At a manufacturing unit in China’s manufacturing heartland, employees manually add small splashes of paint or glitter to printed photos of flowers — small tweaks designed to spice up dwindling earnings within the face of softer international demand.

“We wish to say that in case you can go high-end, the higher the standard of your work, the extra traditional they are going to be. However within the present international financial system . . . the extra we promote, the decrease the worth,” stated Wang Xiaosha, normal supervisor at Fujian Jie Ao Industrial in Minhou county in China’s south-eastern Fujian province.

Whereas President Xi Jinping needs China’s financial system to concentrate on “new high quality productive forces” — corresponding to inexperienced know-how and electrical automobiles — low-end factories have lengthy been the spine of the nation’s explosive progress and one of many largest sources of jobs.

However these factories are more and more fighting anaemic orders from western patrons, commerce restrictions in international markets and rising competitors from rival hubs, notably southeast Asian nations corresponding to Vietnam and Indonesia, in addition to Bangladesh and India.

The world’s largest exporter of attire and a serious producer of toys and furnishings, “China stays the behemoth on the subject of labour-intensive items”, stated Fred Neumann, chief Asia economist at HSBC. However within the face of rising competitors from lower-cost rivals, “these are all industries which can be hanging on with their fingernails”.

Attire, footwear and furnishings accounted for 9 per cent of China’s exports within the first eight months of final yr, in response to a Financial institution of America World Analysis report, down from 20 per cent in 2001. Automotive and equipment’s share of complete exports elevated to 33 per cent from 16 per cent over the identical interval.

China’s share of world footwear and attire gross sales has slipped lately, with its portion of total provide for manufacturers Nike and Adidas falling from 20-27 per cent in 2017 to 16-20 per cent in 2022, in response to the BofA report. Whereas it stays the world’s largest provider, China’s share of world footwear exports has declined by greater than 10 proportion factors over the previous decade, in response to figures from the 2023 World Footwear Yearbook.

A lot of that capability has shifted to south-east Asian nations, notably Indonesia and Vietnam, the report added. Vietnam, now the world’s second-biggest exporter, has been the most important beneficiary, with its share rising from 2 per cent to about 10 per cent.

The shift partly displays corporations’ seek for decrease labour prices however extra lately the need to de-risk provide chains amid rising geopolitical tensions. Any additional retreat of conventional labour-intensive industries from China may result in job losses, stated HSBC’s Neumann, one thing which policymakers in Beijing are wanting to keep away from.

“As a result of the majority of producing in China continues to be medium- to low-end . . . you want these labour-intensive merchandise factories to be there,” he stated. “The state of mind of policymakers is that it’s not nearly dominating EVs or superior know-how or having your homegrown semiconductor business. It’s additionally sustaining a productive capability in all sorts of items, even [the] decrease finish.”

Shoe and textile factories, starting from vegetation 12 or extra tales excessive to metallic barnlike constructions with metal roofs, line the streets of Jinjiang, an industrial metropolis in Fujian. The town is house to massive shoemakers corresponding to Anta in addition to the world’s largest “one-stop” centre for sports activities footwear textiles.

Lai Mingquan, who runs Shenglong Microfibre, a wholesaler within the advanced, stated that whereas China’s high-tech EV push had created a supply of demand for the artificial leathers utilized in automobile interiors, weak total home and international demand made it tough for factories to undertake the most recent applied sciences utterly.

“As for automation, for a manufacturing unit, it should attain a sure order quantity,” he stated. “However at current, some orders in China aren’t that giant.”

Yang Xian’an, gross sales supervisor at BoBang, a suede microfibre producer, stated that whereas competitors to supply newer and cheaper artificial materials was fixed and intense, new orders, notably these from exporters delivery to international patrons, had declined for the reason that finish of the pandemic. “On this business . . . yearly is worse than the final,” he stated.

Whereas analysts stated the nation nonetheless dominated the availability of superior materials utilized in footwear manufacturing, the broader manufacturing base for sneakers, which was beforehand neatly concentrated in and round Jinjiang, has dispersed to different provinces and abroad, in response to Zhang Xinglou, gross sales supervisor at Jia Yi Plastic Merchandise, which makes parts for sneakers.

Falling exterior and home demand for sneakers has hit corporations corresponding to his — which promote cheaper, unbranded merchandise to factories — notably laborious, he stated. The state of affairs was worsened by tariffs imposed in markets such because the US towards Chinese language footwear, he added.

“Excessive-tech is just one small a part of the image,” he stated. “One manufacturing unit produces a lot in a day, and there are such a lot of factories, all over the place there are factories. How can they help so many individuals?”

Again at Jie Ao Industrial, an indication hanging over the doorway of a warehouse reads: “Innovation is the basis, high quality is life.”

However with demand languishing and remaining prospects centered on bargaining for decrease costs, the corporate has needed to slash its headcount of about 300 painters by half, stated normal supervisor Wang.

“For us conventional enterprises there are literally a whole lot of obstacles,” she stated.