US firm shuts China factory, relocates to Philippines — DTI exec

EVER WIN International Corp., a California-based global supplier of device accessories, has shut down one of its factories in China and relocated to the Philippines due to rising manufacturing costs in the former, according to a top official at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

DTI Export Marketing Bureau Director Senen M. Perlada said two more electronics firms are also considering relocating their manufacturing facility to the Philippines.

“(Ever Win) is supposed to operate ASAP (as soon as possible). Meron na sila. Ang challenge namin is to get them to produce right away

kasi inaantay na ’yung production

nila ng gadgets (They already have a facility. The challenge for us is to get them to start production right away),” he told reporters in Pasay City on Wednesday.

Ever Win cited the rising manufacturing costs in China as the reason for closing its factory, according to the official.

“The reason that they gave us, and I saw, is that China is becoming more expensive to be a manufacturing location. So essentially if you look at the so-called US-China trade war, it was incidental because really, China was getting expensive,” Mr. Perlada added.

While only one of its plants was closed in China, Mr. Perlada noted leaving China “little by little” seems to be Ever Win’s direction. He said the company is already looking for additional land for possible expansion.

Mr. Perlada said Ever Win has also weighed the impending change in the country’s fiscal incentives regime as against the long-term effects of maintaining operations in China.

“Finactor in na nila ’yan (They factored that in) compared to what they are actually experiencing in China. So I think it was a very deliberate decision on their part to do that,” the DTI official said.