The recent year-on-year price rises have been remarkably modest considering that labour is just one of many escalating costs that Yue Yuen and others have been contending with. That the company, the Hong Kong-listed arm of Taiwan's Pou Chen Group, has been able to absorb them provides some clues as to how China's export juggernaut manages to keep on rolling.考虑到劳动力成本只是问题之一，而裕元工业和其它企业面对的逐渐上涨的成本还有很多，因此，最近几年的价格增幅可谓非常温和。作为台湾宝成集团(Pou Chen Group)在香港上市的子公司，裕元工业一直能够消化吸收成本上涨因素，这为人们了解中国的出口何以持续增长提供了一些线索。
Trade and inflation data released this week demonstrate just how difficult an environment China-based exporters now operate in. The Chinese government reported yesterday that the consumer price index clocked a year-on-year rise of 8.7 per cent in February – a 12-year high exacerbated by shortages stemming from January's severe snowstorms. Adding to exporters' woes, the renminbi has appreciated 15 per cent against the dollar since mid-2005 and is now poised to break through the Rmb7:$1 barrier.中国政府上周公布的贸易和通胀数据表明，中国出口商的经营环境是何等艰难。中国政府11日公布，今年2月的消费者价格指数(CPI)较去年同期上涨8.7%，创12年新高——今年1月严重雪灾导致的商品短缺加剧了物价上涨。令出口商雪上加霜的是，自2005年中期以来，人民币兑美元汇率已上升15%，如今即将突破7比1大关。
China's underlying inflationary pressures matter because they could potentially make it much more difficult for exporters to continue to absorb the brunt of domestic cost pressures. Although much distorted by seasonal factors such as this year's severe winter weather, the country's January-February trade surplus provided a hint of what could lie ahead, falling 29 per cent year-on-year to $28bn.中国基本的通胀压力事关重大，因为通胀可能令出口商更难继续吸收国内成本压力的冲击。尽管诸如今年的严冬天气等季节性因素造成贸易数据严重扭曲，但中国1月至2月贸易顺差较去年同期下降29%，至280亿美元，暗示了未来可能的处境。
“We expect [China's] export figures to rebound in March but continue to anticipate a more moderate slowdown in export growth over the course of the year . . . A slowdown in China's export sector constitutes one of the key risks to economic growth,” Jing Ulrich, JPMorgan's China equities chairman, said in a research note, citing reduced demand in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development economies that consume two-thirds of the country's exports.摩根大通(JPMorgan)中国证券市场部主席李晶(Jing Ulrich)在一份研究报告中表示：“我们预计（中国）3月份的出口数据将有所反弹，但我们仍预计，今年全年的出口增速将出现更为温和的放缓……中国出口行业增长放缓是经济增长面临的重要风险之一。”她提到了经合组织(OECD)经济体的需求减少。对经合组织的出口占中国出口总额的三分之二。
At its factory in Dongguan, however, Yue Yuen provides ample evidence of the Chinese export sector's resilience. Last year Guangdong's footwear exports increased 14.6 per cent to $9.6bn, while textile shipments surged 18.4 per cent to $42bn.然而，裕元工业位于东莞的工厂为中国出口行业的弹性提供了充足证据。去年，广东鞋类出口额增长14.6%，至96亿美元，纺织品出口额飙升18.4%，至420亿美元。
Yue Yuen and other large exporters benefit first from the sheer scale of their operations. The 27,000 workers at Yue Yuen's Nike operations in Dongguan, for example, make 14m pairs of shoes a year – and they are just a small part of a larger manufacturing complex that employs 100,000 people in total.裕元工业和其它大型出口商首先得益于其庞大的业务规模。例如，裕元工业位于东莞的耐克代工业务拥有2.7万员工，每年产鞋1400万双——而这仅是一个员工总数高达10万、规模更大的制造集团总产量的一小部分。
Yue Yuen's relatively dear labour costs, which are more than 50 per cent higher than the industry average, also mask productivity incentives. At most shoe factories in Dongguan, the average monthly wage is largely determined by working hours and overtime, often in excess of statutory limits. But at Yue Yuen, only about two-thirds of the average salary is attributable to hours worked. “If you have overtime problems you will also have quality and delivery issues,” says Hannah Jones, Nike's vice-president for corporate responsibility.裕元工业的工资比行业平均水平高出50%以上，但它相对昂贵的劳动力成本也掩饰了生产率激励举措。在东莞多数制鞋企业，平均月工资基本上由工作时间和加班时间决定，而它们的加班时间通常超过法定限制。但在裕元工业，平均工资中只有大约三分之二来自计时工资。耐克负责企业责任的副总裁汉纳•琼斯(Hannah Jones)表示：“如果你有加班问题，你也就会出现质量和交货问题。”
