China’s factories try to manufacture their way out of a shortage of both jobs and hi-tech
- Manufacturers and others are pointing to a growing mismatch between the jobs young people are looking for and the jobs that are in dire demand
- Finding skilled workers has become so costly that the roughly 10,000-yuan cost of replacing them recently trended on social media
The world’s factory is in a bind, facing a number of internal and external challenges that are exposing and accentuating ways China needs to improve if it hopes to retain an edge in manufacturing amid technological restraints and demographic shifts.
At a manufacturer in northern China’s Tianjin, a piece of coated metal is hoisted into a blazing-hot gas furnace that must be precisely controlled. The exactness of this carburising step is vital, as it can determine if the part – in this case, industrial gearboxes – will last for 10 years or 50 years.
However, the data being relayed from inside the furnace is not handled on-site. Instead, it is transmitted all the way to Germany, where engineers monitor the highly technical process from the headquarters of the plant’s owner.
Without access to core technology, which increases the added value of such products, the Chinese side is responsible for purely operating the machine.
The supply of a large number of key core technologies and middleware in China’s manufacturing sector is heavily dependent on foreign countries
And therein lies a critical hurdle facing China’s manufacturers – bridging technical gaps in an increasingly competitive global trade environment.
“The supply of a large number of key core technologies and middleware in China’s manufacturing sector is heavily dependent on foreign countries,” a Zheshang Securities report said last March.
