Japanese firms eye inland China
SHANGHAI - With some 14,000 Japanese firms having established operations in China, parent companies staking their fate on Chinese enterprises are looking inland to build production facilities.
Economically bustling Shanghai has attracted firms from around the world, sharply increasing wages and rents in recent years. Shipment delays caused by traffic jams and the displacement of factories to make way for housing have troubled Japanese operations as well.
In 1993, Mitsubishi Corp and an Ehime prefecture-based textile firm established a women's-apparel business in Shanghai.
"Annual production at the Shanghai plant reached 500,000 units two years ago, testing our capacity," said a senior executive of the Shanghai operation. "Instead of expanding in Shanghai, where costs are rising, we searched for a cheaper alternative nearby."
Neighboring Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces were scouted for prospective sites. The companies determined that finding workers would be difficult in cities popular with Japanese firms, such as Suzhou and Wuxi, where wages rival those of Shanghai.
Riding along Route 318, which stretches from Shanghai to Sichuan province, a company official came across an economic development zone in Huzhou, Zhejiang province. The city is about a two-hour drive west from Shanghai.
(Asia Pulse/Nikkei) atimes.com |