The remaining third of Yue Yuen's average salary is derived from productivity and quality targets achieved by team-based assembly lines modelled on the “lean” manufacturing principles pioneered by Toyota. “[Workers] can't hand off a bad piece [to another team member] and kiss it goodbye,” says Sonya Durkin-Jones, Nike's compliance director for North Asia. Each of Nike's lean manufacturing lines is branded with the acronym “NOS” – for the Latin novus ordo seclorum, or “a new order for the ages”. The phrase is also emblazoned on the back of US dollar bills, which perhaps explains how it came to be ingrained in Nike's institutional memory. 裕元工业平均薪资剩下的三分之一，来自以小组为单位的生产线取得的生产率和质量目标。这些生产线仿照了丰田(Toyota)率先采用的“精益”生产原理。耐克负责北亚地区合规事务的主管桑娅•德肯-琼斯(Sonya Durkin-Jones)表示：“（员工）不能将一个坏的部件甩手（交给另一名小组成员）然后与它说再见。”耐克每条精益生产线都被冠以“NOS”的名称，这是拉丁语novus ordo seclorum的首字母简称，意思是“万世新秩序”。这句话还出现在美钞背面，可能解释了它如何植根于耐克的制度记忆。
Last week senior Nike executives spent three days taking journalists around Yue Yuen's Dongguan plant, citing it as an example of what they hope to achieve across their entire China supply chain, which encompasses about 180 factories and 210,000 workers. One out of every three Nike shoes is made in China.本月初，耐克高管花了3天时间，带记者参观了裕元工业位于东莞的工厂，并称这家工厂是一个范例，希望耐克在中国的整个供应链都达到这样的水平。耐克的中国供应链包括约180家工厂，共有21万名员工。耐克三分之一的鞋都产自中国。
Yue Yuen's wage premium pays for itself in terms of increased productivity and quality; another benefit is that the company faces fewer of the recruitment headaches afflicting cheaper rivals in an environment where the balance between demand and supply has swung in labour's favour recently. “We have been constantly challenged by the environment – by all the overtime offered by some of our competitors,” says Johnson Tong, a manager at Pou Chen. “But workers want to make money, not [rack up] hours.”裕元工业的高工资令该公司在生产率和质量方面获得了回报；另外一个好处是，在劳动力市场的供需状况最近处于对员工有利的环境下，该公司的招聘问题少于那些工资较低的竞争对手。“我们一直受到行业环境的挑战——我们一些竞争对手提供加班费，”宝成集团的一位经理Johnson Tong表示，“但员工希望赚钱，而不是（增加）工作时间。”
“In this environment you want to reduce your turnover,” adds Ms Jones. “Time to market is much more of a driver for us. How do you achieve that if you are jumping from one factory to another? It's not about chasing labour costs. It's about stability and innovation.”“在这种环境下，你希望减少员工流失率，”琼斯补充道。“产品上市时间不光是我们的推动力。如果你从一家工厂跳到另一家工厂，你如何实现这点？这并不在于追逐劳动力成本，而在于稳定和创新。”
A similar attitude prevails across the Pearl River Delta at Esquel, a privately owned Hong Kong shirt-maker that employs 26,000 workers in production facilities in Foshan. Chaired by Marjorie Yang, daughter the founder, Esquel has a client roster that includes the likes of Gap, JCPenney and Nike. Last year it produced 65m shirts.在珠三角的另一边，私人持股的香港衬衫制造商溢达集团(Esquel)也持类似的态度。该公司位于佛山的工厂聘用着2.6万名员工，董事长是公司创始人的女儿杨敏德(Marjorie Yang)，其客户包括Gap、JCPenney和耐克。去年，公司衬衫产量为6500万件。
Like Yue Yuen, Esquel must contend with a range of rising costs. The company has also consciously added to them, investing $50m in clean manufacturing facilities including its own power and water treatment plants. The latter handle everything from sewage to industrial dyes. 与裕元工业一样，溢达集团也必须应对一系列不断上涨的成本。该公司还在有意加大成本，投资5000万美元兴建了清洁制造设施，包括其自己的电厂和水处理厂。它的水处理厂负责从污水处理到工业染色等所有环节。
These investments have rooted Esquel ever deeper in the Pearl River Delta, where it can draw on the region's pool of textile workers. “You pay for the brain as well as the hands,” Ms Yang says of her workers. “For us stability is most important so we can use our management skills to deal with external problems.”这些投资令溢达集团在珠江三角洲的根基更为稳固，这里有丰富的纺织工人劳动力可供该公司使用。“你要为员工的劳动和智慧付钱，”杨敏德在谈到她的员工时说道。“对我们而言，稳定最为重要，因此，我们可以利用我们的管理技能应对外部问题。”
