Sino-Russian foreign trade news: Russia will ban the sale of chemical fiber underwear

As a rapidly growing emerging cross-border e-commerce market, Russia’s market dynamics have attracted much attention from Chinese foreign trade e-commerce sellers. However, in the face of the impact of European and American sanctions and the drop in global oil prices, the ruble has depreciated sharply, and the purchasing power of Russian consumers has declined. Will the Russian market become weak or will it lead to another new business opportunity?
​The ruble’s real effective exchange rate increased for the first time in seven months
This week, the Russian Central Bank made preliminary estimates of the actual effective remittance growth of the ruble in February this year. According to estimates by the Russian Central Bank, in February 2015, the real effective exchange rate of the ruble increased by 2.1% compared with the foreign exchange of Russia’s major trading partners.
This is the first time the real effective exchange rate of the ruble has increased since June 2014. The ruble has been depreciating over the past seven months, reaching its peak in December 2014, when it fell 13.7%.
The proportion of cross-border shopping users in Russia has increased significantly to nearly 50%
Recently Yandex and GfK released the results of the latest survey conducted in the autumn of 2014. The proportion of Russian online shopping users who shop abroad increased from 36% in 2013 to nearly 50% in 2014. In the past year, the popularity of Chinese online stores among Russian online shopping users has increased significantly, with their proportion increasing from 25% in 2013 to 39% in 2014.
The survey pointed out that the most popular foreign online shopping platform among Russian online shopping users in 2014 was AliExpress, a foreign trade platform owned by Alibaba. 59% of the respondents said they shopped on this platform, while the proportion in 2013 was only 37%. .
​Russia will ban the sale of chemical fiber underwear
Chemical fiber underwear may disappear from the Russian market in July this year, when Russia will begin to implement the newly revised technical rules of the Customs Union, prohibiting the production, import and sale of chemical fiber underwear in Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.
As early as July 2012, the Customs Union proposed new requirements for light industry technical regulations, but production activities can still continue in accordance with the original regulations before July 2014. The new requirements relate to the hygroscopicity of chemical fibers – their ability to absorb moisture from the air. The Eurasian Economic Commission, the mediating body of the Customs Union, believes that the hygroscopicity of cotton textiles (bedding, underwear, bras and swimsuits) should not be less than 6%. The committee hopes this will combat low-quality products produced using cheap raw materials.
A Sino-Russian international postal exchange point will be built in the hinterland of Siberia
This week, Krasnoyarsk and Changchun signed a memorandum of understanding on cross-border e-commerce cooperation. The mayor of Croatia, Edham Akfratov, pointed out that the signed document means that direct flights will be established between the two cities and a mail processing center will be built.
According to the contents of the signed documents, Krasnoyarsk Airport will build an international postal exchange point in 2017, which will be able to handle approximately 50,000 postal shipments per month in the first phase. The city of Krasnoyarsk is located in Eastern Siberia, Russia, in the center of the Eurasian continent, and its geographical location has considerable advantages. Chinese partners said that through this exchange point, Chinese goods can be transported into the hinterland of Siberia within a few hours.
​Russian express delivery company PonyExpress will build 5 new logistics hubs
This week, Russian express delivery company PonyExpress announced new strategic priorities and plans to invest 1 billion rubles to establish a complete logistics solution. Among them, cooperation with the e-commerce market will become an important part of the company’s new strategy. The company has also optimized the process of international shipping services, taking the service to a new level.
In addition, in 2015, PonyExpress will build 5 new logistics hubs in Russia, including Rostov, Kazan, Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk. By then, PonyExpress will equip the warehouse with the latest sorting system, and the information system will also be modernized.
Japanese companies launch payment card services in Russia and compete with China UnionPay
Recently, with the support of Gazprom Bank, Japan’s international credit card brand JCB launched payment card services in Russia. JCB cards in standard, gold and platinum formats will appear in Gazprombank branches in March this year.
Last year, Western credit cards Mastercard and Visa froze their business with Russian banks in the wake of the Crimean crisis. In response, the Russian government announced that it would establish an independent national payment system with the support of China UnionPay cards. This time JCB enters Russia and may become a competitor of China UnionPay’s business in Russia.