LAT: China Dons Even Bigger Export Hat...Raising Alarms in Europe and US

[DeepModem Mom]

China Dons Even Bigger Export Hat
Apparel and textile shipments surge in January as quotas expire, raising alarms in Europe and the U.S.

By Evelyn Iritani, Don Lee and Marla Dickerson, Times Staff Writers


An explosion in Chinese apparel and textile exports is fueling a backlash in the United States and Europe, while triggering labor shortages in China and job losses elsewhere.

The outcry was triggered this week by new data showing a sharp increase in China's clothing and textile exports in January. New Year's Day marked the expiration of a decades-old global quota system that had limited China's market share.

Unhindered by quotas, China's sales to the United States surged 65%, to $1.4 billion, compared with the same month last year, according to data released this week by the China National Textile and Apparel Council. Shipments to the European Union jumped 46% to $1.5 billion....

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U.S. manufacturers are set to hold a news conference in Washington today to urge the Bush administration to move quickly to impose controls on the most popular Chinese imports. They blame China for flooding the U.S. market with goods, triggering plant closures and thousands of job cuts in January and February....

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...most industry observers believe that the latest data confirm what many predicted — that China is well on its way to dominating the global apparel and textile market, and the biggest losers will be competitors in many of the world's poorest countries....


http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-textile11mar11,0,551927.story?coll=la-home-business

[physioex]

1. You know...

Many people in this board have talked about China and how it's taking over all the jobs (and I agree this is bad). But I think in the long term what is happening may not be a good thing for China itself. There is simply too much growth and cannot be a good thing for the long term Chinese economy. It seems like some sort of collapse is imminent.......

[Massacure]

2. Collapse? Not really. It will just slow down and send out shockwaves.

[physioex]

4. Right....

Maybe not a "collapse", but there is simply too much growth. And the best analogy I can think of is Japan and their cars and electronics back in the 70's to 80's.

[w4rma]

3. China is building their infrastructure with taxes from the profits.

How can this be anything but good for the long term economy of China?

[physioex]

5. True, it is a good thing...

But look at Japan, they were selling all those Sony T.V. and Toyotas too at one time....Remember when things used to be "Made in Japan".... :)

On Edit: I used like things from Japan, they were always of highest quality and before that the Germans. The Chinese have never really impressed me with their quality.

[billbuckhead]

6. I wonder where the chip in your computer was made or the whole CPU?

Lenovo just bought IBM's computer operations. Gateway bought eMachines, so it could replace it's domestic computer production with eMachines China based manufacturing.

[physioex]

7. eMachines speak for themselves....

That and Packard Bell. I need not any more this area.....

[Old and In the Way]

10. Chinese quality was a weak in the 80s/early 90s when they started

started exporting to the world. True, their domestic factories for internal markets are less stringent (quality does cost money), but that's no longer the case for their export factories. Their customers demand compliance to ISO quality systems and material specifications.

[physioex]

13. ISO Quality...

Is a joke. I use to work for a company and they did everything half-ass and just before the ISO inspection they would again put togethor something half-ass to make it look like there is a "quality policy" just to pass the inspection.

True there may be some products the Chinese make are of great quality no denying, but in the overall picture I see a lack of innovation. They basically take an original idea someone created and reapeat it in bad way many times. And the Japanese did the samething with things like VCRs and Televisions and Cars but they actually improved the items they copied.

[Old and In the Way]

16. Duplicators, not innovators.

That's been the rap, but that is always the starting point for any immerging industrial society. I don't think it's a question of innovation, so much as that their economic focus has been on duplicating. What they've lacked is a sophisticated marketing/design culture. But, that too, is learnable. In fact, I'd say in a decade or so, China will be a major player in driving the design innovations. When you become the world's largest industrial base, serving the world's largest market that would seem to be the logical progression of things.

