The city of Changzhou has taken proactive measures to stabilize foreign trade as the country is witnessing a post-epidemic recovery with sufficient policy tools shoring up growth and helping enterprises endure the difficult situation.
Changzhou Xavier Home Furnishing Co., Ltd. has packed 1,700 sets of electric adjustable desks to be ready for shipment to Europe and America.
The company's sales from January to May increased by 330% year-on-year. However, it was on the verge of suspending business 2 months ago.
Faced with cancellation of orders on the international market, the company tried its best to stabilize its workforce and seek breakthrough on its own.
By responding to the trend of working from home due to the escalating COVID-19 pandemic around the world, Xavier soon developed electric adjustable desks. At the same time, it started to move its focus from offline sales to online sales in a bid to tap into the domestic market.
Yu Xiaofeng, Chairman of Changzhou Xavier Office Equipment Co., Ltd.
At present our production capacity is 8,000 sets per month and there is still a certain gap from the customer's target of 20,000 sets per month.Therefore, we have put into use automation equipment such as robot welding to improve productivity and efficiency.
By shifting its production and sales focus, Xavier has been able to make breakthroughs with the sales in May growing 140% from the first four months of this year to hit 10 million yuan.
However, with the surge in shipments, the time spent on customs clearance, which would take four to five days, became the bottleneck for the company to expand sales.
The local customs quickly launched an appointment-based inspection service to ensure that the shipment of goods is cleared on the day the appointment is made and the inspection is done.
Li Hao, Deputy Commissioner, Changzhou Customs
The paperless declaration has ensured that qualified products are inspected and cleared once they measure up to the regulations.Changzhou Customs has reduced the time spent on inspection and customs clearance by 61.63%.
Xavier is in good company. Faced with the pressure from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, foreign trade firms in Changzhou have faced up to the difficulties to seek breakthroughs on their own initiative.
Changzhou Shuang’ai Furniture Co. Ltd has started to install intelligent equipment for transformation and upgrading.
Zhang Xinggang, Chairman of Changzhou Shuang’ai Furniture Co. Ltd
We have refined the production line and after adding flexible production lines and robots,the production capacity has basically increased by 30%-40% which can reduce manpower by half.
With the government extending policy tools to shore up growth and help enterprises endure the difficult situation, furniture enterprises in Changzhou reported a sales growth of 101% in the first quarter on a yearly basis by exporting 602 batches of wooden office furniture.
（Source:ourjiangsu.com）
