Heilongjiang Meets Russian Port Foreign Trade "Waterloo"

In recent years, the ruble exchange rate continued to decline, making Heilongjiang, represented by Suifenhe, facing a cold winter in exports to Russia's port cities.

Qingyun market is the largest Sino Russian comprehensive trading market in Suifenhe, which deals in clothing, shoes and caps, general merchandise and so on. The main sales target is Russian tourists. According to the market management department of Suifenhe Qingyun market, the market is normally open to 5 p.m. in the winter, but in recent times, around three or four p.m., businesses have closed down.

When journalists visited the market, they heard the most words: "not expected". The ruble's depreciation has a great impact on business. "It's never happened before." In a lonely corridor, the number of owners has far exceeded the number of Russian customers. The reporter walked into several shops and saw nothing but shop assistants.

It is understood that in December this year is the peak consumption period of the Qingyun market. Russian customers usually buy goods for Christmas at this time. According to Zhou Changwei, the sales volume of customers who only picked up repeat customers in the same period last year could generate a lot of sales. However, under the influence of the continuous depreciation of rouble, many of the business partners established over the years have not been able to maintain them. For a short period of time, they often have no business for five or six days.

The ruble devaluation has directly weakened the purchasing power of Russian customers. "For example, a garment can sell 10000 roubles for some time, but it is still profitable. exchange rate I have to sell 12000 roubles, which is difficult for Russian customers to accept such a substantial increase in prices. Zhou Changwei said.

Inventory has also become a heavy burden on the owners of Qingyun market. Wang Hongxian said, "it's no problem to have a factory of three or four or ten people," and now two attendants are under great pressure. "I am doing three things now, one is collecting accounts, the other two is to dump goods, and the first two items are the last ones to go home." According to Wang Hongxian, the volume of shipments in the recent period is almost 1/10 of the best level, and his total sales this year can only reach the level of 1/3 in the past.

Apart from trade, the personnel exchanges between the two border ports have also been affected. The number of people entering Suifenhe in November has dropped from 45 thousand and 700 in the same period last year to 39 thousand and 800 this year.

December 2013, against Russia Economy and trade Suifenhe, the "heavy town", has been approved to become China's first ruble cash pilot city. As the first pilot city, the exchange volume of ruble is often regarded as a barometer of Suifenhe's foreign trade economy. According to the director of Suifenhe branch of a commercial bank, the exchange rate of rubles in the whole year was about 8 billion, but as of mid December, the exchange volume reached 5 billion this year.

After several increases in interest rates this year, Russia's interest rate has reached 17%, almost three times the level at the beginning of this year. However, the measures did not effectively curb ruble's depreciation. Russia President Putin said at the annual large-scale press conference held on the 18 of this month that the stable ruble exchange rate measures adopted in the near future will continue and the ruble exchange rate will restore stability.