On March 1st, after the Chinese Lunar New Year, Shanghai natural rubber futures opened at 43480 yuan / ton, and the reference price of the natural rubber spot market was: Yunnan's bid price was about 42000 yuan / ton.

This is not just the shoe industry's only major raw material problem.

Prior to this, this newspaper has repeatedly reported that cotton prices rise to promote the retail price of clothing, even if the breakthrough exceeded 30000 yuan / ton mark.

As a supplier of many sporting goods brands in China, Thailand shares (002517, stock bar) (002517) mentioned in the 2010 annual performance bulletin that the company raised the sales price of sole and related products due to the impact of raw material prices.

At the same time, some brands also put the "price increase" in the annual report, which is generally over 5%.

Prices of main shoe materials are skyrocketing.

At the beginning of Xin Mao, the tension of human resources in various industries in the Pearl River Delta has become a common problem. Besides the "wage increase" and "invite difficulties", the traditional industry footwear industry has three main raw materials, oil, rubber and cotton prices.

Because of the turmoil in North Africa, oil price volatility has not ceased recently, and there is no way to solve any problems.

In addition to oil, the price of natural rubber has reached the highest level in history, more than 40000 yuan per ton.

A year ago, the figure was only around 25000 yuan / ton.

Guo Lian securities made an estimate in an investment report. "The price of natural rubber will continue to rise this year."

Another problem that bothers the shoe industry is cotton prices.

Recently, domestic 328 grade cotton spot has been re established on the price of 30 thousand yuan / ton after the Spring Festival.

The price is 30278 yuan / ton in February 25th.

The year-end year-on-year high has risen by more than 10%.

Upgrading of footwear industry

The price of raw materials has put pressure on many sports shoes, but the more direct impact is still on the upstream suppliers.

As a product supplier of Anta, XTEP, 31st degree and Hongxing Erke, the 2010 annual performance Bulletin released by Thailand (002517) in February 17th showed that "the price of raw materials has affected the company's sales price of sole and related products."

On the sheep's wool, Anta and 361 degree enterprises have also released the "selling price of footwear products".

Anta's February 21st earnings report showed that the average selling price of Anta footwear and clothing products increased by 4% and 8.8% respectively last year. The management said that production costs will continue to rise. In order to cope with inflation, this year's products will be increased, but the average range is about 10%.

The 361 degree financial report also said, "under the pressure of staff costs and rising raw materials, the average selling price of shoes increased by about 5.5% in the second half of last year, and the average selling price this year will also rise."

As one of the largest customers of Thailand's stock, XTEP, another major sports brand in China, said at the third quarter of 2011 that the price of footwear would not exceed 10%.

The situation of survival of the fittest highlights

With the rising price of raw materials and other factors, the price of the whole shoe industry has been spread to consumers at the retail end.

But this is only for consumers who buy branded products.

"Most footwear manufacturers do not have scale or brand to support raising prices. This year's life is generally bad."

A Guangzhou footwear professional market leader told reporters in Nandu that he knew that because of the rising price of raw materials, manufacturers could not recruit workers after the new year's day, and many of them could simply close or change their careers.

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In this regard, Liao Jierong, an independent analyst in the apparel industry, explained that raising prices is not a part of every enterprise's initiative to "manipulate".

At the same time, large sports apparel enterprises need a lot of marketing input to maintain brand awareness and increase their reputation, so as to ease consumers' resentment against price increases.

Many brands do not yet have the strength to raise prices, she said.

Compared with the brand end, shoes and suppliers are more difficult.

There are a lot of these two "processes" in the self-made shoe industry in the closed or pferred enterprises mentioned by the leaders of the above professional market.

Liao Jierong believes that similar to Yatai shares of such footwear suppliers, scale will become the key to "raise prices".

"The price of raw materials is not up to the bargaining power, but the production lines and factories are not allowed to be empty, so we can only make a deficit."

She expects that a new round of shoe shuffling is inevitable because the prices of raw materials are still rising in the short term.