hundred dollars, this is a more upscale furnace." "More upscale. How high can this profit be?" "The profit is not too clear exactly, but this profit is still considerable, we now profit mainly by this upscale product to obtain."
As Zheng Xiantao said, built in 1992, the Golden Crouching Cow is built on export orders day by day, from the initial charcoal, gas barbecue grills, the Golden Crouching Cow has grown to have seven factories, two trading companies. The most glorious time, covers an area of 550,000 square meters, construction area of 450,000 square meters, 4,200 employees, is the largest taxpayers in Qingxi Town, "Dongguan City, the top 50 private enterprises". In the past thirteen years, this company has produced all barbecue grills for export, with annual sales of 150 million U.S. dollars in its heyday, and exported two million barbecue grills annually to world retail giants such as Wal-Mart and B&Q.
In the sample room, Lu Maru introduced to the reporter: "This exhibit room display are some, in North America sales better some samples." "All of these?" "All of these are." "How many kinds of samples are in the display room now?" "It's about seventy or so that are larger, and twenty or so that are smaller, for a total **** of ninety or so."
In June 2007, Golden Cow won the Wal-Mart supplier qualification, becoming the only company in the domestic barbecue grill industry that can directly export products to Wal-Mart. However, the good times did not last long, just eight months later, the Golden Cow had to take the initiative to Wal-Mart to stop supplying. LuMaLu explained to the reporter: "the main reason is that we in the Spring Festival around, (about) raw materials prices this problem, we and foreign customers of some negotiation did not finally reach a (unified) opinion. Because we feel that the factory needs to operate, there must be profit, and we received orders are in the first half of last year, orders received to that time the price, because of this raw material prices rose sharply, we believe that the goods are no way to hand out again."
Over the past few years, domestic steel prices did have a few price spikes, especially in May 2006, up to 10 percent of the steel price hike is still fresh in the minds of many people. Zhang Guangfu, deputy director of the main plant of the Golden Horny Cow Company, recalled: "Our country's raw materials (prices), every year to November to December are (to increase prices), especially this year, the most serious, this year, a year is doubled, this year is doubled over. Especially ordinary stretching plate, ordinary cold plate, are more than eight thousand dollars, the highest peak."
Entering 2008, steel prices once again exceeded people's imagination. The reporter inquired about the steel offer on the market in Guangzhou, the price of cold rolled plate, the most demanded in industrial production, from July 13, 2007, 4,767 yuan / ton, to June 5, 2008, 7,191 yuan / ton, less than a year, the price rose by 50.8%.
Lu Maru said: "We use the cold-rolled plate this piece, in the whole barbecue furnace products, more than 55% of the cost of cold-rolled plate are composed of the cost of cold-rolled plate, like this cold-rolled plate in 2005, when the price was about 3,200 yuan / ton or so, that to the peak this year is 8,500 yuan / ton. "
In the barbecue grill industry, like the gold lying cattle such as their own design, production of high-grade gas grill, and has its own brand of enterprises is not rare. But they still haven't escaped the fate of declining efficiency, or even stop production at a loss. In Lu Malu's office, a trade settlement letter of credit, once again attracted our attention.
Lu Malu said: "The amount of this letter of credit is 4.47 million U.S. dollars, and we really got the money in April 2008," he said. And the price of the product was finalized back in April 2007." "In April 2007, when you had to sign the contract to determine the price of the product, what was that price to be determined on?" "According to the exchange rate of RMB, and the positioning of raw materials at that time, we can determine the unit price of the barbecue grill." "No consideration of expectations? Did not take into account the changes in the next year?" "This point, we can say that all the domestic export enterprises and foreign import enterprises, like this in 2007, 2008, the appreciation of the yuan this problem, many companies were not expected, think it is impossible to say that the environment all of a sudden have such a big adjustment. This is so that we were not expected."
The pricing of products for domestic exporters is usually determined a year in advance. In the barbecue grill industry, for example, in April and May each year, the Golden Wolverine and Wal-Mart and other overseas retailers to sign a supply contract to determine a price, and thereafter has been to the next year's April and May, each batch of export products will be strictly in accordance with this price. LuMaLu introduction, the domestic production of barbecue grill enterprises have dozens of, in order to compete for overseas orders, there does exist a vicious competition with each other to pressure the price. Golden Cow to sign the order, can only set the price in accordance with the meager profits. In other words, this export contract, which determines the profitability of the product in the coming year, does not take exchange rate changes into account at all; in other words, one of the major reasons for the crisis of Jincao Niu is the pricing error of the enterprise in taking orders.
