Love thy neighbour: South-East Asia's China problem

东南亚的中国难题

Money Talks from The Economist

2025-03-28

41 分钟
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South-East Asian countries are experiencing a new influx of cheap Chinese goods, pushing down prices and pressuring the region's domestic companies. And it's not just low-end goods like textiles or furniture, China has also become a powerhouse in advanced manufacturing. Some of these products, like EVs and legacy chips, are the same industries that South-East Asian countries have set their own sights on as engines of growth. So how can South-East Asia hold its own, in the face of the Chinese manufacturing juggernaut? Hosts: Mike Bird and Ethan Wu. Guests: Burin Adulwattana from Kasikorn Bank, a Thai commercial lender; and the Asia Society's Brendan Kelly Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts. Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.
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  • THE Economist

  • this is an Indonesian textile worker on the national evening news

  • lamenting the closure of his factory and the loss of his job.

  • He's among nearly 11,000 people who were laid off when Sri Tex,

  • the country's largest listed textile firm, ceased all operations on March 1st.

  • The company, once a key supplier for NATO and the German army, had been.

  • A cornerstone of Indonesia's industrial sector for nearly six decades.

  • StreetEx supplied big global brands like Uniqlo and H and M before its collapse,

  • and just five years ago,

  • the firm took nearly $1.3 billion in sales and posted a net profit of $85 million.

  • Failure didn't come out of the blue.

  • Street Tax had taken on a lot of debt and was badly hit by the pandemic.

  • But the nail in the coffin seems to have been the deluge of cheap textile imports from China,

  • flooding the market and driving down prices.

  • The shutdown signals a significant shift in Indonesia's manufacturing landscape,

  • raising concerns over the future of the country's textile sector.

  • And it's not just in Indonesia.

  • The export based economies of Southeast Asia

  • are all being affected by the economic policies of their giant neighbor.

  • And it's not limited to the lower end manufacturing industries either.