The decrease in value terms was accompanied by a decline in volume of exports, but at a smaller extent (-5.7%). According to data obtained by the World Footwear, during the first six months of 2016 Chinese companies have exported a total of 4.74 billion pairs of shoes.

By analyzing the top 20 destinations in value, the decline occurred across most of them, with the exceptions being the sales to India (+9.71%), Spain (+0.12%), Russia (+0.22%) and Kyrgyzstan (+116.42%).

Worth being highlighted is the performance in the US, the main buyer of China-made footwear as one in each four pairs of Chinese footwear sold abroad has that North American country as destination. With significant drops in their orders, during the first semester of 2016, the US bought 861.2 million pairs of shoes from China valued at 5.6 billion US dollars. This represents a decline of 15.56% from similar period last year (minus 1.04 billion US dollars). In fact, the US alone explain 35.93% of the decline in China’s total exports in the period.

Other markets with relevant declines were the UAE (-11.76%), Germany (-16.40%), France (-17,21%), South Korea (-21.11%) and Netherlands (-13.46%).

According to the World Footwear Yearbook in 2015 China was the indisputable leader amongst the main footwear exporters, with 69.1% share, and despite a decline in the country’s share of the world total. Also the leading footwear manufacturer, with a world share of 59.1%, corresponding to 13.58 billion pairs. According to the same source, in 2015 Chinese production decreased some 5%.

For more information about the World Footwear Industry in 2015 please follow this link.