How small and medium-sized hardware companies crack the "high cost era"

"For some industries with excess capacity, high energy consumption, and high pollution, there is no need to worry too much about their predicament, and the economy must be allowed to have a certain elimination rate." Xu Jianfeng, director of the Economic Research Institute of Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences, did not say this. Zheng Yuanbao, the president of the Zhejiang Electrical Industry Association, acknowledged that “at present, SMEs have difficulties in surviving even though they need to rely on relevant policies to achieve transformation and upgrading. Otherwise, economic development may lose their vitality.”

Recently, when the author went deep into Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong, he discovered that under the influence of “three shortages” (money shortage, electricity shortage, labor shortage) and “three highs (high prices, high taxes, and high costs)”, the coastal Many SMEs have fallen into a difficult situation. As the most active cell in the national economy and the market economy that absorbs the largest number of employed people, SMEs generally face the test of survival and should pay enough attention.

In an interview with the author, Lin Jinchang, deputy director of the Shishi Commercial Bureau in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, said that a healthy economic environment should not make industrial SMEs more and more tired, “due to the raw material prices, financing difficulties and other factors caused by the survival difficulties, Government departments can issue targeted measures to help companies tide over the difficulties and take appropriate adjustments to the industrial planning layout to guide SMEs to achieve long-term development in transformation and upgrading.”

"False closure, true shutdown"

The author's research found that although it is too early to assert that the coastal SMEs have “closed the tide”, due to multiple factors, some companies have actually been in the state of “false collapse, true shutdown”.

In the Pearl River Delta region, many companies are basically in the “simple in production” state due to “no orders”. In the Phuket District, Shenzhen, a company official specializing in foreign trade OEM said that in the past year, a maximum of hundreds of thousands of garments could be processed. In the first half of this year, the output was less than 5,000. “Now it's not enough orders.” If you stop and restart it, you may not be able to use it."

Located in Zhejiang Province in the Yangtze River Delta region, the survival difficulties of SMEs are still spreading. There are currently approximately 360,000 SMEs in Wenzhou, of which 20% are half-stopped or suspended. In the workshop of Zhejiang Kangerle Electronics Co., Ltd., the author saw that this small company with an annual sales of about 10 million yuan only turned on 60% of the load. Zhou Dewen, head of the Wenzhou SME Investment Promotion Association, said, “According to the current trend, 40% of the coastal SMEs may stop or half-time work after the Spring Festival next year.”

Some SMEs facing a crisis of survival have begun to shift from their main business. The latest visit of Zhejiang Provincial Department of Commerce’s General Office to more than 1,700 foreign trade companies showed that about 20% of the company's main business profits accounted for less than 20% of total profits, which represented the phenomenon of “marginalization of the company’s main business”. A number of people in the economic community believe that it is necessary to be alert to SMEs shifting to investment areas in the face of difficulties in industrial operations, resulting in damage to the national economy.

The author's investigation found that from the perspective of firm size, the current “survival crisis” of the company is most prominent in small and medium-sized enterprises with an operating income of less than RMB 20 million and employees under 200, and most of the large and medium-sized enterprises with strong innovation capabilities good.

The relevant person in charge of the Zhejiang Provincial Financial and Economic Committee analyzed that from January to May of this year, the profits of industrial enterprises above designated size in Zhejiang Province increased by 33.7% year-on-year, but the profits were mainly concentrated in large-scale enterprise groups. Zhang Jianli, director of the Guangdong Provincial SME Bureau, said that the added value of SMEs in Guangdong Province from January to May has maintained double-digit growth, and the added value is 11% higher than the provincial average. “This shows that most of the shutdowns are Small businesses and small businesses have little impact on overall output value."

