GUANGZHOU, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Customs authorities in Guangdong Province, a major base for the toy-making industry in southern China, said demand for exported toys has rebounded despite a spate of recall dramas earlier this year.

    Latest statistics obtained from the Huangpu Customs show the value of toys exported by Guangdong slipped by 5.4 percent in September compared to the same period last year, but it regained strength to register a year-on-year increase of 27.6 percent in October.

    Customs analysts said the rebound was spurred by rising demands in the Christmas retail season, and it also shows that toy recalls, staged by the U.S. toy maker, Mattel Inc. since summer over lead-contaminated surface paint, proved to have had limited impact on the province's toy exports.

    Mattel apologized to China in September that 87 percent of the recalled toys were found to have loose magnets -- a design defect from Mattel itself -- and 13 percent of which contained excessive lead.

    China is the world's biggest toy exporter. In 2006, it sold 22 billion sets of toys overseas, about 60 percent of the globe's total.

    In order to address safety concerns over toys and other products, the Chinese government introduced a landmark recall system this summer, launched a four-month-long nationwide product quality campaign, and offered intensive training courses to domestic toy manufacturers.

    In Guangdong, which manufactures about 70 percent of the total Chinese toys made for export and about half of the world's toys, quality inspectors launched a month-long inspection in September to check against safety violations.

    The provincial Quarantine and Inspection Bureau announced at the end of October it did discover problems like substandard paint and loose parts in toys. The bureau withdrew production licenses from 423 toy makers, suspended licenses of 341 toy companies, and ordered 690 others to improve their working practices.

    "The Chinese government adopted an active and earnest attitude in handling the toy safety incident, which worthily earned sensible responses from the buyers," said Dong Xiaolin, an international trade expert at the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.

    In the first ten months, Guangdong exported toys with a total value of 4.94 billion U.S. dollars, up 22.9 percent over the same period last year. About 3.92 billion U.S. dollars, or 79 percent of the total were exported to the United States and the European Union.

    Exports to the U.S. alone were 2.31 billion U.S. dollars, up 15.4 percent over the same period last year, while exports to the European Union market saw a 39.5 percent year-on-year increase.

    Last week, the EU Consumer Protection Commissioner Meglena Kuneva told reporters in Brussels that China has shown significant and encouraging progress in preventing exports of dangerous toys and other products.

    Guo Zhuocai, board chairman of the Guangdong Huawei Toys Crafts (Group) Co. Ltd, which makes 60 million sets of toys a year for domestic and foreign markets in Europe, the U.S. and the Middle East, said, "Foreign buyers are getting tough on the quality and safety of China-made toys, and the Chinese companies are still learning to cope with that."

    "But in the long term, they (tougher requirements) will help eliminate those who could not adapt, and push ahead the development of able and quality-ensuring companies," he said.