{"id":1086043,"date":"2026-07-13T07:01:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T07:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1086043\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T07:01:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T07:01:49","slug":"why-factories-in-southern-china-are-feeling-the-squeeze-despite-pickup-in-orders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1086043\/","title":{"rendered":"Why factories in southern China are feeling the squeeze despite pickup in orders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As China prepares to release its second-quarter and first-half economic data this week \u2013 with markets generally expecting performance to have softened \u2013 manufacturers in its southern <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/multimedia.scmp.com\/widgets\/china\/bay-area-new\/\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\">Pearl River Delta<\/a> region offer a nuanced picture.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">While official manufacturing data for June showed continued expansion, electronics exporters in the region \u2013 one of China\u2019s biggest industrial areas and a bellwether for the national economy \u2013 said last week that a pickup in orders had yet to lift their bottom lines.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Rising raw material costs, tougher payment terms set by vendors, and persistent price competition were squeezing profits, they said.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Manufacturers said that despite strong export demand, particularly from the US, those pressures could stymie efforts to increase sales and fund new investments or hiring.<\/p>\n<p>The question being asked on factory floors is whether stimulus measures could ease the cost pressures eating into margins, with all eyes on the midyear <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/politburo?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Politburo<\/a> meeting, expected to be held later this month.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">At the July meeting of the Politburo \u2013 a major decision-making body of the ruling Communist Party \u2013 policymakers typically assess the country\u2019s first-half economic performance and chart the course for the remainder of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As China prepares to release its second-quarter and first-half economic data this week \u2013 with markets generally expecting&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1086044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3090],"tags":[296956,51,296961,1395,296955,174495,1700,28867,296962,296958,296960,296957,97227,296959,10743,16,15,978,296954],"class_list":["post-1086043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-a-delight-group","tag-business","tag-chen-haibo","tag-china","tag-crossbow-brand-electric","tag-dongguan","tag-economy","tag-guangzhou","tag-huihong","tag-institute-of-contemporary-observation","tag-lawrence-tan","tag-liang-xiong","tag-liu-kaiming","tag-pearl-river-delta","tag-shenzhen","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-us","tag-zhongshan"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116911390495917113","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1086043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1086044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1086043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1086043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1086043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}