Four Types of Small and Medium-S

According to the author's visits to the coastal provinces, many business owners believe that they are currently facing the "difficult survival period in history." According to the type of business, the four types of companies are currently under the greatest pressure to survive:

First, "raw material dependent companies." Zhao Liwen, deputy general manager of Liuyin Tianyin Alloy Technology Co., Ltd. of Yueqing, Zhejiang, told the author that 30% of orders have been pushed out this year. This has never happened in more than 20 years after the plant was opened. In April, the price of silver soared to more than 10,000 yuan. One kilogram, the factory almost dumped, and now only 5% of profits.” Due to funding constraints, the raw material of silver inventories of Tianyin alloy stocks fell from 2 tons to 200 kilograms, which is often used up today to buy tomorrow. The author's investigation found that there are widespread problems in the trapped SMEs in the hardware, cotton spinning, and furniture industries.

Second, "traditional low-margin manufacturing companies." Enterprises generally reflect the difficulty of survival, because labor, raw materials and other production factors have increased prices, so that the original meager profits tend to zero. Textile enterprises, the largest traditional industry in Zhejiang Province, are facing this problem in general. At present, Zhejiang's textile industry generally maintains a profit of around 5%, which makes it difficult for some companies to compel private companies to calculate the lowest monthly interest rate in Wenzhou. The one-year interest rate still stands at 36%, which is the production of the textile industry. More than 7 times profit. The "pit" for filling profits in the manufacturing industry will eventually force companies to go the other way.

Third, "demand shrinking, overcapacity enterprises." The author learned from Wenzhou that there are more than 4,000 local lighter companies at the peak, and there are more than 500 companies on the eve of the financial crisis in 2008. Today, there are only about 110 companies remaining, and only one third of the companies that are still involved in lighter production are. . "More bosses just use the company as a platform to make it alive." Huang Fajing, president of the Wenzhou smoking industry association, told the author.

Some emerging industries that blindly switch to traditional industries also face the crisis of overcapacity. According to statistics, the number of companies engaged in the R&D and production of LED products in Hangzhou increased rapidly from 16 in 2000 to 179 in September 2010, more than a dozen times more, but the demand did not increase at the same pace, and the signs of excess industry began to appear. .

Fourth, "non-qualified environmental protection enterprises" and "back-end production enterprises." After a blood lead incident in Deqing, Zhejiang Province in May this year, the Environmental Protection Agency of Zhejiang Province dispatched 10 inspection teams to carry out blanket inspections on all 273 battery companies registered in the province, and 213 of them were ordered to stop production and rectification. Some storage battery companies were affected by this and could not complete product orders, and faced operating difficulties after encountering compensation for breach of contract. The list of backward production capacity companies announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in July includes a total of more than 2,200 companies, of which more than 1,000 companies are being eliminated in the cement and paper industries. Most of them are small and medium enterprises.

Instability of the “smell” show The author interviewed and learned that the continuous pressure of survival has led some companies to become overwhelmed and declare bankruptcy, coupled with the prevalence of mutual protection among coastal SMEs, and the “triangular debt” between upstream and downstream manufacturers. With the increase, a large number of companies have begun to emerge as a result of the instability caused by debt-burdening and looting, and some workers who do not get their salary are in the process. Some business owners have responded to the need to guard against the further spread of the chain reaction triggered by the debt crisis and endangering social stability.

In Wenzhou, Zhejiang Tianshi Electronics Co., Ltd. has recently become a well-known local company after the closure of Jiangnan Leather and Portman. At the scene, a pipeline repairman who did not want to be named told the author: “The boss still owes me more than 10,000 pieces of wages. Now everything has risen in price, and it has been half-baked for half a year. How can the people live?”

For companies that have not closed down, the prevailing corporate "mutual insurance" financing method in Zhegan precincts has caused the owners to feel uncomfortable. The "joint loss" effect has caused the business owner to be in a dilemma between high risk and financing difficulties. Lin Xixu, deputy general manager of Zhejiang Jieshitai Electronics Co., Ltd., has set up factories in many provinces in China. Since this year, only a company run by a relative has carried out “mutual insurance”. “No one dares to easily tie his company to others. Belts and belts are too risky,” said Chen Dongqing, chairman of the Zhejiang Electric Lean Group. At present, a large number of mutual insurance companies are still in a state of balance, but once there is a funding gap, the impact is certainly a series of companies.

