Life returns to the ‘workshop of the world’

DONGGUAN, China – “It’s been a rough year,” Ben Schwall shouted above the rumbling furnaces of a giant Chinese glass factory. He watched as workers, blowing down long tubes, transformed blobs of molten glass into juicers, bowls and lights.

“Orders are picking up. Things are getting better,” he said. “The telephone is starting to ring again. Everybody feels there is something coming back.”

We were in Dongguan, in the manufacturing heartland of southern China. Frequently called the “workshop of the world,” the region was battered last year when the world stopped buying and exports collapsed.

Schwall supplies Chinese lighting equipment to the United States, linking American buyers with Chinese factories. Before the economic crisis, he was shipping 70 containers a month, but then his business fell by nearly two-thirds.

Thousands of factories across China closed last year, and some 20 million migrant workers lost their jobs.

Suddenly, though, this region is buzzing again. Factories are being renovated and are hiring. Vast public works and infrastructure projects have transformed parts of the area into sprawling building sites. Shops are full, with electronic goods flying off shelves; car sales have almost doubled over last year.
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