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Glassware gets a major boost from G20

By Sun Ruisheng in Qixian, Shanxi and Shi Jing in Shanghai | China Daily Europe | Updated: 2016-12-02 07:40

Summit brings new orders for high quality products from Shanxi companies

This year's G20 Leaders Summit in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, not only brought more fame to its host city but also shone a spotlight on remote Qixian county in central Shanxi province.

Those who have some knowledge of Qixian may have learned about it from Zhang Yimou's film Raise the Red Lantern, shot in the Qiao Family Compound, built in the 18th century, which architectural historians consider a fine surviving example of a grand private residence in northern China.

But Qixian is also known for something else: its glassware.

 Glassware gets a major boost from G20

An artisan gives final touches to a vase at Honghai Glassware Co Ltd in Qixian, Shanxi province, which makes high-end products. Fan Heping / For China Daily

All the glassware - including the wine and water glasses - used at the G20 Summit in September was produced by Tianjiu Glassware Co.

According to Lyu Gui, general manager, the company was chosen over seven competitors to provide the state banquet during the summit with more than 40,000 products in 15 different patterns. They included wine goblets and tea sets.

"As soon as we were assigned the design and production job by the organizing committee of the G20 Summit, we set up a special design team and went over our plan dozens of times," Lyu says. "You can say we gave full play to the hand-blown glass techniques of Qixian glassware developed over the last 60 years."

Word about the G20 job spread rapidly, and orders for Qixian glassware multiplied. Tianjiu and other companies in the county saw their orders increase, leading to some popular products selling out.

According to Hu Xiaofeng, director of the Qixian Glassware Industry Development Center, the G20 Summit signaled another important turning point for the local glassware sector. Eight years earlier, local companies and the government had already begun to revive the traditional industry after it was hit by the global financial crisis.

Before that, the industry had expanded considerably, with the number of glassware manufacturers jumping from 41 in 1998 to 160 a decade later.

Hu says the local government was not disheartened by the difficulty of reviving the industry but seized the opportunity to restructure it. Companies were merged to make them more competitive.

The reshuffle worked. The 38 glassware companies in the county reported total annual output last year worth 2.1 billion yuan ($305 million; 288 million euros; 246 million), up from 1.4 billion yuan in 2008. About 45 percent of the hand-blown glassware produced in China last year came from Qixian.

Companies have also come to understand that only high-end products with high quality can win in the marketplace.

"Craftsmanship is what we value most in our work," says Tianjiu's Lyu.

Glassware gets a major boost from G20

"A company can only stand out against stiff competition with world-class products, brand image and product innovation. It is our goal to make Tianjiu a national industrial brand."

With that idea in mind, glassware companies in Qixian have been working harder to improve quality. Brands such as Dahua and Hongyi have been recognized as national trademarks by the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.

Qixian's glassware companies have been attaching great importance to overseas markets, after having first entered the international market in the 1980s.

Currently 50 percent of its glassware is sold in the United States, 30 percent in Europe and the rest in South Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Canada and Australia.

But to offset the impact of the stagnant economy in overseas markets, the Qixian companies have been expanding their activities in China, targeting the wholesale markets in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Yiwu.

The local government has also been promoting a new rural e-commerce program with Alibaba, setting up a special Qixian store on the platform to win more customers.

Yet, while Qixian's glassware industry has entered a new phase of development, problems still exist. To further stimulate its development, the local government implemented a number of favorable policies on taxes, land use and financing. Construction of a glassware culture park has started in Qixian, aiming to attract tourists.

The local government also invested 120 million yuan to set up an international glassware school in cooperation with Diablo Glass School in Boston, Massachusetts, in the US.

Contact the writers through shijing@chinadaily.com.cn.

(China Daily European Weekly 12/02/2016 page27)

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