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You are here: Home / China Insights / Chinese factories: the temptation of inner provinces

Chinese factories: the temptation of inner provinces

March 30, 2010

The Chinese factories that produce and export consumer products are mostly along the coast. There are no good statistics about this, but I estimate that more than 90% are in the provinces of Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Shandong. And, even in these provinces, exporting factories tend to be clustered in a few cities.

Over the last 20 years, the objective was to be as close as possible to the ports, to reduce trucking costs and time. It is was not difficult to find cheap labor and welcoming officials 2 or 3 hours (by truck) away from the main ports. Material suppliers also settled in these clusters, and skilled labor was predominantly there. Overall it makes a lot of sense in economic terms.

This system has been increasingly questioned over the last 5 years because of several factors:

  • Salaries have gone up in the main producing areas, and some areas suffer serious labor shortages.
  • The most developed cities have been pushing polluting and low-value-added factories away.
  • Competition on price is stronger and stronger, and even a 5% reduction in costs can be the difference between life and death for many factories.
  • The transport infrastructure has become excellent between the larges cities, including in inner provinces.
  • China’s demographic policy and the development of inner provinces will progressively reduce the pool of migrant workers.

In parallel, more and more articles cited anecdotal evidence that factories were relocating to inland provinces. Are they representative of reality? Not for every industry.

I heard many manufacturers thinking strongly about relocating their factory, or preparing to do it. Only a small minority seem to actually do it. And when I look at the places of the inspections we perform for our clients, more than 95% are in the 5 coastal provinces I listed above.

Global Sources just published a detailed article on this subject, entitled Higher expenses drive factories inland. It does a nice job of describing this phenomenon:

  • Labor, factory space, and energy are cheaper inland, but freight is more expensive. Overall, “most transplanted factories claim to incur general savings of between 5 and 30 percent.”
  • It is mostly suitable for labor-intensive activities, low-end products where pricing is everything, and for factories that produce for the domestic market.
  • Recruiting unskilled workers is easier in inland provinces, close to their home towns.
  • Most exporting factories will remain along the coasts for convenience, but also for access to suppliers and skilled employees.
  • Looking down the road, it is not clear what the cost differential will be between cities that are 3 hours from ports and those that are 12 hours away. Costs are rising everywhere.

To sum up, relocating to inner provinces is clearly not the best strategy for all manufacturers, and it will be a slow movement.

A lot of suppliers are hesitating and lack critical pieces of information: how much will they really save? should they re-invest now? what if the RMB is revalued and importers switch to other Asian countries? shouldn’t they invest in Vietnam instead?

*********************

UPDATE 9 July: for a very refreshing perspective on this issue, see PRD Labor Costs Rising: Run Away, Run Away!!! Not so fast.

Filed Under: China Insights

Comments

  1. Crafters Glass says

    March 27, 2014 at 11:55 PM

    Would love to hear an update on this article…see what people are saying now…

    • Renaud Anjoran says

      March 28, 2014 at 8:50 AM

      A lot of factories located close to the main ports are struggling to find good labor and are making very thin margins (if any). So they wish they could just relocate their activity.
      But relocating a factory is a big project and not all factory owners have the bandwidth for that.

      • Crafters Glass says

        March 28, 2014 at 11:21 AM

        So if you were looking to set up a new factory, you would say inland? Why?
        I heard labor costs are becoming almost the same as the coastal cities and you are moving farther away from the ports and most sub suppliers.

        • Renaud Anjoran says

          March 28, 2014 at 7:58 PM

          No I wouldn’t necessarily say inland. Most probably I’d say close to the cluster of component suppliers, and close to a major port. And I’d say it’s crucial to work on getting operations processes really close to excellence. Believe it, that’s enough to distinguish your factory from 99% of Chinese competitors.

          • Crafters Glass says

            March 29, 2014 at 1:14 AM

            But isnt that where all the factories are now? What about places like hunan or jiagnxi?

            Any yes I agree if you could implement excellent operation processes location would be irrelevant.

          • Renaud Anjoran says

            March 29, 2014 at 8:17 AM

            No. The majority of exporting factories are still around the ports.
            BUT, if you work in the glass industry, yes there is a big concentration of manufacturers in Shaanxi for example. Or deep inside Shandong.


Weekly updates for professional importers on better understanding, controlling, and improving manufacturing & supply chain in China.

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This blog is written by Renaud Anjoran, an ASQ Certified Quality Engineer who has been involved in chinese manufacturing since 2005.

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