In the Pearl River Delta region, the lamination period of upstream and downstream manufacturers led to an increase in “triangular debts” and became a potential financial risk. Shunde Jiachen Rubber Mold Factory Zhang Xing, director of the mold to the author, said that now the big electrical manufacturers have accepted the ** to press the period, the time up to 6 to 8 months, "downstream pressure on us, we take the acceptance ** Pressure upstream suppliers, which evolved into 'triangular debt'. In the future if we fall, it will directly bring down a number of upstream companies." Some business owners frankly stated that once the bankruptcy, the boss has already sold something All were taken away. The workers who suffered the last loss were all workers.

Eliminate transformation and also have "preserving pressure"

Many people interviewed in the economic circle believe that the crisis is a concentrated outbreak of SMEs for a long time. Financing difficulties, labor shortages, shortage of resources, rising exchange rates, and other factors have caused delays in the high-cost era of SMEs that are difficult to transform and upgrade. Concentrated exposure to weakness. They generally believe that the current tightening macro-control policies are favorable to the long-term economic development, but they must pay more attention to the coherence and stability of macro-control policies. Some of the current macro-control policies show a “one size fits all” trend and often hurt vulnerable SMEs. The elimination of outdated production capacity and the support of high-quality industries follow the trend, and there is a need to maintain pressure to achieve transformation and upgrading.

The relevant personage proposes, what enterprises will be eliminated, how to transform and upgrade, and hope that the government departments will have a clear attitude and support guidance. In Zhejiang Kangnai Group, which has more than 30 years of shoemaking history, Zhou Jinchen, executive vice president, told the author that the government called for “retreat into two or three”. However, for example, whether it supports the development of leather industry, whether the representative lighter industry in Wenzhou should be eliminated or not, enterprises feel that Confused, "If individual provinces and cities have clearly indicated that they do not support the development of the footwear industry, we will start to do something else earlier. I hope the government will have a clear plan and position."

Some business owners also proposed that measures such as power curtailment should be treated differently. “The same weight loss standards for thin people and fat people are in the crackdown on advanced technology.” Zheng Akuan, general manager of Zhejiang Nanyi Pipe Industry Co., Ltd. recommended by the author, the government may wish Through the taxation, production value and other numerical analysis of the company's quality, support for high-quality SMEs.

The interviewed business owners also stated that the rising costs of raw materials and labor were largely self-regulating by the market economy, and that companies had to withstand the storm, but they hoped that the government's support policies for SMEs could be further elaborated. implement. Some small and medium-sized enterprises in the Pearl River Delta region reported that the government’s support measures made them feel “thundery and rainy”. Xie Chi, secretary general of the Shunde Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Association, said that the high threshold for review, multiple review procedures, and long processing time are the “diseases” shared by the support policies.

“In Shunde, for example, the SME Collection Bill** project that was launched in June last year required a single company’s net assets of not less than RMB 60 million. Only two companies successfully participated in the past year. Others Waiting for approval.” Zhou Ailing, general manager of Zhejiang Yuanchuang Christmas Co., Ltd., said that the "silver ten article" that was promulgated to ease the financing difficulties of small enterprises has not been introduced yet. "It's like giving The small and medium-sized enterprises have made a pie and can see and eat."

Small and Medium Enterprises Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong

On the one hand, small and medium-sized enterprises work hard to scream and thirst under the banner of “labor shortage”. On the other hand, there are a large number of idle laborers in the labor market. The seemingly contradictory phenomenon coexists at the same time. ". In-depth visits revealed that what is behind this phenomenon is the expected misalignment of labor costs between employers and employees in the current economic environment, and the hidden dangers of social security brought about by labor redundancy in some regions have begun to show. The surveyed grass-roots cadres and relevant experts believe that the competent authorities should strengthen employment guidance and appropriately implement subsidies for enterprises so as to avoid employment problems that can overwhelm small and medium-sized enterprises and bring in more redundant labor and increase public security risks.

“The workshop is empty, busy, and difficult to recruit”

In the workshop of Zhejiang Konal Electronics Co., Ltd., which produces small switches, loose-seated workers are arranging work on loose work stations. Since the Spring Festival, the small company with an annual sales of about 10 million yuan has been operating at half load. The company’s production manager, Ke Zhiwu, said, “When the company is full, there are about 350 employees, but even if it is a salary increase this year, the Spring Festival is still only 150 people were recruited, and recruitment has become the biggest difficulty."