Lu Malu said: "This is the gold lying cattle factory of a shipment schedule, this shipment schedule from May 2007, has been to the 2008 August this period of time an order shipment plan, a cargo season order shipment plan. Like 848503 this product, under normal circumstances should be shipped in July is 5100 sets, to more than 4000 sets in October, until (2008) February 10,000 zero two hundred sets to be all out, but we can see in this order details, there is a part of this green, this has been identified is already out of the shipment, the smooth has been completed, after December, the whole company because of some raw material increases. The whole company because faced with some raw material prices, as well as export tax rebates reduced, the appreciation of the yuan these issues, a pressure on the company, resulting in the back of the goods, there is no way to hand over on schedule." "At that time, if we still according to the original order contract, continue to deliver these goods, what problems will occur?" "At that time, we roughly estimated that our loss for this factory would reach about 50 million RMB by June 2008."
Is the bankruptcy predicament that Golden Cushioning Cow has fallen into a case of mismanagement by an exporting company, or an existential crisis that has affected many enterprises? After visiting several townships in Dongguan City, including Qingxi, Humen, Houjie and Tangxia, the reporter found that a considerable number of export enterprises in this big export city are facing the same crisis as that of the golden cows.
Three, Dongguan difficulties
In Dongguan, the reporter learned that many export enterprises due to the appreciation of the yuan and other factors, there has been a loss, and some enterprises even appeared to close down, bankruptcy, next to me is such an enterprise, now the factory name has been scraped off, but we can still vaguely see, Chenhong Shoes Co.
Like many enterprises in the Pearl River Delta, this factory's premises were leased. Now that the factory has collapsed, the landlord has posted another advertisement for rent. On the way to the interview, we can often see such advertisements for factory buildings for rent. Zheng Xiantao, the office director of Golden Woliu Company, told us that the situation here is not what it used to be. "It started in the second half of last year, it's more prominent. We came so many years, I came five, six years, six years time, never before speak here factory down, there down, did not speak. This plant is also covered non-stop, now vacant plant is also more, is not rented out ah, no one to take the lease."
Houjie Town, Dongguan City, gathered thousands of large and small export factories, a young man working here Zhang Yu told reporters that the town recently fell several factories. "This is the newly collapsed that a garment factory." "The new down of the garment factory, March 4, 2008 just closed down." "The factory owner ran away." "The factory owner ran away?" "Yes. After he ran away, the local village committee advanced the wages of the employees." "So all the workers didn't get their paychecks at that time?" "No, no, no wages were not paid. It was several months in arrears."
In the Dongguan Intermediate People's Court, Chen Xuejian, deputy director in charge of the liquidation and execution of bankrupt enterprises, told us that he and his colleagues clearly felt the crisis of the exporters. "It's clearly felt. For example, we dealt with a Dongguan City, Humen Town last year, a case called Jin Wan Plastics Co., Ltd. this business was very large, probably the most when there are six, seven thousand employees, they that plant should cover an area of more than 20 acres, just that the plant and dormitory buildings have a floor area of more than 80,000 square meters, such a large enterprise it was poorly run last year, for a variety of reasons, and now left Case, just our court case, should be in our Humen court last year is, just this factory case there are more than 240, our intermediate court accepted, because we that is the jurisdiction of the subject matter is different, the intermediate court accepted should also have more than 10 it."
Chen Xuejian took us to this export enterprise in Humen. This is a toy factory in the local count, it is also in this export enterprise crisis closed, due to the lack of money to pay the bills, hundreds of suppliers to this enterprise to the court, just Chen Xuejian handled the case has been more than 240 cases." "At that time, when we came over to seize the business, when we came here, this situation was a mess." "How messy?" "At that time, the heart is not bottomed out, here are parked everywhere, in front of all the vehicles, the vehicles are horizontal and vertical, because everyone is quite anxious heart Well, are suppliers to collect debts."
After the U.S. subprime debt turmoil, the European and American markets showed signs of a consumer recession. Clothing, footwear, furniture and other export enterprises feel most strongly. Take leather shoes for example, in the first 2 months of this year, the Dongguan region exported 35.78 million pairs of leather shoes, compared with the same period last year, a sharp drop of 15.6%. Among them, 14.48 million pairs were exported to the U.S., down 19.7% compared with the same period last year. In order to find out more details, we went to the Dongguan Municipal Bureau of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation and met the deputy director Cai Kang. "It is true that there is a part of the enterprise, because of this rise in costs led to a loss of this situation, this is also there." "There are no statistics, at present, due to the impact of these factors, recently we have these export enterprises, foreign trade enterprises, about how many closures, how many are caught in debt disputes inside the lawsuit?" "The closure and transfer of this enterprise ah it is a more complex issue, only through the research of an enterprise to the bottom, then this situation is difficult to form a very accurate figures. 2007 we are about 909 foreign enterprises shut down or closed down, that is a total number, the total number of those who are included is to transfer to the field to go. "
Cai Kang told us that in the last year, a series of export policy measures have been introduced to promote the transformation of enterprises and industrial upgrading, which has made life not so good for some low value-added labor-intensive exporters. "One is to reduce the export tax rebate rate, and the second is to add a part of the goods as processing trade restricted commodities. In this case, reduce the tax rebate rate will of course directly increase the cost of exports, the tax rebate rate fell. In addition to the words of this commodity added as a restricted category, then according to the provisions of this, the enterprise and then import raw materials, he has to pay the deposit accordingly, that is, the bank account of the deposit, which will also squeeze a part of the operation of the enterprise's funds, increasing the seriousness of its capital backlog."
