OREANDA-NEWS. August 11, 2011. Beginning from this year, the upward trajectory of China's import and export brings new opportunities to a great number of small foreign-trade enterprises in the country. They have orders. Yet their working capital has been drained and it has impaired their production and procurement. In view of this, ICBC not only further increases its lending to small foreign-trade enterprises, but lends intensive support to their growth through extending international trade finance tailored to them, reported the press-centre of ICBC.

As related, in Zhejiang's Yiwu, ICBC launches innovative loan products to support the growth of small foreign-trade enterprises through partnership with the local industry associations and chambers of commerce. Yiwu is the world's largest small commodity distribution center. Over 99% enterprises in Yiwu are small and micro trading companies, individual industrial and commercial households. Most of them engage in import and export since January this year, many small foreign-trade enterprises receive a lot of orders. Yet, a good many of them have the difficulty to produce guarantee for bank loan since they only rent business premises in Yiwu without owning any property. In the end, they have no choice but give up some of the orders because of working capital shortage. To address this dilemma, ICBC rolls out "Joint-guarantee loan to small/micro enterprises" in partnership with the well-developed industry associations and chambers of commerce in Zhejiang Yiwu. Merchants under the industry associations and chambers of commerce voluntarily guarantee each other to apply for loans from ICBC. It is difficult for small foreign-trade enterprises to obtain bank loan due to a lack of collateral. Now the ICBC loans solve this bottleneck and inject "capital" for their business growth.

Meanwhile, ICBC launches international trade finance service in line with the business characteristics of foreign-trade enterprises. The new service has been warmly received by all the small and micro enterprises. International trade finance service is a short-term credit facility to import/export firms with true trading background for the settlement of their import and export under terms and conditions agreed. The loan tenure, credit line, guarantee option and loan price are more flexible and better meet the requirement of foreign-trade enterprises in the use of loan.

In this aspect, Zhejiang Shuangjia Garments Co., Ltd ("Shuangjia") relates its good experience. Shuangjia mainly engages in the production and sales of shirts. Shuangjia is a typical export company with over 90% Shuangjia shirts sold to Russia, UK, South Africa, USA and other international markets. Beginning from this year, Shuangjia won a large number of customer orders through participation in exhibitions or expositions in China and overseas. However, the company lacks the working capital needed to expand production timely. In the first instance, the fastest and most direct way to get working capital is bank loan. Yet Shuangjia is a small company. The loan through collateral is far not enough to support the long-term development of the company. After numerous visits by the ICBC customer manager, ICBC designed a tailored finance solution for Shuangjia, Apart from the loan through collateral and guarantee, ICBC granted a credit line of RMB 7 million for Shangjia's international trade to address its immediate need of working capital.