Advertisement

China manufacturing: slowing export momentum, zero-Covid spell trouble for migrant workers

  • Chinese manufacturing and export hub Dongguan has seen a spate of factory closures in recent months
  • Covid controls, market turmoil from the Ukraine war and sluggish global demand are creating challenges

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
43
China’s manufacturers cut jobs for the fifth straight month to reduce costs in August. Photo: Xinhua

As China’s economy struggles to get back on its feet, manufacturers in the country’s export heartland are down-scaling or closing, leaving the fate of scores of rural migrant workers up in the air.

Advertisement

Beijing’s draconian Covid controls, market turmoil stoked by the Ukraine war and sluggish global demand are being felt throughout the southern manufacturing hub of Dongguan, which has seen a spate of factory closures in recent months.

Dongguan Koppo Electronic, which made Bluetooth headsets for overseas brands, shut down in July after orders “fell off a cliff”. Small manufacturers of clothes and footwear have closed for similar reasons, industry insiders say.

Even one of the area’s most successful manufacturers, electronics maker Alco, has been forced to close its business and factory after 36 years of operation.

The Hong Kong-headquartered company employed tens of thousands of people at its peak, but its campus is now empty.

Advertisement
Advertisement