Chinese factories running at a capacity of 75%

Many Chinese factories are now running at a capacity of 75 per cent, with majority of them making masks, PPE suits as well as the regular stuff. The industry believes, as per ongoing discussions, that factories will be very busy after June.

This and many other facts emerged from a webinar “Get Set Go – Life After Lockdown (Lessons from China) organised by Association of NIFT Alumni (NIFTA).

The webinar panellists included the likes of Basant Bhansali, CEO, COMTEX, China; Nidhi Sikka, Senior Manager, Global Merchandising, H&M; Manish Tribhuvan, Head – Sourcing, Blackberrys and Soumen Biswas, CEO, GC Apparels, China.

Panellists from China shared that to ensure safety, factories are being disinfected twice or thrice a day in addition to having different lunch batches for the workers. Besides, the factories check the temperature of its workers twice a day.

It was also highlighted that banks in China are liberal to support labour-intensive industries with the rate of interest being lucrative. Around 50 per cent of the social security of workers (like PF and ESI in India) is being paid by the Government, and therefore Chinese companies have paid their workers whatever minimum dues they have to pay.

The panellists also mentioned that speed and small orders will be the main focus for buyers globally. Here it is important to note that even in the past, China had the advantage of speed over the disadvantages of tariffs.

Post-COVID, online buying is really increasing in China and many brands that were not focusing earlier on e-commerce, are now not only putting thrust on the same, but also getting a good response. A month ago, Italian luxury fashion house, Prada was launched on Tmall (a Chinese-language website for business-to-consumer operated in China by Alibaba Group); importantly, customers are buying high-price products.