Many hands make light work in glove firm

Workers make gloves at one of the 11 glove-producing factories run by Meng Hongjian. [Photo / China Daily]

Protecting fingers has turned into a lucrative industry for Shandong sewers

It is early winter, and the sound in the air is an incessant whirring of sewing machines.

"At busy times of the year, hundreds of workers are at those machines about eight hours a day," says Meng Hongjian.

A designer at work.[Photo / China Daily]

This day, about 100 women are sitting behind rows of sewing machines. Meng, general manager of Jining Yicheng Glove Co Ltd, points out that winter is a slack season for the glove makers.

The factory, in Dazhanglou, Jiaxiang county, Shandong province, is one of 11 such factories that Meng, who has been making and selling sports gloves for more than 20 years, runs.

The company says it turns out 2.2 million pairs a year, ranking it second among the county's 227 glove-making companies in terms of production.

The county produced gloves worth 3 billion yuan ($494 million) last year, 27.5 percent higher than six years earlier.

The industry in the county focuses on sports gloves, mainly for skiing, hunting and shooting, says Wang Ruifeng, deputy director of the county's organization that represents small and medium-sized enterprises.

Ninety-five percent of the county's sports gloves are exported, going to more than 30 countries and regions, including European countries, Japan and the United States.

Jiaxiang accounts for more than 70 percent of China's sports glove exports, Wang says. It exported 72 million pairs of sports gloves last year, accounting for 73 percent of the country's exports of sports gloves, the China Knitting Industrial Association says.

About 80 percent of Jiaxiang's glove businesses are conducted in the form of original equipment manufacturing (OEM), and it makes gloves for global heavyweights such as Reusch of Germany, North Face of the US and Reima of Finland.

It all began in 1987 when a joint venture, Sanyuan Industry Co Ltd, was founded in the county to make gloves for customers in Taiwan. Although that venture eventually folded in the 1990s, it begat thousands of workers and businesspeople in Jiaxiang who eventually knew the business inside out.