SAFE to monitor overseas debts owed to Chinese exporters

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By Nie Peng (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-11-21 17:44

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) has launched an emergency plan to monitor overseas debts owed to Chinese exporters in a bid to help them reduce increasing default risks, cnstock.com reported on Friday.

SAFE issued a notice on Tuesday, requiring exporters to report accounts receivable that are due in more than 90 days from the date of shipment. Exporters must also report to the administration deferred payments exceeding $5 million that are expected to be made by foreign importers in more than a year.

SAFE said it will launch an investigation into companies whose deferred accounts receivable take up 20 percent or more of their total export revenue.

"The supervision measures taken by the SAFE are timely and conducive to making a more accurate estimation about default risks our exporters may suffer," said Lin Xiaozhong, general manager of Shenzhen Development Bank's factoring service.

"On the whole, Chinese exporters have insufficient choices to lower [credit] risks and often count themselves as unlucky [when defaults happen]," said Lin.

Statistics released by the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) showed Chinese importers and exporters have registered more than $150 billion in overdue debts abroad so far, and the annual increment is estimated at $15 billion.

According to China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation (Sinosure), the average bad debt rate suffered by Chinese exporters has hit 3.3 percent this year, compared with the usual 1 percent.

Payments of more than 80 percent of Chinese exports are made after delivery, the cnstock.com report said. European and American importers usually make payments 90 days from the date of delivery, sometimes even 120 to 150 days, and Latin American importers as much as 360 days later, which may increase the risk of default in payments.

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