WOES-R-US: HONG KONG TOY MANUFACTURERS LAMENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HONG KONG 001989 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/CM E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/23/2018 TAGS: ECON EFIN EINV ETRD HK SUBJECT: WOES-R-US: HONG KONG TOY MANUFACTURERS LAMENT "SOARING COSTS" HONG KONG 00001989 001.2 OF 002 Classified By: Consul General Joseph Donovan for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d ) ¶1. (C) Summary: Hong Kong-based toy manufacturers and one of their industry representative organizations recently described a "perfect storm" hitting manufacturing facilities in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region of mainland China. They predicted many more Guangdong factories would close in coming months, due to a toxic combination of increased commodity prices, renminbi appreciation, higher product safety compliance costs, rising labor costs related to China's Labor Contract Law (LCL) of 2008, tight credit markets, and the accelerating global economic downturn. PRC incentives to relocate labor intensive factories inland are insufficient, said manufacturers. They voiced concerns about product testing and other compliance costs related to the newly enacted U.S. Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, and are seeking more uniform global product safety and testing standards to reduce compliance costs. The leader of the Federation of Hong Kong Industries issued a dire public warning about "millions" of layoffs in the PRD and the closures of "thousands" of Hong Kong-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in coming months. Meanwhile, in a move to assist export-oriented manufacturers, the Hong Kong government announced plans to continue provision of export insurance for SMEs and to freeze premiums on government insurance that is increasingly unavailable at affordable prices from the private sector. End summary. ¶2. (C) Comment: The very dire predictions of the Federation of Hong Kong industries may be designed to spur the Hong Kong government (HKG) to expand assistance programs to local SME's. Nevertheless, expectations of continued, significant plant closings and lay-offs in the PRD are widespread among Hong Kong business people and analysts. The smallest, most labor-intensive manufacturing firms with the least diversified international customer bases will be hit hardest and may disappear for good. The larger, Hong Kong-based firms have greater financial reserves and are generally better able to adapt to rising cost pressures and decreased demand. While they may emerge from the current crisis with stronger market positions, they also may shed some PRD manufacturing employees along the way. Hong Kong business people also see mainland China's moves in the last year to tighten labor and environmental regulations as poorly timed. Lack of infrastructure, poor supply chains and high transportation costs make Hong Kong business people resistant to moving factories deeper into China. Guangdong's currently inadequate intellectual property protection may be a further barrier to moving manufacturing up the technology chain. Given the absolute political need to prevent wide-scale unemployment in Guangdong, many Hong Kong observers believe that local governments may be forced to loosen labor and environmental policies. End Comment. ==================================== Rising Labor Costs, Worker Shortages ==================================== ¶3. (C) Senior executives of the Toys Manufacturers' Association of Hong Kong (TMAHK) told EconOff on October 6 that "soaring costs" would likely cause "many" additional toy factory closures in Guangdong province. In addition to increased commodity prices, renminbi appreciation and higher product safety compliance costs, the TMAHK officials cited mainland China's Labor Contract Law (LCL) of 2008 as a major contributor to manufacturer duress in the PRD. An April 2008 survey by Hong Kong's Trade Development Council (TDC) of 1,841 Hong Kong-based manufacturers suggested that rising minimum wages and implementation of the LCL pushed up direct labor costs by over 20 percent compared with 2007. LCL-related costs rose largely due to increased social security payments and higher worker severance payments. TMAHK's President, Samson Chan, referred to the LCL as a "disaster" and "a nightmare for us." He said that while the duration and severity of the looming global economic slowdown were unknown, the falloff in consumer demand "could not have come at a worse time." ¶4. (C) On top of rising labor costs, Hong Kong-based manufacturers complain that PRC pressure to "move up or move in" still doesn't make economic sense. Beijing wants coastal factories to either "move up" the production value chain and produce higher value-added products, or "move in" their labor intensive factories into China's interior. David Lie, the politically prominent CEO of Hong Kong-based toy manufacturer Newpower Group, told us that he relocated one of his HONG KONG 00001989 002.3 OF 002 labor-intensive toy factories from Dongguan (population 10 million; mostly migrant workers) to Qingyuan (population 3.7 million; located 100 kilometers northwest of Dongguan) at the urging of the Guandong provincial government. He regrets the move and told us he will probably close the relocated factory in the coming year, due to a shortage of labor. He said that while he pays his Qingyuan workers 770 renminbi (USD 99) per month, or one third more than the minimum wage there, he cannot find enough workers to staff his manufacturing facility. Lie said, "I pay in Qingyuan the wages that workers get in Dongguan, but they don't want to live in Qingyuan. They prefer Dongguan, a much bigger city where there are more factories and more jobs to choose from." ¶5. (C) Lie and TMAHK Executive Vice President C.K. Yeung told us that incentives on taxes and land purchases "don't offset" the higher costs associated with relocating manufacturing facilities inland. In addition to inland labor shortages and rising labor costs, Lie said logistics costs impede Hong Kong-based toy manufacturers from moving production facilities further inland. He said, "Shipping costs to the coast eat too much of our already thin profit margin. And our component suppliers often don't want to move inland with us, so we'd end up also paying at least part of their increased shipping costs to our plants." Lie said toy manufacturing remains a high-volume, low-margin business, with "unbelievable price pressure" from major international purchasers such as Wal-Mart. ============================================= ====== Product Safety: Rising Compliance and Testing Costs ============================================= ====== ¶6. (C) TMAHK Executive Vice President C. K. Yeung told EconOff that product safety concerns in the toy industry resulted in substantially increased costs in 2008. On the heels of safety-related toy recalls in 2007, Yeung said each major toy buyer (e.g. Wal-Mart, Target, Carrefour) "does their own product testing," including a manufacturing audit at least once per year for every product they purchase. He said, "A bad exam is an existential threat to a manufacturer, so the time of senior executives is increasingly consumed by product safety testing programs." Yeung Chi Kong, Vice Chairman of PRD toy manufacturer Blue Box Holdings (7,000 employees),told EconOff that his company's testing expenses increased 300 percent in 2008 over the prior year. ¶7. (C) TMAHK's Yeung said Hong Kong's toy manufacturers were pushing regulatory agencies in the United States and Europe to move toward harmonized product safety standards, as well as establishment of global guidelines on product safety testing requirements. He praised the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) for reaching out to Hong Kong's toy manufacturers for comments about the recently enacted U.S. Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008. Yeung said Hong Kong's larger and more sophisticated manufacturers would benefit from the new U.S. law "over the long run," as smaller companies with thinner margins prove unable to comply with increased safety compliance requirements. (Note: A senior CPSC official from Washington intends to discuss the new U.S. product safety law with China's toy manufacturers in January 2009 at the Toys and Games Fair in Hong Kong. Industry representatives here eagerly await his visit. End note.) ============================================ Dire Predictions Generate Goverment Response ============================================ ¶8. (U) Adding to manufacturers' nervousness here, recent media reports prominently featured dire comments from the Chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Industries, Clement Chen Cheng-jen. He estimated on October 18 that the combination of rising costs, falling demand from Western importers, and tightening credit conditions would result in "2.5 million layoffs in the PRD," and that "25 percent of Hong Kong-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) could be bankrupt" by early 2009. On October 23, the HKG announced that its Export Credit Insurance Company (ECIC) would continue to insure Hong Kong's exporters against a foreign buyer's failure to accept delivery of previously ordered goods. Private insurance companies have increasingly ceased provision of such coverage. The ECIC also announced it would freeze premiums on government-provided export insurance, and provide buyer credit assessments free of charge for all Hong Kong exporters. DONOVAN