World footwear growth slows

The rise in global footwear production has slowed, growing only marginally after increasing by almost 5% to more than 12 billion pairs in 2000. According to Satra, production increased by just 1.6% — to 12.3 billion pairs — in 2001. Average production growth over the previous four years had been 3.8%. Globalisation of the industry, however, increased further. Some 70% of all shoes are now traded internationally rather than locally. In 1991 that figure was 44%. China continues to dominate world production, boosting its share to 54% mainly at the expense of North America and Western Europe. Increases were also recorded in Eastern Europe, North Africa and South America, while production dipped in Oceania, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. China also claims the highest exports, with the USA importing most pairs. The USA in fact increased consumption further by 41 million pairs to 1,835 million — which is 15% of the entire world market. According to China's own statistics, footwear exports for January - February 2003 amounted to 750 million pairs worth US$1.81 billion, showing increases of 9.9% and 14.5% respectively. Exports of leather shoes reached 160 million pairs, accounting for 22% of total footwear exports by quantity. After China, Vietnam ranks second among countries exporting footwear to European countries, according to the Viet Nam Leather Shoes Association. The latest figures showed that Vietnam accounted for 7.2% of the total market with China at 7.8%. Vietnam earned US$544 million from exports of leather shoes in the first quarter of this year, a year-on-year rise of 26%. The EU remains the biggest market for Vietnam, accounting for 80% of its total export turnover. European shoemakers lost further ground last year, losing almost 5% in shoe output, 6% in exports, more than 2% of companies and suffered 3.5% more imports on its static home market. Speaking at the opening press conference of the 95th GDS in Dusseldorf, Philipp F Urban, spokesman of CEC, the European Confederation of the Footwear Industry, says 2002 did not yield the results hoped for, following developments in 2000/2001. 'Not only did growth fail to materialise, but the industry was faced with further losses', he said. Indeed, there was a dip in shoe consumption, down 0.5% to 1,611.4 million pairs, which was experienced across Europe and a rapid change in consumer behaviour is not anticipated. 'Overall, European shoe exports to third countries contracted by some 6% to 219.35 million pairs. Italy was particularly badly affected by the slump, in contrast to France where the slip of 3% was still within tolerable bounds. Spain, Portugal and the UK all reported slight falls but Germany notched up a strong growth in exports. 'Imports to the EU made a significant leap of 3.5% to 992.8 million pairs, with Vietnam distinguishing itself as a new major import partner, even outstripping China overall. A notable development in imports was the lack of growth in the leather walking shoe sector among the Chinese and other South East Asian import partners. The exception is Vietnam which is increasingly focusing on this area.' Europe will continue to do its utmost to retain at least 10% of shoe production worldwide within its borders. European shoe production in 2002 was 845 million pairs.