Regarding ISO quality systems....yes, I agree with what you say. ISO 9000 means documenting what you do....if you make crap and document, it's still crap made to ISO 9000 standards. It has become the ante to get into the game. If your not ISO 9000, you don't even get consideration anymore. In some ways, it's pure marketing that lets the buyer off the hook for doing due diligence. Because, like most manufacturing companies anywhere, it's caveat emptor. It really is the management that drives the quality priorities. Some build quality into their processes at every step in the chain, others emphasize cost over quality. I've been in manufacturing for 30 years, 20 of which were in purchasing. I've learned the hard way that the buying price does not reflect the total cost to your business.

But there are other standards that do address quality specifically, like QS 9000. That's an outgrowth of major automotive companies who really demand that their supply chain emphasize quality in their manufacturing process.

[physioex]

18. Being the Economic Genius I am....

;)

I think there will be some sort of natural progression from China to Africa once China has reached it's peak. It's seems to be the natural progression of things.

[Old and In the Way]

20. No, I think Pluto will be the next great outsourcing opportunity.

:-)

Actually, I think China could keep growing jobs for a 50 years and not meet demand. That means no upward pressure on wages any decade soon.

[ldf]

19. if you remember, honda

got it's foot in the door with a car that cost 2000. it was actually referred to as a tin can.

but there is always a segment of the population that can only afford the cheapest that manufacturers have to offer.

so they opened the door with a cheap car. and IMMEDIATELY started improving it, raising the standards, and you see where they are today.

also, electronics seemed to get a big boost with the transistor. every kid had a six transistor radio. a large poriton of them also came from japan. where do all the electronics come from now? a lot, from japan. THE big name is sony.

meanwhile, we don't manufacture. period. or at least so little it is insignificant, and we're trying to outsource that as fast as we can. so, our foot is neither in the door, nor do we have anything to improve, to get a larger market.

just think of all the technology we missed out on. that ALL americans so much want to buy...

cars
stereos
televisions

all those seem to be coming from asia.

oh yes. we do have the ipod. that will save us all. /sarcasm. (where is it manufactured?)

[Old and In the Way]

8. "Rising expectations" is a big problem in China.

But you don't hear about it because it's happening in the interior provinces. The economic boom of the coastal provinces are acting as a magnet for people in the interior....but there aren't enough jobs (believe it or not) to satisfy the demand. The government is limiting the ability of the general population to enter the economic zones in the coastal provinces. This is obviously a source of unrest and strife. It's a real balancing act for the government there.

[physioex]

9. I agree....

I have read news on this area.

[Gloria]

12. Yes, and the thing is, even when the central gov't issues policies

for the rural areas, the local governments often ignore them.

But they have recognized the problem of rural poverty and the unrest it could create.

Another problem they have is getting enough energy to run this whole show. They are making moves to assure their oil supply, they've discovered oil and gas, they've made friends again with the Russians and their resources; they are looking at nuclear (with Spencer Abraham and Cheney pushing for Westinghouse to construct plants....many worried about the potential of proliferation, but Cheney doesn't give a shit);
They will do wind along the coasts. But still...they need more energy.

They have several huge dams in the works that could create the equivalent amt. of electricity from 5 nuke plants...but, farmers are losing their land and that's a big problem.

Another interesting fact....the Chinese PhD's educated in the US are returning to China because they feel the future is there.

[Gloria]

11. Heard a BBC WS report about how Romania, which still has

a textile industry, is trying to keep it going. But they are in danger of losing it because of the Chinese dominance. Romania's industry is just about the only textile work going on in Europe, at this point.

[physioex]

14. Great....

The Chinese are going to cloth the entire planet.... ;)

[Old and In the Way]

17. Bricks, too.

I read a statistic a few years back that if their brick production was laid end-to-end, I think it would go around the globe's circumference 24 times. Per year. I think that works out to 5 Billion bricks.....that's a lot of buildings....

[lovuian]

15. Are ya surprise at all!!! China is flooding the markets to take them

OVER!!!