Category: Procurement

When Kenyan entrepreneur Walter Ruigu embarked on his journey to China in 2009, he had no clue this would be the place he’d spot so many business opportunities for a budding African entrepreneur.

Today CAMAL prides itself in successfully assisting companies to leverage China as a source of supplies, capital & technical expertise.

This week he speaks with Nillah Nyakoa about what it takes to find success in China and above all the good business lessons he has grasped over time, working with clients from both China and Africa, and how those lessons have helped steer his company in the right direction.

Listen to the rest on China Radio International Website:

I have just returned from a sourcing trip in Tangshan and I was marked by the blue sky and white clouds. In all my years in China, I have never seen Tangshan like this, let alone during winter. I have witnessed the same scene in the last week in Dingzhou, Anping, Shijiazhuang and other steel producing cities of China.

Clean Air at a Cost

New regulations in China have mandated anti-pollution measures / equipment / quotas / shutdowns etc. which have all led to increased costs amongst restricted supply. In Tangshan for instance, coal power is no longer permitted as a source of power for producing steel. The alternative, natural gas, is a cleaner energy source, but one that has lead to an increase of USD 10-15 per ton of steel.

With coal no longer a permissible source of (cheap) power, most coal processing machines lay ideal in most steel mills

Although most people appreciate the breathable air, there are hundreds of mills and processing plants that have been shutdown leading to lost income, unemployment and rising prices. Where shutdowns have not been mandated, increased costs have rendered many firms noncompetitive (locally and internationally) leading to bankruptcies and closures.

With the new regulations, electric furnaces have been targeted due to their typically high pollution and often smaller size in comparison to blast furnaces. The result has been extremely tight supply of steel especially billets that are necessary for downstream production, and which once constituted a major portion of China’s steel exports.

Not everyone is Upset with New Regulations

The biggest beneficiaries of the strict regulations have been blast furnace suppliers of steel billets. They have seen profits sour with figures of over USD 150 per ton. With some factories producing thousands of tons per week, business has been booming as artificially high profit margins continue.

On the other hand, downstream industries have been forced to buy raw materials at these elevated prices and ultimately the costs are being passed on to consumers. With fewer producers, elimination of the (Cheaper) electric furnace producers and new quotas, billet manufacturers have ripped immense profits during this period.

End of Cheap China?

Those who have paid close attention to the steel industry can only reminisce when steel prices were sub USD 150 compared to USD 600 per ton today. It is highly unlikely that the price will ever return to these figures.

Excessive steel billet (such as above) prices have caused a knock-on effect on downstream industries and manufacturing

Given that profits of the billets are abnormally high, it is possible that new regulations targeting certain enterprises will tame these margins therefore resulting in knock on effect for downstream industries, but its clear China has turned a chapter of cheap steel at all costs.

‘New Normal’ and the Changing China Opportunity

So what does all this mean for international firms looking to China for procurement or investment? Next week, I shall examine implications of this new normal.

 (Walter Ruigu is managing director of CAMAL Group, a trade and investment advisory firm based in Beijing, Nairobi and Lusaka and can be reached at wruigu@camaltd.com)

There have been countless articles and books about China’s reign as the factory of the world coming to an end. While it is true that wage increases are making some of China’s lower-end industries, such as textiles, less competitive vis-à-vis other low-cost countries such as Viet Nam, Cambodia and Bangladesh, China remains one of the top procurement sources for mid- to high-tier products. For instance, heavy equipment exports from China experienced a growth rate of about 30 percent in the last decade alone. Even as some of the lower-end industries move out, there is more to a country’s competitive supply chain than labor costs. China maintains a set of key factors that will continue to make it a competitive exporter even as the economic landscape shifts. These include:

• High-quality infrastructure (especially export-related infrastructure): China’s rail and road infrastructure, particularly along the coastal cities, are among the most developed globally. With a history of double-digit investment in infrastructure, China’s ports complement the rail/road infrastructure. Shanghai long surpassed Singapore as the world’s busiest port and it will be a while before key competing countries can match China’s current (and continuously developing) infrastructure.
• Increasing qualified labor force: China produces hundreds of thousands of graduate engineers and scientists each year to be absorbed into the local industries. Moreover, China now has the world’s largest student population studying overseas with a sizeable number returning upon completion of their studies. Although there has been renewed attention to quality rather than quantity in the number of graduates, the increasing education level will boost China’s competitiveness vis-à-vis some of the other low-cost sourcing destinations.
• Growing research and development expenditure leading to higher innovation capacity: Despite the reputation for copying, China’s innovation has continued to pick up pace. A report by McKinsey & Company (Greater China) highlights innovation in areas such as renewable energy, consumer electronics, instant messaging and mobile technology. As internal and external competition increases, China is also focusing on price reduction, adaptation of business models and supply chain development. This will lead to the elimination of less efficient firms, both domestically and those focused on the export market.
• Lower costs relative to industrialized countries: Despite double-digit growth in both wages and currency appreciation during the past decade, China’s minimum wage still stands far below that of industrialized countries. Rising wages are correlated with increasing productivity. Therefore countries competing with China for lower costs will have to also compete with increased productivity and vice versa.
• Specialization, not only at sector level, but also at product level: China’s specialization in various products remains unparalleled globally. There are entire towns dedicated to producing a single product. For instance, Shenyang, a city in northeast Liaoning Province, has developed a reputation for its heavy industry, particularly in the manufacture of automobile and light machinery. The Pearl River Delta is known for textiles/electronics industries, whereas Shenzhen has become the IT hub of China. Moreover, the product range available in these agglomerations is diverse, catering for low- to high-end products, resulting in differentiation as a key competitive factor.
• Pro-export policies: It is true that the Chinese authorities have decided to alter the export-led growth model to one focused on domestic consumption. However, the country’s “going out” policy combined with an increasing saturated domestic market, especially in sectors related to fixed assets investment such as steel, cement and heavy equipment, continues to have explicit support (via export rebates or subsidies) or tacit support (high barriers to entry, licensing requirements), especially at local level. This support will continue to boost Chinese exports’ competitiveness – at least in the short term.

A shift inland: As the coastal areas become expensive, investment in areas such as Chengdu and Chongqing, which are a distance from the coast, continues to see increasing direct investment from both local and foreign firms. This is not to say that the inland does not pose its own problems, but over time it may prove easier to shift inland than abroad.

This article originally appeared in the Chinafrica Magazine, Why China Remains a Major Sourcing Destination