Source: Bloomberg
Directly promoted by geopolitical tensions and low manufacturing costs, from Adidas to Nike, clothing and shoe manufacturers have been moving the supply chain out of China.
However, in the case of exacerbating global economic uncertainty and weakening consumer demand, many companies have found that finding alternative production centers is also facing challenges, and some companies have even moved back to mainland China.
"In China, the entire ecosystem has been established for decades, and it is very mature. It not only ensures a competitive price point, but also provides difficulty in copying stable quality in large -scale production." Shoe brand brandsLaura Magill, the global leader of BATA Group, said."I can't think of where other places can take into account quality, quantity and price as China."
The clothing manufacturers and factories interviewed by Bloomberg News also echoed Magill's point of view.
Lin FENG, who is in her 50s, is a businessman who has clothing factories in Guangzhou and surrounding areas.His factories mainly produce clothing for the United States and European customers.
In 2020, the border was closed due to the crown disease epidemic, and he started a new women's clothing production line in Hanoi. The monthly salary was less than half of the Guangzhou factory level. Local workers were satisfied with this salary level.
However, he quickly found that there were very few orders issued by cautious overseas customers.Last year, he left Vietnam and returned his focus back to Guangzhou.
Lin said that it is meaningless to talk about expansion or overseas transfer. Under the circumstances of weak demand, low labor costs and tariffs are free.
According to the China Textile Industry Federation, such retracements may turn Chinese manufacturers to part of the $ 1.8 billion of the $ 1.8 billion of Vietnam, Thailand and other Asian neighbors.In the past few years, the exports of some Asian countries to developed countries have grown, occupying the share of China's exports.
Kee is the owner of a clothing factory in Guangdong, and he also has a similar experience.Because of talking about the topic that may be more sensitive, he asked not to quote the complete name.
He has been operating jeans production lines in Cambodia for more than 20 years.However, in the past ten years, as the minimum wage level has increased, the profit margin has become thinner.
His salaries paid by workers in Zhongshan, Southern China Manufacturing City, are currently only 30%higher than that of Cambodia, and the gap was much higher ten years ago.At the same time, his Chinese factory productivity is about 20%, and the level of workers' skills is higher.
Kee said that expanding production in Southeast Asia is not a rational decision. I am afraid that business slowdown in the next year or two will continue.
In fact, China is an indispensable part of the global clothing supply chain. Even if the enterprise moves the production business to other countries, it does not really reduce much dependence in a sense.
Duong THI NGOC DUNG, vice chairman of the Vietnamese Textile and Clothing Association, said that Vietnam's clothing industry still mainly depends on Chinese raw materials, such as buttons, lines, labels and packaging, and only about 30%-40%of materials are produced locally.
"When you start talking about chemical supply chain movement and raw material supply chain movement, do you understand the chemical hybrid equipment of these countries? Do you know how these countries do large -scale mass production?" Bata's Magill asked questions.
Language obstacles and cultural impact are also obstacles facing the management of Southeast Asian employees. Some of them are not as rich as Chinese employees.
Michael Laskau, a Vietnamese businessman who established a connection to local clothing manufacturers and overseas buyers, said that although political nervousness is concerned, some customers who have caused some of his customers to turn to Southeast Asia, but this does not bring stable orders to local factories. Some clothing manufacturersFacing survival dilemma.
Laskau said that most of the customers in the Vietnamese factory are avoided long -term contracts because they are worried that global demand is weak.He said that without these longer -term order commitments, the survival of many clothing companies has been calculated on a monthly basis, and some even plan to reduce their weekly working hours to four days to reduce costs.
