The 124th Canton Fair kicked off yesterday. As China’s most time-honored, highest-level, largest-scale and most comprehensive international trade event with the widest range of commodities, the Canton Fair has long served as a barometer and vane for Sino-foreign trade, earning high attention from enterprises across the country.
Packed Venue on the Opening Day
The 124th Canton Fair features a optimized exhibition structure and upgraded participation quality, bringing together a number of stable and powerful long-standing Nanhai enterprises as well as numerous new emerging local exhibitors.
Key Exhibition Data
A total of 143 Nanhai enterprises participated in this session, an increase of 11 from the previous edition, occupying 418 booths with a net increase of 32 booths. Among them, 111 are brand booths, rising by 16 year-on-year, all exclusively occupied by manufacturing enterprises. More than 20 local enterprises made their debut at the Canton Fair after the 2018 booth qualification re-evaluation.
From January to August 2018, Nanhai District achieved a total import and export volume of RMB 98.21 billion, a year-on-year increase of 6.8%. Exports reached RMB 70.18 billion and imports stood at RMB 28.03 billion, maintaining a steady growth momentum of foreign trade.
Enterprise Highlights
Kangrong Hi-Tech: Small Lamp Bases, Large Market Volume
Founded in 1993 and located in Luocun, Shishan, Guangdong Kangrong Hi-Tech New Materials Co., Ltd. specializes in the production of ceramic-based lighting components. Making its first appearance at the Canton Fair, the company showcased its core products including ceramic lamp bases and lighting fixtures.
Chen Wenguang, Product Manager of the company’s Marketing and Development Center, introduced that although single ceramic lamp bases are low-priced products, they boast huge sales volume supported by the enterprise’s high brand reputation and reliable product quality, with an annual sales capacity of about 100 million pieces. Currently, the company’s products are mainly exported to European markets, while it is actively exploring new markets in Belt and Road countries and Africa.
Participation in the Canton Fair plays a vital role in market expansion and brand promotion. In addition to its flagship exported lamp base products, Kangrong Hi-Tech has expanded its product layout to ceramic accessories for charging lamps, sewage treatment systems, new energy vehicles and other fields, striving to strengthen its domestic market competitiveness through technological innovation.
Jinying Import and Export: Customized Mosaics as Core Products
As a regular exhibitor at the Canton Fair, Guangdong Jinying Import and Export Co., Ltd. sells ceramic and mosaic products worldwide. This year, the company stood out with a unique booth design featuring a 2m×4m mosaic wall patterned with the Canton Tower, attracting widespread attention from visitors.
Lu Jianzhong, Director of Marketing and Sales at Jinying, stated that the enterprise displayed over 100 types of mosaic products at the fair, with new products accounting for 40% to 50% of the total exhibits. Against the backdrop of severe homogenization in the traditional ceramic industry, customized mosaics can better meet personalized market demands, which has become the company’s key development direction.
Jinying’s main markets cover Europe and America, and the company has steadily built customer resources in numerous Belt and Road countries in recent years.
Weiye Aluminum Group: All-Aluminum Home Products Debut at the Fair
As a well-known local aluminum profile enterprise, Guangdong Weiye Aluminum Factory Group Co., Ltd. obtained brand booth qualifications for the first time at this Canton Fair, marking an upgrade in its exhibition layout. The booth focused on immersive scene experience, with aluminum doors, windows and all-aluminum home furnishings fully displayed in real usage scenarios, representing the first systematic exhibition of the company’s all-aluminum home product series at the Canton Fair.
Ban Yan, Deputy General Manager of Weiye Aluminum Sales Company, introduced that the exhibited kitchen facilities are fully made of aluminum materials except stoves and marble countertops, featuring longer service life and superior environmental performance compared with traditional wooden products.
“The popularization of all-aluminum home furnishings is currently restricted by market acceptance and consumption habits. Our overseas investigations show that customers in Vietnam, Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries show strong interest, as local wood usage is limited, bringing broad market prospects for all-aluminum home products.” Local aluminum enterprises are actively transforming and upgrading to build more influential independent brands.
Suoer Electronics: New Energy Products Gain Wide Popularity
Foshan Suoer Electronics Industrial Co., Ltd. launched a series of new products at the fair. Its solar water pump inverter received intentional orders from Mexican merchants on the first day of exhibition. Adopting an exquisite household appliance-style appearance similar to gas water heaters, the product can convert solar energy into electric power to drive water pumps for irrigation, effectively solving agricultural water supply problems in remote areas.
“Compared with similar products in the industry, our inverter features higher energy conversion efficiency, reducing the required area of solar panels by about 20% under the same working conditions,” said Yang Shanquan, General Manager of Suoer Electronics. The company also displayed solar street lamps and other new energy products, drawing continuous consultations from global purchasers.
Jialeshi Electric: Premium Stainless Steel Juicers Stand Out
The booth of Foshan Jialeshi Electric Appliance Co., Ltd. was crowded with purchasers on the opening morning of the fair. Stainless steel juicers served as the core exhibited products.
According to Liang Xiaoyi, Sales Manager of Jialeshi Electric, exports account for 80% of the company’s total sales volume. Its high-end pure-juice stainless steel juicers are mainly sold to European and American markets. In recent years, the enterprise has expanded its product line to meat grinders and other grinding equipment, and cross-border e-commerce has become a new growth driver for product sales.
While local enterprises actively expand global markets, competent foreign trade departments of Nanhai District have rolled out diversified supportive measures. The district has promoted the high-quality development of general trade and fostered new forms of foreign trade, especially cross-border e-commerce. Through government-enterprise joint efforts, Nanhai actively mitigates the negative impact of China-US trade frictions, safeguards the legitimate rights and interests of local enterprises, encourages independent innovation, and boosts industrial development.
In terms of import business, the operator of Guijiang Vehicle Inspection Station obtained the qualification of a cross-border e-commerce direct import and retail export supervision venue in 2018, which officially launched trial operation on May 11, further driving the development of cross-border e-commerce import business in Nanhai.
In terms of export business, Nanhai District established the Cross-border E-commerce Chamber of Commerce and held the 2018 Cross-border E-commerce Ecological Summit. Professional platform instructors provided systematic training for dozens of local import and export enterprises, covering platform registration, store operation, logistics and warehousing, marketing promotion and product category analysis.
Relying on chamber of commerce services, the district actively connects local manufacturing and foreign trade enterprises with international B2C platforms such as Amazon and eBay, cutting intermediate links for local exported products and expanding diversified export channels.
Meanwhile, Nanhai District continues to optimize the development environment for traditional foreign trade. It has held coordination meetings for stabilizing foreign trade growth, gathering economic promotion bureaus, tax bureaus, customs, inspection and quarantine departments, foreign exchange management departments and key traditional trading enterprises to solve operational difficulties and provide targeted services on-site.
Relevant departments have conducted systematic research on local foreign trade enterprises, conducted on-site visits with customs authorities to assess operational impacts, and delivered precise policy support. Policy promotion activities have been organized to publicize national and municipal foreign trade support funds, boosting enterprises’ development confidence.
On March 29, 2018, the District Economic Promotion Bureau, together with customs, inspection and quarantine, tax and foreign exchange management departments, held a foreign trade policy briefing. The event focused on popularizing policies including cross-border dual RMB capital pools, export tax rebates, export risk prevention and export credit insurance, guiding enterprises to make full use of supportive policies, actively respond to China-US trade frictions, strengthen independent innovation and achieve high-quality development.