The Bank of China Dongguan Branch also provided the reporter with such a set of data: at present, the export enterprises in Guangdong Province, the rising cost of exports, nearly one-third of the appreciation of the yuan caused by the 2007, the appreciation of the yuan so that the Guangdong Province, the general trade export losses of 19.52 billion yuan, of which 9.2 billion yuan of losses in the private sector export enterprises. It is estimated that in 2008, Guangdong's general trade exports will lose 52.45 billion yuan, of which private exporters will lose 25.34 billion yuan.
Cai Kang said: "the appreciation of the yuan such a factor, why will the foreign-invested enterprises it exports caused such a big impact it, because it is very very difficult to predict, and many foreign businessmen told us, with the customer to negotiate the price of the order, because there is no way to predict out of the delivery of the yuan appreciation to what extent, so the customer will not accept your proposed price, so the customer will not accept your proposed price. Customers will not accept this demand for price increases, so it's really a difficult situation."
What impact has the crisis of exporters had on suppliers upstream in the industry chain? We tried to find the answer among the 500 suppliers of Golden Crouching Bull. However, during the interviews, both suppliers of Golden Crouching Cow and the many small local factories supplying exporters were reluctant to face the camera directly. After some difficulty, a supplier in Huizhou that provides parts for export furniture factories said it was willing to be interviewed.
Four, a losing order
"2006 from Dongguan moved over here, the use of this mountain dug open after the leveling, and then build their own factories, can not take up those farmland well, the plan is 20,000 square meters to develop."
Huizhou Yuxing Hardware Wooden Products Factory Zhang Yucai from Jiangxi to work in Guangdong has been almost twenty years. Seven years ago, he took out his years of savings and opened a hardware and woodwork processing factory to provide parts for several local furniture exporters. In Huizhou, he rented 20,000 square meters of mountainous land and built his own 1,000 square meter factory. We noticed that the 20,000 square meters of land was only half leveled, and we could tell from the traces on the soil that the infrastructure work had been stopped for some time. When we asked about the reason for the stoppage, Zhang Yucai looked very helpless. "The original business before 2003 business is very good, but after the second half of 2003, to now slowly has been on a slippery slope." "This period of time slippage is serious?" "Slippery slope is very powerful, the most powerful is from 2007, 2007 basic September to now, to 2008, to now, so far well, has come to the most crisis time."
Zhang Yucai said, is the crisis faced by export enterprises. In previous years, although the competition between peers is also very fierce, and from time to time will encounter some foreign anti-dumping investigations, but they are such small factories live more nourishing. Zhang Yucai's small factory, every month from several large customers to receive six or seven hundred thousand yuan of orders, a rough calculation, every month can earn more than 50,000 yuan. "A few years ago we (gross profit) can be at least a dozen points, in eleven, two points well."
But in the last year or so, the appreciation of the yuan, the magnitude and speed of raw material price increases exceeded people's expectations. And Zhang Yucai have business dealings with several large furniture exporters, the immediate situation is not optimistic. "How many of your main customers?" "The main customers have eight customers." "What is the state of these eight customers now?" "Four customers are basically having a harder time than my factory." "More difficult than your factory?" "Has been down two, three well, there are two economic is not very good, every month's payment is not allowed to pay us on time."
On the side of the plant, Zhang Yucai told us that the export enterprises fell, the original order will follow the nullification. The remaining wood and semi-finished products in front of us were piled up here as a last resort for such reasons. "What is this for?" "This is that backboard of the office chair, and this is the sitting board. All that's left, just this side of the raw materials to make finished products have more than 100,000, investment in molds and spent more than 100,000, a round trip on 20 million, nearly a year, stalled here." "All of them stagnant here? Is your family encountered this situation or?" "A lot of similar, a lot of peers encountered a similar (situation), made things, the customer placed an order, and finally he canceled the order, resulting in these small businesses of ours, there is a compression of funds, there are all kinds of reasons, so that it is very difficult to maintain such."
We feel in the survey, although the export enterprises still continue to give orders to suppliers, but the high cost of these orders into a hot yam. Zhang Yucai made a calculation: "This is my customer's purchase order. (Model) 10393 this board, we buy back this board cost is in 2020 yuan / cubic meter, plus 6% tax, that is, 2020 × 0.06 is equal to 121.2 yuan, plus 2020 is equal to more than 2100. Plus the cost of my factory workers to get on and off the truck to carry it, the cost of transportation, 18 yuan / cubic meter." "Then if you calculate according to this, in your case it is 2159 dollars cost, how much can you sell it now?" "Sell to customers is to 2037.4 yuan / cubic meter, the cost is going to be 2159 yuan / cubic meter, to lose 121 yuan."