玩具製造商從中國轉移並非易事 (1/2)

Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:

Toy manufacturers' shift from China is no child's play (1/2)

Richa Naidu

Mon, January 15, 2024 at 5:08 a.m. PST

By Richa Naidu

LONDON (Reuters) - Toy makers grappling with surging costs in China are finding no easy options when it comes to shifting production to cheaper centres elsewhere.

Six years ago, monopoly maker Hasbro approached Indian durable goods and aerospace supplier Aequs to sub-contract.

"They said if you can get into toy manufacturing, now we're looking to shift millions of dollars worth of product from China to India," Rohit Hegde, Aequs' head of consumer verticals, told Reuters. "We said: as long as we can get at least about $100 million of business in the next few years, we can definitely invest in it."

Fast forward to today and Aequs makes dozens of types of toys for Hasbro and others including Spin Master in two 350,000-square-foot facilities in Belgaum, India.

But Hegde and other manufacturers acknowledge that India and other countries cannot match China for efficiency, limiting companies' efforts to shift to lower cost bases and raising the risk of higher toy prices in future if the bulk of production remains in China.

"We don't have the port facilities (in India) that China does. We don't have the road facilities that China does. They have been doing this for the last 30 years, their efficiency levels are much better than ours," Hedge said.

Still, for toy manufacturers including Hasbro and Barbie doll maker Mattel, the risks of relying on China for most of their production were highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Chinese ports struggled to export goods and were periodically shut down, leaving shipments stranded.

Soaring labour costs in China had already been driving manufacturers across industries to diversify production geographically.

A report by Rhodium Group last September showed that total announced U.S. and European greenfield investment into India shot up by $65 billion or 400% between 2021 and 2022, while investment into China dropped to less than $20 billion in 2022, from a peak of $120 billion in 2018. Mexico, Vietnam and Malaysia also drew some of this redirected capital.

Yet toymakers are struggling to shift production even as other industries succeed.

As of the first seven months of last year, mainland China still made 79% of toys sold in the United States and Europe, versus 82% in 2019, according to U.S. and European Union import data provided to Reuters by S&P Global Market Intelligence's trade data service Panjiva.

In comparison, mainland China in 2019 accounted for 35% of U.S. and EU apparel imports. This reduced to just 30% in the year to July 31, with India and Mexico the biggest beneficiaries.

(to be continued)

Translation

倫敦（路透社）—正在努力應對中國成本飆升的玩具製造商, 在將生產轉移到其他更便宜的集中中時地沒有找到簡單的選擇。

六年前，大富翁遊戲製造商 Hasbro 向印度耐用品耐及航空供應商 Aequs 尋求分包合約。

Aequs 垂直市場客戶業務主管 Rohit Hegde 告訴路透社： “當時 Hasbro 說你是否可以進入玩具製造業, 他們正在尋求將價值數百萬美元的產品從中國轉移到印度”; “我們說：只要我們能在未來幾年內獲得至少1億美元左右的業務，我們就一定可以投資玩具製造業。”

時間快速推前到今天，Aequs 在印度 Belgaum 的兩座佔地 350,000 平方英尺的工廠為 Hasbro和 Spin Master 等其他公司生產數十種類型的玩具。

但 Hegde 和其他製造商承認，印度和其他國家在效率方面無法與中國匹敵，這限制了企業轉向較低成本基地的努力，如果大部分生產仍然在中國，未來玩具價格上漲的風險也會增加。

Hedge 說: 「我們（在印度）沒有中國那樣的港口設施。我們沒有中國那樣的道路設施。他們在過去30年裡一直這樣做，他們的效率水準比我們好得多」。

儘管如此，對於 Hasbro 和芭比娃娃製造商 Mattel 等玩具製造商來說，在COVID-19大流行期間，大部分生產依賴中國的風險凸顯出來，當時中國港口難以出口貨物，並定期關閉，導致貨物滯留。

中國不斷飆升的勞動成本已經促使各行業的製造商實現生產地域多元化。

Rhodium 集團去年 9 月的報告顯示，美國及歐洲總計公佈在 2021 年至2022 年間，對印度的綠地投資猛增650 億美元，即400%，而對中國的投資則從 2018 年1200 億美元的峰值降至2022 年的不足200 億美元。墨西哥、越南和馬來西亞也吸引了部分投資這種重新定向資本。

然而，即使其他行業取得了成功，玩具製造商仍在努力轉移生產。

根據標普全球市場情報的貿易資料服務 Panjiva 網絡平台所提供給路透社的 U.S. and European Union 進口資料的數據顯示，截至去年前7個月，銷往美國和歐洲的玩具中仍有79%是中國大陸生產的，而2019年這一比例為82%。

相較之下，2019年中國大陸占美國和歐盟服裝進口的35%。 截至 7 月 31 日的一年裡，這一數字下降至僅僅30%，印度和墨西哥是最大的受益者。

（待續）

Note:

a. A vertical market (垂直市場)is a market encompassing a group of companies and customers that are all interconnected around a specific niche. Companies in a vertical market are attuned to that market's specialized needs and generally do not serve a broader market. (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/)

b. In economics, a greenfield investment (GI) (綠地投資)refers to a type of foreign direct investment (FDI) where a company establishes operations in a foreign country. In a greenfield investment, the company constructs new (“green”) facilities (sales office, manufacturing facility, etc.) cross-border from the ground up. (https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/management)

c. Panjiva, according to its web-site, is a supply chain intelligence platform that’s bringing transparency to global trade through their robust global coverage, powerful machine-learning technologies, and dynamic data visualizations. Whether one is looking to identify potential business partners, keep track of competitors, or find investment signals, their platform arms clients with unrivaled insights to make supply chain decisions with conviction. (https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/solutions/panjiva)