The process of "de-Chinaization" of Japanese enterprisesPanasonic withdrew its air conditioning production line to Japan with 10 billion yuan
In recent years, there have been frequent news about the transfer of production capacity by foreign companies, such as Apple, which is actively transferring production capacity to India, and other foreign companies are gradually moving production lines out of China. Recently, another Japanese company, Panasonic, is planning to move most of its production lines to Japan.
According to a new report from Nikkei Asia, Japanese home appliance maker Panasonic is planning to transfer some of its current production capacity for air-conditioning compressors in China to a factory in Japan.
According to the report, Panasonic will spend 10 billion yen (about 70 million US dollars) to build the plant in Kusatsu City, Shiga Prefecture, and build a new production line to increase production capacity by about two times. According to the plan, from fiscal 2023, Panasonic will gradually transfer its high-end air conditioning production line in Guangzhou, China, to the new plant.
In addition, from 2024, Panasonic's mid-range air conditioners will be transferred from Guangzhou to the Kusatsu plant and other places. At that time, about 40% of Panasonic's air conditioning production capacity will be returned to the Japanese base.
According to the report, Panasonic's move is to deal with the uncertainty of the ** chain caused by **friction, and it is also to promote the process of local production and local sales, and improve production and operational efficiency. This means that Panasonic will produce more air conditioners in Japan, while reducing production in the Chinese market and reducing its dependence on Chinese manufacturing.
Does this represent Japanese companies?"Go to China"Acceleration of the trend?
In fact, the adjustment of Panasonic's activities in China is not the only time, in May this year, Panasonic Battery Shenyang Company will also stop production, enter the liquidation and dissolution procedure, and stop commercial activities. In addition to Panasonic, since 2019, many Japanese companies have also changed their production capacity.
For example, Omron disbanded its Dongguan plant in 2019NEC OK closed its factory in China in 2020, moved its printer and MFP production operations to Thailand, and returned some of its repair parts production lines to JapanToshiba closed its last factory in China in September 2021 and shifted production capacity to Vietnam and Japan.
In 2022, Canon closed its 32-year-old Zhuhai factory, and in the same year, Japan's Kyocera solar panel factory in Tianjin officially ceased production. In February, Sony completed the transfer of most of its camera production from its Chinese factory to Thailand.
The timing of the relocation of production lines from China by many of Japan's largest factories seems to coincide with the year in which the United States provoked related events. From this point of view, the friction is having an impact, and these Japanese companies are trying to wean themselves off Chinese manufacturing, just like Apple.
However, this does not necessarily mean that Japanese companies are accelerating"De-sinicization"。
First of all, Japanese companies are accelerating"De-sinicization"There is some controversy. Some Japanese companies may have taken steps to reduce their dependence on China, but these measures do not necessarily mean that they are completely out of the Chinese market. On the contrary, the Chinese market is still very important for Japanese companies, and they still need to remain competitive in the Chinese market.
After all, the Chinese market is so large that even American companies can't give it up, let alone Japanese companies.
Secondly, many Japanese companies have lost due to the lack of cost and selling price, and large Japanese companies such as Toyota, Sony, Canon, and Panasonic will be taken offline, which may be due to a variety of reasons, not necessarily"De-sinicization"。It may be due to the adjustment of business strategies, market competition, rising production costs and other reasons to choose to cancel the production line.
For example, Canon has shifted its production center to low-cost Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, but the company has remained in China, hoping to introduce its products to the Chinese market.
However, it is worth noting that in April 2020, Japan launched an economic stimulus package of nearly $1 billion, of which $2.2 billion was used to encourage Japanese companies to transfer production capacity out of China and back to their countries of origin or other overseas countries.
In other words, Japan still hopes that Japanese companies will reduce their dependence on China's ** chain. However, there are also some large companies that want to continue to take a piece of the Chinese market by shifting production capacity to low-cost countries and then selling products back to the Chinese market. It should be remembered, though, that many Japanese companies do have plans to withdraw from China.
In short, Panasonic's withdrawal from the air conditioning production line in the Chinese market does not necessarily mean that Japanese companies are accelerating"De-sinicization"The reasons for this are complex. However, it should be noted that the withdrawal of foreign-funded enterprises from the production line will have a certain impact on China's manufacturing industry.