美中貿易戰已使許多外商將工廠轉至東南亞躲避關稅，香港貿易發展局玩具業諮詢委員會主席陳永麟（Lawrence Chan Wing-luen）表示，雖然目前美中貿易戰未重創香港玩具業，但出於貿易衝突未解，仍須考慮需要將工廠遷往越南、印尼和印度等成本較低的市場。
香港《南華早報》近日報導稱，香港貿易發展局、玩具業諮詢委員會主席陳永麟指出，儘管有當前的貿易戰，美國的耶誕節銷售情況仍好於預期，加上有許多重磅電影正在籌備，有助於提升授權產品銷售，香港2019年的玩具出口看起來不會太糟。
但陳永麟也表示，基於美國總統川普曾威脅，目前的關稅可能擴大至中國價值505億美元的出口商品，因此香港玩具業仍須顧及未來的風險，並稱“許多在中國經營的香港玩具製造商，正因貿易戰考慮搬遷工廠。貿易戰帶來額外的風險，增加的成本也正進一步侵蝕利潤”。
香港最大玩具製造商之一“華盛玩具有限公司”在廣東省擁有約2萬名員工，據公司董事Francis Wong Wai-cheuk表示，該公司最近開始考慮搬遷計畫，“我們正在考慮遷至越南或印度，那裡有大量的勞動力供應”。
陳永麟另透露，大約20年前是玩具業的鼎盛時期，中國有超過3000家玩具製造廠，但因中國開始向高科技和服務業經濟轉型，中國的玩具工廠幾年前已開始遷出，目前中國約有2000家工廠。
以下為報導全文：
Hundreds of Hong Kong toymakers are bracing for an exodus from their decades-old production base on mainland China under the pressure of the US-China trade war, according to an industry veteran.
Although the existing punitive tariffs only cover some electronic components of toys, the industry is now under greater pressure to relocate their factories to such lower-cost markets as Vietnam, Indonesia and India, according to Lawrence Chan Wing-luen, chairman of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council’s toy advisory committee.
Amid the doom and gloom, Hong Kong’s toy exports are set to grow 1 to 2 per cent in 2019 after 1.6 per cent growth between January and November 2018, which brought exports to HK$45.2 billion (US$5.8 billion), Chan said.
“Christmas sales in the US were better than expected despite the trade war,” he said. “This year’s exports don’t look too bad because there are a number of blockbuster movies in the pipeline that will help boost licensed products.”
In the US, almost nine out of every 10 toys are made in China.
Washington and Beijing are in the middle of a 90-day truce since December 1 to work out a settlement on punitive tariffs levied on each other’s exports.
So far, toys escaped largely unscathed from the levies but the sector cannot rest on its laurels as US President Donald Trump threatened to extend tariffs to all of the US$505 billion worth of Chinese-made exports, from half at present.
Toymakers hope Asia’s largest toy fair will help boost flagging sales
“The trade war is a catalyst for many Hong Kong toy manufacturers operating in China to consider relocating their factories,” Chan said, himself a toy entrepreneur and honorary president of Hong Kong Toys Council.
The migration of toy factories from China started several years ago along with the country’s industrial transformation to higher technology and service-led economy, he said.
“Growing costs are eating further into profits and now the trade war brings extra risks,” he said.
Loyalty, cheap labour made Hong Kong’s toy king a mainland factory pioneer
There are about 2,000 factories on mainland China compared with over 3,000 in the sector’s heydays about two decades ago, he added.
Wah Shing Toys, one of the biggest Hong Kong toymakers with about 20,000 employees in Guangdong province, said the company recently started considering a relocation plan, according to director Francis Wong Wai-cheuk.
“We are thinking about Vietnam or India, where there is a great labour supply,” he said.
To fend off competition and innovate on traditional toys, the company said it would test the waters for smart baby products for the first time at a baby product fair.
Wong said a new product which the company developed with its own patented technology, featured a sensor attached to a baby’s leg, a mobile phone app and an electronic changing pad. When the baby rests on the changing pad, the sensor records and tracks data such as heart beat, weight and height.
Trade war solution for Hong Kong toymakers may be China
The sensor can sense the baby’s skin temperature and inform parents via the app if the baby has been lying upside down or needs a blanket.
The baby fair runs concurrently with the annual toys and games and stationery fairs next Monday. The toy and games fair, the world’s second largest after Germany’s Spielwarenmesse, is expected to draw 2,100 exhibitors from 42 markets.
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