In the absence of enterprises, the labor market still has a lot of idle labor. The author randomly entered an employment agency in the labor market in Liushi Town, Yueqing City, Wenzhou. There were 30 young and middle-aged men sitting in the small facade room. There was a lot of rain at the time, but they did not want to stay at home, but came out to work. About 400 people are waiting in the entire market.

“We are also wondering why there are so many idle employees in the labor market, but they do not seem to be in a hurry to look for a job, nor do they want to ask. They just go shopping in the market.” Wu Zujun, Deputy Director of the Labor Employment Management Service Bureau of Yiwu City, Zhejiang Province According to the report, the flow of people in the labor market in Yiwu has continued without interruption after the Spring Festival. The number of people in the stadium has remained at around 300 or 400, and the number of people in the morning can reach 500 to 600. “In fact, there are 5,000 or more labor information items published in the market every day. If you really want to find a job, you can pick it up."

"Work is hard to find, money is hard to earn"

"Not the lack of work, the key is that wages are too low." In the labor market in Leqing Town, Yueqing, Wenzhou, I met 32-year-old Fang Houliang of Chongqing. He said that his current monthly salary is 2,000 yuan, and he is preparing to find another employer. Fang Houliang calculated an account: monthly rent, utilities, a total of 300 yuan, a family of three to eat 1200 yuan, plus smoking, cell phone charges and other expenses, not much money left, "pork, gas, oil and salt sauce are If you are going up, you should find a job with a monthly salary of 3,000 yuan."

The author learned from multiple labor markets in Wenzhou and Yiwu, Zhejiang Province that many workers have not been able to find a job for almost a week, and the longest one has waited for 2 months. They said that the boss’s unwillingness to increase working wages is the main reason why workers are not willing to go to work. “We do piecemeal jobs, how much money each item can make, and how much the boss can make, we will figure it out. We are not stupid.”

The person in charge of a precision metal manufacturing company in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, said that in order to ensure the normal operation of the company in the past two years, the wages he has given to workers have become higher and higher. Ten thousand yuan has risen to 120,000 yuan in the first half of this year, and the 50% increase in wage costs has not been able to withstand the pressures of small companies such as us who rely mainly on the cost of labor.

Redundancy conceals hidden dangers in public security "We have a house full of men and women, but can not find a job, in the end who is the problem? Second, why do you work for a long time now, you have to 9 to 12 hours? Third, why hard work There is no more money left. In addition to the money he spends, the hometown's young and old can't send back the money.” In the labor market in Liuzhou, Yueqing, Wenzhou, Zhu Shiyu from Shangrao in Jiangxi asked the author, “We hope the bosses will be Wages can be paid on time and on a regular basis, but this most basic demand cannot be met.” Some words elicited responses from many migrant workers in the house.

Liu Mengqin, an associate researcher at the Guangdong Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, believes that the gap between the rich and the poor, the inability to integrate into urban life, and the confusion of the future have caused anxiety among the foreigners. It is easy for accidental unfair events to trigger the release of their dissatisfaction. The recent large-scale mass incidents in Guangdong Xintang and Chaozhou are examples.

During the interview, experts from the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Public Administration and Personnel Personnel Research Institute Chen Shida and other experts suggested that relevant departments can start from two aspects to reduce the hidden dangers of public security: First, to strengthen employment guidance. Even if the structural shortage causes the labor market to move toward the buyer’s market, the labor price will be lifted for a time. Once the pace of enterprise transformation and upgrading keeps pace, a large number of surplus laborers who do not have professional skills will still face employment difficulties. The government has the responsibility to guide its employment. They increase their own human capital stock in the employment process; Second, the employee's **** cost objectively brings a big burden to the company. Currently, SMEs are generally facing difficulties in survival. Government departments may wish to have potential for small and medium-sized enterprises. Enterprises give subsidies, allowing enterprises to spare time to increase their wages and stabilize employees.