Toy industry making a comeback in Guangdong

Prospective purchase agreements valued at 10.8 billion yuan ($1.57 billion) emerged from the 22nd China Shantou (Chenghai) Toys and Gifts Expo, which concluded on Monday in the Chenghai district of Shantou, a major toy and gift manufacturing base.

The prospective deals set a record for the event, according to organizers, who estimated that binding deals valued at 3 billion yuan were concluded at the expo, with 1,238 overseas buyers.

Dubbed China's toy and gift capital, Chenghai — located in the eastern coastal area of Guangdong province — is home to more than 50,000 toy companies. Exports of toys and gifts grew 33 percent year-on-year to 14 billion yuan last year.

Sully Sullivan, director of Hangzhou Zekesi Trading Co, said there would be a quick rebound in the industry in the United States after three years of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

"This year probably might not be the best year for the toy business. But for sure, it will grow steadily, the next year will be better in the toy market globally," he said.

Sullivan was one of more than 9,000 overseas and domestic professional buyers to sign purchase contracts with local toy and gift manufacturers during the expo. It had an exhibition area of 50,000 square meters and exhibited more than 180,000 toys and gifts.

Tu Taoying, sales director of distribution channels for Sembo Block, a Chenghai-based company specializing in designing and producing high-quality building blocks, said sales of toys began to increase in December, following China's changes to its COVID-19 policies.

"Sales of toys increased sharply, especially during the Spring Festival holiday, which is usually a peak sales time in the domestic market. Many toy shelves in shopping malls were almost out of stock," he said.

Tu said another sales boom would likely appear in the coming months. "We have cooperated with many big movie IPs such as The Wandering Earth to design and produce more competitive blocks," he said.

The overseas market will be a new growth engine for business in the future, Tu said. "We plan to increase the proportion of exports by about 10 percent of our total sales this year."

Russia will be a big potential market for the company's exports of blocks using the IP of The Wandering Earth. "We will also ship more self-developed flower toys to the European and North American markets, which have developed more demand for such products through online sales platforms such as Amazon," he said.

To facilitate development of building blocks, local authorities have planned to build a toy paradise project in Chenhai, to display the district's transformation from manufacturing toys to high-quality and smart development of the industry.