Irish firms on alert for rise of 'China factor'

Jamie Smyth reports from China on the growth of the country's manufacturing industry

Ms Junhua Zhang is playing a small part in a manufacturing miracle that is sweeping through China.

The 22-year-old seamstress is one of an army of 3,000 workers sewing sleeves and buttons onto jackets and coats that will soon fill department store shelves across Europe and the US.

She plies her trade, working 10-hour shifts, at the Yingchao Industry Trade textile factory about one hour's drive from the heart of Beijing. Conditions are tough on the production line and the piped pop music does little to drown out the racket of the state-of-the-art, cloth-cutting machines imported from Japan.

But Ms Zhang, who lives in the on-site company dormitory, does not complain.

"I am happy to work here," she says. "I save most of my money and send it back to my parents who live in a town about four hours' drive away from here."

Her colleagues on the production line tell a similar story of urban migration and living in a factory dormitory. Low wages, a fraction of those of textile employees in Ireland, do not seem to dampen worker enthusiasm. Life in China is significantly better than at any time over the past 50 years.

A massive and enthusiastic labour resource, an abundance of raw materials, big factories stocked with the most modern machinery, and improving infrastructure are the main factors transforming China into the world's textile powerhouse.

"Average textile wages in China are just 4.85 per cent of US textile workers, 5.42 per cent of British textile workers and 31.36 per cent of Mexican employees," says Mr Zongjun Chi, party committee secretary of the former State-owned China Textile News, the textile industry's biggest trade publication in China.

Mr Chi says about 18 million people work in the textile industry but he expects huge growth in the sector this year, following the rescinding of 30-year-old World Trade Organisation (WTO) restrictions on textile exports from China. Under this quota system, European and US firms could only import a certain amount of textile products from China, thereby restricting the growth of its textile sector.

The WTO forecasts that China will supply up to 50 per cent of all clothing sold in the US within the next few years, up from about 16 per cent currently. European imports could rise to 29 per cent from 18 per cent.

The rise of China as a low-cost, yet ruthlessly efficient, textile manufacturer is decimating an already weak Irish textile industry. Just last week, the Sara Lee plant in Killarney, which manufactures women's underwear, said it would shut in two months with the loss of 90 jobs, citing "over-capacity" in the European market. But bigger recent casualties include two of Donegal's biggest employers, Unifi and Fruit of the Loom.

And even those successful firms that have stayed in business by making more expensive products - such as Strabane-based Adria Ltd which supplies Marks & Spencer and Victoria Secrets with hosiery - are changing how they do business because of what economists call the "China factor".

"We started shipping from factories in China about 18 months ago and this now accounts for 5 to 10 per cent of our business," says Adria's director, Mr David Taylor. "Realistically, 20 to 25 per cent of our business will go to China over the next two to three years."

Adria, which still employs 850 people, is sourcing product from two factories in China - one about four hours from Shanghai, and the other in the far north-east of the country. It sources finished hosiery - products knit, manufactured, dyed and finished in China - and "grey" products, which are dyed and finished at the firm's plant.

Although the end of the WTO quota system has not directly impacted on Adria, which never used up its full import quotas, Mr Taylor says Adria workforce is likely to fall further in coming years as competition increases and fewer Irish people choose careers in the textile industry.

The demise of the manufacturing economies in Europe and the US has prompted trade unions to call for tariffs to be placed on goods imported from China or the imposition of new quotas. This week the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) called on the Government to "get real" about protecting the sector.

But a quick drive around the outskirts of Beijing, which are littered with new and half-built factories, illustrates that Chinese firms are gearing up for continued rapid growth in the quota-free era.

Mr Gang Sheng, the business manger of Yingchao Industry Trade, shows off an artist's impression of the firm's new state-of-the-art textile plant, which will eventually accommodate up to 17,000 textile workers.

"Each year we are seeing increased orders from abroad and we are experiencing a boost in orders since the WTO restriction lifted," he says. "We are now manufacturing 30 million garments a year but by 2010 we plan to be making about 30 million garments per year."

Adidas and Pierre Cardin are two of the big international brands supplied by Yingchao Industry Trade from its Beijing factory. And increasingly Irish textile firms such as the Dublin-based furniture design company, Alfrank, are sourcing product directly from Chinese manufacturers.

"Irish firms have got to continue to invest in China to remain competitive and keep supplying their customers efficiently," says Enterprise Ireland's China director, Mr Alan Hobbs, who quotes the example of the Cork-based electronics components firm, PCH, which supplies Apple, with components for the iPod music player from Chinese facilities.

The manufacturing miracle in China is not restricted to the clothing and textile industry. A range of international firms, including Dell and Intel, have established manufacturing operations to take advantage of low cost labour and efficient production methods. On this week's trade mission, two Irish firms, the food group, Kerry, and the electronic components supplier, EPS, announced or opened new manufacturing plants.

Some economists predict that rising wages in China - salaries at Yingchao Industry Trade have risen 50 per cent between 1997 and 2005 - will eventually begin to erode its competitiveness. But the huge number of rural workers - estimated at 800 million - and the movement of factories into less-developed areas of China means that it will remain ultra-competitive for many years.

The ending of the WTO quota system is likely to hurt developing economies such as Bangladesh and Cambodia, which are big textile manufacturers, much more than the Republic.

Meanwhile, as long as workers like Ms Junhua Zhang are willing to continue to work long shifts on the production line for low wages, China's manufacturing miracle is likely to continue.