BEIJING, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Demand for Chinese exports of everything from furs to furniture shrank precipitously last month, sending a chill through the workshop of the world.
Chinese exporters have been left staggering, as the global financial crisis in the second half of the year battered their main markets in Europe and the United States.
The value of China's exports was 2.2 percent lower in November than a year ago, customs data showed on Thursday, the largest such drop in Chinese exports since April 1999.
And the next few months could be worse.
A plastic Christmas tree exporter worries that Santa will not come next year. A sex toy maker reports limp sales and a deflated outlook.
"Demand has been falling, and fewer and fewer people are even inquiring about prices for products. When they do, they want the cheapest ones," said Song Fei, export manager for the Shanghai-based Good Friends company, which sells sex toys, electric mosquito swatters and fungus.
"Next year will be worse. This is just the start, it's just gotten going. Our customers tell us their orders next year will be way down."
Chinese exporters have struggled with tight credit, higher raw materials prices and fierce competition for well over a year. For some, the downturn could be the final straw.
"Many of these places will go out of business," said Ju Xiangming, a petite sales clerk in Beijing's Russian quarter, where wholesalers ship mink coats to Russia.
"There's been a big drop in customers. Exports to America have dried up, but the Russians are holding strong for now. The economic crisis does not seem to have affected them as much -- not yet at least."
Without buyers, some Chinese have already closed their doors.
"A lot of Chinese suppliers and manufacturers were shutting down daily in September. There's hardly any left," said Jamie O'Neill, a buyer for British firm Advantage Fibres International, which ships cashmere and other fibres to Europe and Asia.
"This is only the start of the downturn. We won't see the full ramifications until the start of next year."
Some exporters that shipped long before the Christmas season could face worse times ahead, since orders are typically placed in the spring for shipment in the late summer.
"I think we'll feel the full effect only next year.... Customer confidence will certainly be hurt," said Li Haiyan, sales manager for plastic Christmas tree manufacturer Emission Trading Co., which has had customers delay payments because of credit problems.
Chinese makers of cheap goods need a high volume of shipments to offset thin profit margins, and delays in payment can dangerously destabilize their cash flow.
"On the U.S. side, credit is hard to get, and the buyers can't guarantee terms. So we can do small orders, but not big ones," said coat hanger manufacturer Johnny Chan. With the Chinese market crowded with competitors in similar difficulty, he was considering abandoning hangers to open a clothing shop.
And there's another casualty.
"Because the market is bad, my American clients don't come to China anymore. So I haven't had any chance to practice my English, and I've forgotten a lot of it," Chan said.
(Reporting by Chris Buckley, Ian Ransom, Ben Blanchard and Lucy Hornby; Writing by Lucy Hornby; Editing by Ken Wills)