China's toy export rebounds in October

Toy export from East China's Guangdong Province, a major toy manufacturing hub in the country, saw surging growth in October, despite the stronger Chinese currency and large volume of recalls earlier this year.

The province has exported US$749 million worth of toys in October alone, up 27.6% over the same period last year, though the export slumped 5.4% to US$170 million in September, according to the official statistics. As Christmas is approaching, export volume to the European Union (EU) surged 51.5%.

Toy export from Guangdong amounted to US$4.94 billion in the first 10 months, up 22.9% year-on-year, while 79% of the total went to the U.S and EU. From January to October, the U.S. has imported US$2.31 billion worth of Chinese toys, up 15.4% year-on-year, while export to Latin American countries was up 53.6%.

Earlier this year, Mattel recalled batches of China-made toys over lead-contaminated surface paint, however, it apologized that 87% of the recalled toys had design defect from the company itself and only 13% contained polluted lead.

The toy production in Guangdong accounts for 70% of China's total and 50% of global toy output. The provincial government carried month-long safety inspection over the local toy producers in September. Licenses from 423 toy makers were canceled, licenses of 341 toy firms were suspended and 690 other firms were required to improve their production quality, as they were found unqualified paint and parts in the products.