BEIJING — As they prepare for China’s biggest export fair this week, managers at Shunde Xiongfeng Electric Industrial Co. are anxious.
Sales of electric fans are down this year, and the financial crisis is apt to further cut demand from overseas. The 5,000-employee company in the southern city of Shunde, near Hong Kong, sold 6 million electric fans abroad last year.
“We are worried that if our clients are short of capital, they might shut down,” said Shunde’s export manager, who would only give his surname, Zeng. “That’s certainly bad for us.”
China has been known as the world’s factory for everything from toys to T-shirts, and exports have powered its growth in recent years. But exports are taking a hit from the global financial crisis because of lower demand from overseas and tightening credit from state-owned banks.
A slowdown in Chinese exports would ripple through the world economy as China imports fewer raw materials, half-finished goods for assembly and supplies, such as Australian iron ore or factory equipment from the U.S., Europe and Japan. Raw materials used for exports made up half of China’s nearly $1 trillion in imports last year.
China’s economy is still expected to expand by at least 9 percent this year, and its banks are flush with cash and hold little risky debt. But its economy has been weakened by a bursting housing bubble and an anemic stock market, and the hope that China’s appetite for imports will rescue other countries has been tempered.
