As the largest country in the world, Russia has enormous potential. With the development of the economy, Russia's strength has been continuously explored, attracted the attention of the world, and also attracted the attention of the Chinese lighting industry. At the Moscow International Lighting Exhibition in 1999, only one mainland Chinese company participated in the exhibition, and the number of companies signing up for the exhibition this year has reached 150! It is clear from the above figures that the Chinese lighting companies attach importance to Russia. In order to understand the Russian lighting market in more detail, the reporter visited Mr. Liu Mingen, Project Director of Guangzhou Haozhan Exhibition Planning Co., Ltd., the general agent of Moscow International Lighting Exhibition. The exchanges between China and Russia have always been very close. Many Chinese founding fathers, such as Deng Xiaoping and Liu Bocheng, have studied in the Soviet Union. In recent years, with the establishment of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Sino-Russian relations have been increasingly strengthened. The 2006 China-Russia Friendship Year has pushed China-Russia friendship to a new height.
Russia's development potential cannot be underestimated
Mr. Liu has been engaged in international exhibitions and trades in the lighting industry for many years and has unique insights into the markets of all regions of the world. Mr. Liu believes that although the consumption levels in Europe and the United States are high, but because of the high degree of development, the sales channels are very mature and the growth is very limited. Exporting products to these regions, profit margins are constantly decreasing, and large-scale buyers in these regions, after years of trade with China, have already had very stable suppliers and will not easily make adjustments. For the later Chinese export enterprises, it is very difficult to open the European and American markets.
In emerging markets such as Africa, South America, and Eastern Europe, although the various mechanisms are not very mature and perfect, there are relatively many opportunities, which are very suitable for emerging lighting export enterprises. In Russia, for example, under the leadership of President Putin, Russia’s economic growth rate has remained between 6% and 7% in the last six or seven years, much higher than in Other parts of Europe. President Putin also drastically carried out various reforms and made great efforts to transform the image of the country, including the renovation of several large hotels in the Moscow city with the color of the former Soviet Union, which greatly stimulated the construction industry's demand for building materials and lighting. .
Russia's consumption power is mainly concentrated in a few large cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg. In 2006, Moscow surpassed Tokyo and Hong Kong and was named the world's most expensive city. Its strength cannot be underestimated.
The development history of Chinese lighting companies in Russia
In fact, as early as the early 1980s in the early days of reform and opening up, there were many “families†in China to enter Russia to do business. This is the first Chinese army to enter Russia. However, in general, this type of business is relatively small, and the goods are carried by human hands, rather than entering Russia through formal customs clearance procedures. The products are mainly small commodities, the quality is not high, and in addition to things like small light bulbs, There are no other lighting industry products.
According to General Liu, Chinese lighting companies officially began to enter Russia in the early 1990s. Most of the Chinese merchants at that time came from Taiwan, and they entered the Russian market through the international exhibition in Moscow. Therefore, when the mainland lighting companies entered the Russian market in the late 1990s, they found that the local high-end lighting was either from Spain, Italy and other European countries, or from Taiwan.
In 1999, enterprises in mainland China began to test the water. The Russian city often walked in front of it. It was a foreign trade company from the Yangtze River Delta region. Since then, the Russian market has entered the field of Chinese enterprises. When the first batch of people who ate crabs tasted the sweetness, the lighting companies in the Yangtze River Delta region began to skip the foreign trade enterprises and directly entered the Russian market.
Many Guangdong lighting companies, including Guzhen enterprises, are a latecomer to the Russian market. During the period from 2000 to 2002, the market that Guangdong lighting foreign trade enterprises paid more attention to was mainly concentrated in Europe, America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and other regions. However, since 2003, under the leadership of enterprises in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Guangdong lighting companies began to exhibit in Russia.
Chinese lanterns are in the "tidal tide" in Russia
General Liu introduced that the best-selling lighting products in Russia include engineering, office lighting, lighting accessories and lanterns.
While China's lighting companies, especially the lighting manufacturers like lanterns, have just entered Russia, they have gone through many detours because they don't understand the market. At the beginning, Chinese companies thought that the Russian market and the Middle East market had similar requirements for product quality. Therefore, the lamps in Russia were the same as those in the Middle East. The results were very bad and the transaction volume was not high. Russian buyers also believe that the quality of Chinese lanterns is very second.
In fact, although Russia has three-quarters of its territory in Asia, it has long been influenced by European mainstream culture. Its culture, customs, and tastes are close to Europe, and the quality of its products is also very high. Since 2005, Chinese companies have begun to display high-end lighting fixtures at the Moscow Light Show. As a result, the market has responded very well and has greatly improved the image of poor quality Chinese lanterns. The lighting companies that went to Russia to participate in such exhibitions as Yinghui, Qianli, Jinda, Shengqiu, Kendrick, etc., all achieved good results in the local.
The key to the exhibition quotation entering the market
Unlike other developed regions, the Russian market has many measures to be perfected. Therefore, lighting companies have a lot of skills to successfully enter the Russian market.
For example, the letter of credit used in foreign trade, the letter of credit system of the Russian bank and the Chinese letter of credit system are incompatible, so if the company needs a letter of credit guarantee, it must be docked through a third-party bank in Europe.
There are also fraud problems in some Russian companies. There was a case in which the letter of credit issued by the Russian side was not an unconditional letter of credit. As a result, the Chinese company received a notice from the other party when the goods arrived at the port of the other party, saying that the goods had serious quality problems and refused to accept the goods. The Chinese company was unable to do anything. In order to avoid returning the goods, the goods could only be sold to Russia at a very low price, causing great losses.
Chinese lighting companies often want to establish direct contact with local lighting retailers when they exhibit, but due to the lack of transparency in Russian customs operations, many local lighting retailers do not have the strength to help Chinese companies clear the goods, resulting in Chinese companies unable to FOB The form transports the goods into Russia.
Mr. Liu suggested that many Russian exhibitors at the Moscow Light Show are very strong in the local area. When Chinese companies exhibit, they should contact them more and use them to represent the products so that they can successfully enter the Russian market. People are not good at English, and they don't like to speak English. Different languages ​​have become trade barriers at the exhibition. It is best for Chinese exhibitors to hire local students as translators in advance.
In addition, at the Moscow Light Show, quotations are the key to success. Many lighting products, although the retail price in the Russian market is very high, in fact, the purchaser has strict requirements on the purchase price, because the marketing cost in the intermediate circulation will be high.
This requires that the company's product quotation must be flexible enough and competitive to stand out among the many exhibitors.
Neo-NeoN is selling well in Russia
Chinese lighting companies are mainly in the form of OEMs in Russia, and OEM production for Russia. In addition, in recent years, the Chinese have also successfully won a lot of engineering lighting projects. At the Moscow Light Show last year, Nanjing’s Gaoxin Jingwei received an order from the Ukrainian government to provide HID bulbs for Ukrainian street lamps.
Zhenmingli Group is one of the very few lighting companies with their own brands in Russia. Its Neo- NeoN has become a well-known brand in Russia and has been selling for many years. Unlike other lighting companies that are desperately developing distributors in Russia to expand short-term benefits, Zhen Mingli Group has entrusted a powerful Russian distributor to act as an exclusive agent. This long-term approach has enabled Zhenmingli Group to not only obtain considerable profits. Also has an independent lighting brand.
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