Exporters wake up to grim reality of payment defaults

Tian Hongmei, a hardware exporter in North Eastern China has seen many ups and downs in her business in the last 14 years, but she says she feels the coming winter could be the harshest she has endured so far.

The global economic turmoil has come at the worst time for many exporters like Tian as they grapple with weak demand and payment defaults.

Raw material prices have fallen sharply after touching a record high in the first half of the year and the time lag has made products manufactured earlier too expensive. Adding to the problems has been the wild currency fluctuations across the world. The depreciation of the Australian dollar has knocked the sheen of their main export market, said Tian.