“There are no more overtime shifts.” On June 27, Wu Qing decided to resign from the factory where she had worked for 10 years. The 35-year-old has spent 10 years in Dongguan and can be considered an old Dongguan. She originally thought she could settle here and become a real Dongguan native.
Factory: only recruiting temporary workers
Dongguan Houjie is a famous gathering place for shoe factories, furniture factories, and leather goods factories in the country. The shoe factory where Wu Guichun once worked is nearby. According to media reports, due to the epidemic, his shoe factory temporarily suspended work, and he chose to return to his hometown out of desperation.
On July 3, a reporter from Times Weekly visited Liaoxia Village in Houjie Town and found that there were occasionally a few trucks passing by in the industrial zone, few pedestrians were seen on the long street, and the logistics park was also slightly deserted. . Times Weekly reporters passed by five factories and a science and technology park (there are six factories in the park) and found that only one factory had information about recruiting temporary workers on the door, and the number of people was in single digits.
“We will no longer recruit long-term (one year or more) general workers.” A staff member of the shoe factory told the Times Weekly reporter that in the past there were more than 400 people in the factory, but now there are only more than 100 people. “These more than 100 people have to find temporary jobs outside. Now the factory can only work 10 or so days a month.” He said that the factory has been in a semi-operating and semi-resting state since March, and they always work for only two days. Notice of holiday.
The staff next to me quietly warned: “Don’t look for a long-term (general worker job) anymore. The factory has no orders to fill, so it’s more practical to find a temporary one.”
In Wu Qing’s view, working in a factory is like a screw. As long as the factory needs it, you have to work for unlimited hours. The working hours are long, wages are low, and the factory is getting older. “All the young people who can leave have left.” Wu Qing said that even if the factory can raise wages and benefits to recruit young people, it will be difficult for them to stay in business for a long time.
The factory park has become quiet, and the commercial area supporting the park is also a bit lonely.
Not only factories, but Dongguan also knows that traditional low-end manufacturing and contract processing trade are not a long-term solution.
In recent years, Dongguan is staging an industrial revolution from the low-end to the mid-to-high end of the industrial value chain, promoting the transformation and upgrading of traditional manufacturing industries
Transporting export products to domestic sales
It’s not easy
Affected by the epidemic, Guangdong’s foreign trade companies generally face cancellation or postponement of existing orders and obstacles in signing new orders. , serious backlog of foreign trade goods and other difficulties, “export to domestic sales” has become an important means for foreign trade enterprises to turn crises into opportunities.
According to the tax economic analysis data of the Guangdong Provincial Taxation Bureau of the State Administration of Taxation, from January to May this year, the domestic sales of export enterprises in Guangdong exceeded last year’s level in April after three months of sluggishness. The amount of domestic sales in May Basically the same as in April.
Ji Bin is the deputy general manager of Guangzhou Yaqite Industrial Co., Ltd. This company is a shoemaking company specializing in OEM and OEM, mainly exporting. In the past year, Ji Bin has been preparing for the company to participate in large-scale international exhibitions. Now, with the company’s foreign trade business almost at a standstill, he began to focus more on developing the domestic market.
“We have been doing foreign trade for more than ten years, mainly relying on exhibitions to attract new orders, and there is almost no extra time to think about the company’s transformation. This year’s epidemic has hit us hard, but it has also made the company realize We have to do both export and domestic sales, otherwise we will be easily affected by international factors,” Ji Bin said.
For foreign trade companies accustomed to order-based production, it is not easy to convert export products to domestic sales. A series of issues such as channel construction, rebranding, product standards, and intellectual property rights are all difficulties.
Ji Bin pointed out that due to different product quality standards at home and abroad, the company not only needs to find new suppliers after switching to domestic sales, but also needs to change its operating model and establish new sales channels. “We are doing domestic sales step by step. In the future, we want to build our own brand, and we will also OEM for domestic brands.”
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