More than 185,000 international traders attended the fair, which ran for three weeks before closing on Thursday — an increase of less than 1 per cent compared with the fair in spring last year. The value of deals agreed also rose very slightly, to $28bn.

Xu Bing, vice-chairman of the Canton Fair, said that despite the stabilisation, the outlook for global demand was still “weak”, with China’s factories facing an “uncertain and unstable” future.

Exporters say they remain under pressure to cut prices and minimum order sizes to secure contracts.

Xiangxing group, a luggage maker from Fujian province, slashed wholesale prices of its business backpacks from $10 to $7 each last year but is still finding it difficult to win big orders.

“Our minimum order size is 500 pieces but potential customers are afraid in these conditions so they only want to buy 100 or 200,” says Lin Dan, a salesman for the company. “That’s hard for us to justify because we are a scale business.”