China manufacturing: slowing export momentum, zero-Covid spell trouble for migrant workers
- Chinese manufacturing and export hub Dongguan has seen a spate of factory closures in recent months
- Covid controls, market turmoil from the Ukraine war and sluggish global demand are creating challenges
As China’s economy struggles to get back on its feet, manufacturers in the country’s export heartland are down-scaling or closing, leaving the fate of scores of rural migrant workers up in the air.
Beijing’s draconian Covid controls, market turmoil stoked by the Ukraine war and sluggish global demand are being felt throughout the southern manufacturing hub of Dongguan, which has seen a spate of factory closures in recent months.
Even one of the area’s most successful manufacturers, electronics maker Alco, has been forced to close its business and factory after 36 years of operation.
The Hong Kong-headquartered company employed tens of thousands of people at its peak, but its campus is now empty.
Before shutting down, the firm said the pandemic had severely impacted its export-oriented business, leading to serious losses and making operations unsustainable.
At the entrance to the factory where weeks ago workers pumped out electronics goods for export around the world, a note posted to a wall highlighted the uncertain fate of its staff.