More Than 200 Shoe Factories In Dongguan, Guangdong, Have Been Closed.

In the world, ten pairs of new shoes are produced in Dongguan, and Dongguan is also known as the "world shoe capital".

But now, the world shoe capital is haze.

The Dongming Road near the Chi Ling flyover in Houjie town gathered 15 recruitment points in different shoe factories in Chi Ling village, but few applicants.

"People are too hard to recruit. If you don't get lucky, you can't even get a person in one day," says a worker at the oasis shoe factory.

Walking along the Dongming Road, the shoe factories along the road are putting up the advertise for the advertised job in the front door.

At the gate of Ding fu shoe factory, the seal of the court is posted. The old man who guards the workshop says that the factory has closed down, and the car and the workshop are ready for auction.

He said that many shoe factories had been shut down during the period of Chi Ling, and how many of them he did not know clearly.

On this point, Li Peng, Secretary General of the Asian Footwear Association, knows that they have done field investigations.

Li Peng told us that there are about more than 1000 shoe factories in Dongguan, of which about more than 200 shoe factories have been closed, and over 50% of shoe factories are investing in the shoe factories in the mainland provinces or overseas.

There are five thousand or six thousand shoe factories in Guangdong, and thousands of them have gone bankrupt.

About 25% of the footwear enterprises in Guangdong now have factories in Southeast Asia, such as Vietnam, India and Burma. About 50% of them are located in the mainland, such as Hunan, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Henan and so on. About 25% of the enterprises are still on the sidelines.

Phenomenon: Dongguan shoe industry is "shuffling", Li Peng said, if there are more than 3000 factories as a large scale, the following is regarded as small and medium-sized, then the shoe factories closed are basically small and medium-sized.

In the more than 200 shoe factories in Dongguan, the vast majority are because the boss does not want to do it himself, "for example, the boss of Chang Deng (shoe factory) wants to turn to real estate".

Wang Aihu, a professor at the school of Business Administration of South China University of Technology, thinks that it is not necessary to see how many shoe factories have been shut down. It depends on whether the industry has undergone internal structural changes. This may mean that the industry is "shuffling".

Zhang Huarong, chairman of Huajian group, judged this: Dongguan shoe industry has stood to a new round of "shuffle" and "sea mouth" of development.

Dr. Tao Feng, an industrial economics professor at the school of economics, Jinan University, believes that the elimination of a small number of small and weak competitive shoe factories, and the preservation of powerful shoe factories through competition, will be beneficial to the whole shoe industry.

The reason is that the low cost and low added value will result in the failure of shoe factories and investment elsewhere. Li Peng believes that the main reason is the rise in overall costs.

Wages are the most direct manifestation of costs. The lowest monthly wage standard for footwear manufacturers in Dongguan is 450 yuan in 2002, and now it is 690 yuan.

In order to recruit workers, the price of shoe factories is basically around 1000 yuan, and the "package" is still a problem, but the problem of shortage of workers still exists.

Pressure also comes from rising raw material prices, water and electricity charges, factory rents and so on.

"Everything is on the rise, but the price of the order has not been rising, even falling."

Bo boss, who has three shoe companies, is a bit excited. He is now considering investing in new factories in the mainland.

Zhu Yucheng, chairman of Hao Cheng shoes industry, analyzed from another angle. "The shoe factory that closes is mainly because of three aspects: the management is not professional, the financial capacity of the shoe factory is not enough and the business capacity is not strong."

Other factors such as the adjustment of processing trade and the appreciation of RMB are external factors.

Tao Feng has his own view on the deep-seated reasons for the failure of shoe factories.

The most fundamental reason for the shoe factory in Dongguan is that the added value of the product is too low.

Secret worry: we should be vigilant for the Industrial Hollowing because of the cost impact. 50% of the shoe factories in Dongguan chose to set up factories in the field.

"Some of the powerful shoe factories are buying and building factories in the field, but they do not have the strength to wait and see.

Li Peng, Secretary General of the Asian Footwear Association, described the situation.

Li Peng explained, "these shoes factories are not moving out, but expanding to the outside world."

At present, there is no shoe factory relocation in Dongguan.

He believes that the footwear industry in Dongguan will be a situation in the future. "It is the possibility of developing, trading and placing orders in Dongguan, but the factory will not turn off in Dongguan, but it will reduce the scale of production and expand the scale of production in the field".

Chen Zhongqiu, mayor of Houjie Town, also believes that the low value-added manufacturing process is currently being pferred, while the core technology R & D and procurement trade remains in Dongguan.

It is for this reason that at present, the output of shoes in Dongguan still accounts for about 1/4 of the whole country, accounting for about 1/10 of the whole world, and over 1000 buyers have been purchased in Houjie international shoe industry.

In this regard, Dr. Tao Feng, an industrial economics school of economics, Jinan University, has maintained a moderate optimism: "the prospect of this shift is optimistic, and all the assembly and manufacturing links in the industrial chain are stripped. Dongguan is regarded as an order center and R & D center as the headquarters of the enterprise, which is conducive to the upgrading of the footwear industry in Dongguan."

He also reminded us that "if there are not enough enterprises to keep headquarters here, and there are not enough enterprises to achieve industrial pformation and upgrading, this place is likely to be hollow."

For Dongguan, this is a crossroads.

Future: more shoe factories close next year?

When many shoe factories in Dongguan went out to invest and run factories, some forerunners have found that it is not easy to get rich outside.

Zhu Yucheng invested in a new factory in Ganzhou, Jiangxi.

But he found that the semi-finished products of shoes made in Jiangxi are OK, but it is hard to make money in the whole set.

"As far as I know, not many enterprises that invest in new shoe factories outside are profitable.

The reason is that the local industry chain is not perfect enough, lack of support and customer support is not enough.

Li Peng also noticed this phenomenon. "No matter how foreign or the mainland is, there is no cost savings to shoe factories."

According to statistics, "only 20% of shoe factories feel satisfied."

He believes that at present there is no one place supporting the industrial chain will be as perfect as Dongguan.

It's not good to get out of the country to get rich. What's wrong with staying in Dongguan? Where is the way out for Dongguan shoe companies?

Li Peng said that the new labor contract law has great pressure on labor-intensive enterprises. "Next year there will be more shoe factories closing."

Dr. Tao believes that the shoe factory has only two ways out now, or it should be extended to the low labor cost area, or stay in Dongguan to raise the added value and get rid of the pressure of rising costs through improving operational efficiency.

"The local government should have the patience to do a good job in upgrading the industry. Upgrading may take ten years and twenty years."

According to the interview, neither the shoe enterprises nor the trade associations have a specific plan to deal with the current situation.

But they all have a general direction, that is to improve the technology content, high-end products and brands.

"This will be a long and arduous process," Zhu Yucheng said. "But the status of Dongguan's shoes capital will not be shaken. Her foundation is very strong."