Textile And Garment Industry In Southeast Asia: Low Salary And Load-Bearing Geometry

Recently, the textile industry of Southeast Asian countries Exit The growth news is frequently reported in many media reports. The reasons for the growth are more or less attributed to the transfer of orders caused by the rising labor costs in China. Is the low salary advantage equivalent to manufacturing advantage? What new problems are facing the textile industry in Southeast Asian countries?

　 　 Order Loss is not a fault.

India media said that in the face of China's inflation and the rising cost of manufacturing, India hopes to acquire some clothing and textiles originally belonging to China. market Share. Reported that textiles and clothing manufacturing in India industry Orders from the US and Europe have increased by about 10%~15%. The head of the India Textile Industry Association said: "although India exports account for only 4% of the global garment export market, some of the orders originally planned to reach Chinese companies have now shifted to India due to the rising labor costs in China."

Since last year, labor intensive enterprises in many developed countries have begun to accelerate their transfer to Kampuchea, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries, due to the rising labor costs in China. Some experts point out that this is the inevitable result of the transformation of China's textile industry. It shows the end of the demographic dividend era and the cheap labor era. The situation that industry development relies too much on low wage advantages should also be changed. Some large quantities of low value-added orders transfer phenomenon also has certain inevitability.

According to a survey by the British recruitment organization Hays, the rise in China's labor wages has made it more attractive to Bangladesh, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and India, which are in the background of rising raw material prices.

It is understood that the German Textile Machinery Association (VDMA) has begun planning to organize professional exhibitions and industry forums for textile machinery in Vietnam to seize the opportunity for Vietnam's textile exports to rise. Statistics show that in January 2010 ~11, the total textile machinery exported from Germany to Vietnam reached 27 million euros, an increase of 84% compared with the same period in 2009. A spokesman said Vietnamese textile manufacturers' demand for German textile machinery was growing.

　 Manufacturing advantages should not be based on low wages.

The labor cost advantage of Southeast Asian countries can be seen from the following data. The salary level of a medium-sized textile export enterprise in China is about 100 yuan / hour, and skilled labor can reach 150 yuan / hour. According to the latest data released by the economist, in Singapore ASEAN countries, the hourly wage of manufacturing industry in Singapore was 62.4 yuan / hour, followed by Malaysia 31.8 yuan / hour, and Thailand's 11.7 yuan / hour, the manufacturing workers in Indonesia had the minimum hourly wage of 4.5 yuan / hour. In 2010,

Comparatively speaking, the advantages of low wages in India and other countries are particularly prominent. However, the existing labor force level in these countries, especially the degree of mastery of skilled technology, can not compete with the Chinese labor force, so the phenomenon of labor shortage is also reflected.

In Burma, skilled workers are still scarce, even though all manufacturers are raising minimum wages. Experts from Indonesia and Philippines called on the government to increase investment in labor training in order to cope with the increasing shortage of skilled workers.

At this stage, the India government began to gradually improve the treatment system for workers in order to fully consolidate the existing labor resources and strengthen the manufacturing advantages of low cost. In the power loom industry, the government introduced insurance plans earlier to ensure the rights and interests of the workers in the power loom industry. In this policy, the insured amount of accident insurance is 150 thousand rupees (1 India rupee, or 0.14 yuan RMB). At the end of last year, the plan was further improved. In these insured groups, every textile worker receives a education fee of 600 rupees every six months, with a duration of 4 years. At present, about 800000 textile workers are listed as beneficiaries of this policy.

The India national jute board also proposed a welfare plan to safeguard the interests of workers in jute industry. Under the plan, 7 factories will invest in 14 Street Districts, which will cost 14 million 341 thousand rupees. Each street area can accommodate 1500 workers and their family members. The board will provide at least 2 million rupees to every factory involved in the plan.

　 Southeast Asian enterprises also encounter cost problems

Under the background of global shortage of raw materials, although some countries in Southeast Asia have not encountered the problem of "labor shortage", their producers also have to face two choices, or reduce the scale, save production costs, or raise the prices of products to maintain a profit margin.

Thanks to the sharp depreciation of the Dong shield against the US dollar, Vietnam's textile exports exceeded US $2 billion in the first 2 months of this year, an increase of 54% over the same period last year. At present, the United States, the European Union, Japan and other markets have a strong demand for Vietnamese textiles, so the Vietnamese textile industry has formulated a grand goal of achieving US $13 billion in exports for the whole year. However, the increase in labor costs, rising production costs and the increase in import cost of raw materials such as cotton caused by the devaluation of Vietnam shield will still pose severe challenges to Vietnam's textile industry. At the same time, the recent surge in domestic electricity prices in Vietnam has forced some producers who are unable to pay heavy electricity bills to rearrange their production schedules to avoid high electricity charges during peak electricity consumption.

Vietnam's Halico plant in North Ning Province has changed its production time and helped the company save 20% of its electricity consumption through "night fighting". Although the night production plan saves some expenses for enterprises, for large enterprises, the long-term implementation of this method also needs to consider the negative impact on employees' mood. PhamPhuCuong, the production director of NhaBe clothing company, said that the new production plan should provide extra subsidies to employees, including night travel subsidy fees, which is equivalent to indirectly increasing the production costs of enterprises.

This daytime night reversal mode of work has raised the value of the Vietnamese labor force, and whether it can fundamentally alleviate the cost pressure of the enterprises is still unknown. Ruan Shan, Deputy Secretary General of Vietnam textile and Apparel Association, clearly pointed out that in the next few years, the competitive advantage of Vietnam, such as cheap labor, will gradually be lost. Therefore, the basic measures to maintain export growth are to diversify the commodity structure, increase the added value of products and continue to expand the market.