There have been a number of headlines recently about companies moving production out of China. The problem with many of these articles is that the information is in bits and pieces and are unclear as to what percentage of production is moving. Accordingly, It's important to remember that when a company is stated to be moving out of China it does not mean all production. Also, let's remember that moving some production out of China is not a new thing. The "China Plus One" strategy dates back almost a decade.
My frustration is that it has been challenging to find an actual list of those companies moving or planning on moving. The only list I was able to locate was one from The Nikkei Asian Review: "China scrambles to stem manufacturing exodus as 50 companies leave". It is a list that has been quoted by The Washington Post and other news outlets.
Below is a sidebar which was included with the Nikkei article (If you click on the list you can get a better image). It provides the name of the company, where its headquarters is located, to which country the production is moving and what types of products are involved.
First, I wanted to know where the listed companies are headquartered:
Japan–17
U.S.–6
China–3
Taiwan–3
South Korea–1
Then I wanted to know the product categories and in particular, how many are consumer goods?
Consumer Electronics–14
Consumer Goods–6 (Watches–3, Shoes–2, Fans–1)
Auto Parts–5
Manufacturing Equipment–5
And where are they going and with what types of products?
Viet Nam–Primarily Consumer Electronics
Japan–Manufacturing Equipment
Taiwan–Consumer Electronics
Mexico–Primarily Consumer Electronics
India–Primarily Consumer Electronics
South Korea–Consumer Electronics
U.S.–Auto Parts
The first thing to note is that only one out of the companies listed are moving production to the U.S. and only four are moving to Mexico.
The rest are relocating to other Asian countries. (With all the touting of India over the last couple of years it is surprising that only three of the companies listed are heading in that direction). Simply put, manufacturing is not coming back to America. In fact, it's barely coming back to the western hemisphere.
It is also notable that only 20% of the product categories listed can be designated as consumer goods. Of the consumer goods involved, none listed were in the toy category and were mostly limited to watches and shoes. What dominates the list is electronics with companies like Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Apple leading the way.
I plan to follow this very closely. If you have anything to share please contact me at info@globaltoyexperts.com
