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ZHEJIANG PROVINCE: China is one of the largest socks manufacturers in the world, and even though the product is a wardrobe staple, manufacturers there said orders have been slipping.
Business at Mengna Knitting boomed when it won the bid to be the sole supplier for socks during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Sales shot up 100 per cent every month for the first half of the year.
But with the Olympics fever dissipated and the financial crisis slowing exports, the outlook for the second half is less than rosy.
Nonetheless, Mengna’s vice-general manager Ding Wei said his company is not overly stressed.
"The demand for socks may be diminished, but it will not disappear as people won't give up wearing socks just because times are bad," he said.
With a major foothold in the market at home and abroad, Mengna is looking to long-term customers to help them through.
While stronger players like Mengna can rely on the domestic market and secure long-term orders with big brands, smaller export vendors said they are prepared to tide over the tough times with their partners, even if it means getting late payments.
Lin Yunjun is one such vendor. Her family business has just one factory with less than ten workers, and their buyers come mainly from Algeria, Georgia and Russia, as well as certain parts of Europe.
"Many people are delaying their payments. They say the euros have been depreciating and so they want to pay when the rates get better," she said.
Lin added that with sales dropping by a third in the last few months, there is little else they can do, but to try to stay afloat.
"A lot of them are long-time customers. We are almost like friends and the fact is that we are all facing tough times. We have no choice but to hold our fort for now," said Lin.
- CNA/so
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