China's Wage Inflation Is Causing Companies to Shift Production to Mexico

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From Bloomberg:

China’s rising wages are cutting the country’s cost advantage over other manufacturing centers such as Mexico, according to Flextronics International Ltd., the world’s second-largest custom electronics maker. 

“As China moves up, up and up and up, for five straight years, it’s been moving up heading towards Mexican pricing,” Mike McNamara, Chief Executive Officer of Singapore-based Flextronics, said in an interview. “Mexico’s been the same labor cost for the past five years, it hasn’t moved up at all.” 

Flextronics, which supplies to Hewlett-Packard Co. and Cisco Systems Inc., has been forced to increase wages in China in line with government regulations and growing affluence in the fastest-growing major economy. Larger rival Foxconn Technology Group said this month it will move production away from China’s coastal regions after announcing a doubling of wages at its largest production bases in the south east. 

The failure of Flextronics to make its components business profitable means the company will “probably not” achieve its operating-margin target of 3.5 percent this fiscal year which ends in March, McNamara said, without giving a goal timeline. Components account for about 10 percent of sales, he said. Operating income as a percentage of revenue is a key measure of profitability. 

Mexico’s Appeal 

Mexico, where Flextronics makes televisions for LG Electronics Inc., contributed 15 percent of the manufacturer’s sales in the fiscal year to March, compared with 11 percent a year earlier, its annual report showed. China provided 33 percent of the company’s revenue.

“Mexico’s proximity to the U.S. is phenomenal,” McNamara said. “You start thinking about freight and you think about all the green energy initiatives that are going on. It’s going to put a little bit more emphasis toward doing more products in Mexico.” 

Former Mexican Economy Minister Gerardo Ruiz Mateos said in a June 29 interview that the nation will create 750,000 formal jobs this year as the economy rebounds from a recession and foreign direct investment rises. Demand for Mexican exports will help draw about $20 billion in foreign direct investment this year and a greater amount in coming years, Mateos said. 

“Mexico is close to the U.S. and is part of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which is why more and more companies are building facilities for exports to the U.S.,” said Vincent Chen, an electronics analyst at Yuanta Securities Co. in Taipei. “China labor costs have been rising 10 percent to 20 percent per year for the last decade, but the cluster of suppliers is still there.” 

Flextronics employs 200,000 people globally with operations in 30 countries. Around 30 percent of its workforce is the Americas and 90,000 in China, spokeswoman Valerie Kurniawan said in an e-mailed statement.