Stay informed of free updates
Just register at Business and Chinese financing Myft Digest – Delivered directly in your reception box.
The factories in China began to slow down production and make some workers' leave while the unleashed trade war by US President Donald Trump appealed to products from jeans to household appliances.
Most Chinese products now faced with American tasks at least 145%, some factory owners say that American customers have canceled or suspended orders, forcing them to reduce production.
Last year, around 15% of all Chinese exports went to the United States. In interviews with the Financial Times and via dozens of publications on social networks, workers have shared photos of silent production lines or factory suspension notifications, stressing how prices are starting to bite.
The workers said the trade war had caused the suspension of production for a week or more in factories manufacturing products ranging from shoe soles to jeans, electrical hits and portable stoves. Some factories have said they were reducing overtime or on weekends.
Wang Xin, The head of the Shenzhen Cross-Border E-Commerce Association, a group of industry representing more than 2,000 Chinese merchants, said that many of them were “extremely anxious” and had told factories and suppliers to stop or delay deliveries. This prompted some factories to suspend production for one to two weeks, she said.
Three Guangdong factories recruiters who work with manufacturers said that more factories reduced overtime and weekends with only the most highly put on leave the entire factory.
“Our export orders have disappeared, so we temporarily stopped,” said a 28 -year -old plastic factory worker in Fujian province, who asked not to be identified. The production had been interrupted for a week so far, she said.
The leaders of Dehong Electrical Products in Dongguan, the province of Guangdong, gave workers a month of leave at the minimum wage and said that the factory was under “significant short -term pressure” after the customers suspended orders.
“Management works hard to find solutions, including expansion in new markets and optimizing cost structures, so that we can resume normal operations as soon as possible,” said Dehong in an opinion seen by the Financial Times. The company refused to comment more.
Hangzhou Stellarmed, a company from the Province of Zhejiang which manufactures endoscopy kits mainly for the American market, told workers full time that they could use the rest of April to find new jobs and give them access to a headhunter.
“We do not know how long it will last,” said Shi, the owner of the factory, who did not want to be identified by his full name. “We can only wait and see, we can do nothing.”
The manufacturer of plastic mold Dongguan Yuanguan Technology blamed the price For having forced him to cancel every overtime of the weekend in her factory, according to a company's opinion and a worker. Yuanguan did not immediately respond to requests for comments.
A 26-year-old man in Zhejiang said the toy factory in which he worked sold mainly in the United States, forcing management to give workers about two weeks off. “It's not easy at the moment,” he said, asking not to be appointed.
We do not know how widespread factory suspensions, said Han Dongfang, founder of Chinese work bulletinwhich closely follows Chinese manufacturing and work. “The rearrangement of the Chinese manufacturing sector will be a long-term process and workers will be sacrificed,” he said.
The Chinese electronics supply chain also uses tens of thousands of people, and Washington has exempted smartphones as well as other electronic devices from the steepest prices.
Large technological companies and cities with large concentrations of exporters, such as Shenzhen and Dongguan, deploy support programs intended to “stabilize foreign trade”. Shenzhen last week revealed subsidies to companies to participate in foreign trade fairs and said that he would broaden export insurance to help cover the American orders canceled, among other policies.
A manager at Ningbo Taiyun Electric said they had suspended production on April 12, but since restarted the reduced production of electric hair straighteners and curling irons. “We still have European orders, we try to get more,” said the director, who asked not to be appointed. “I hope the United States will change its policies.” The company did not immediately respond to requests for comments.
China, which reported a record surplus of almost $ 1 billion last year, responded to Washington prices by imposing an additional 125% levy from imports from the United States. While Trump has repeatedly said that he wanted to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping to solve trade problems, Beijing does not seem in a hurry to call for an appeal between the two leaders.
