美中贸易战已使许多外商将工厂转至东南亚躲避关税，香港贸易发展局玩具业咨询委员会主席陈永麟（Lawrence Chan Wing-luen）表示，虽然目前美中贸易战未重创香港玩具业，但出于贸易冲突未解，仍须考虑需要将工厂迁往越南、印尼和印度等成本较低的市场。
香港《南华早报》近日报道称，香港贸易发展局、玩具业咨询委员会主席陈永麟指出，尽管有当前的贸易战，美国的圣诞节销售情况仍好于预期，加上有许多重磅电影正在筹备，有助于提升授权产品销售，香港2019年的玩具出口看起来不会太糟。
但陈永麟也表示，基于美国总统川普曾威胁，目前的关税可能扩大至中国价值505亿美元的出口商品，因此香港玩具业仍须顾及未来的风险，并称“许多在中国经营的香港玩具制造商，正因贸易战考虑搬迁工厂。贸易战带来额外的风险，增加的成本也正进一步侵蚀利润”。
香港最大玩具制造商之一“华盛玩具有限公司”在广东省拥有约2万名员工，据公司董事Francis Wong Wai-cheuk表示，该公司最近开始考虑搬迁计划，“我们正在考虑迁至越南或印度，那里有大量的劳动力供应”。
陈永麟另透露，大约20年前是玩具业的鼎盛时期，中国有超过3000家玩具制造厂，但因中国开始向高科技和服务业经济转型，中国的玩具工厂几年前已开始迁出，目前中国约有2000家工厂。
以下为报道全文：
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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