ENG-1969 — Page 31

HONG KONG MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY IN THE SIXTIES

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In short, the cotton textile industry is emerging from the sixties in shape very different from that in which it started. Nonetheless it remains a small industry in terms of output measured by the standards of other leading textile nations—and a surprisingly fragmented one, in part because of the sturdy independence of so many factory owners, but also because home-administered textile quotas probably on balance inhibit mergers.

The Knitting Sector

It is appropriate here to mention the knitting industry. Cotton knitwear, principally men's undervests, was of great importance in the fifties; many stands at the Chinese Manufacturers' Association's exhibitions of the period were given up to sale of such knitwear. The 1969 exhibition included only one stand featuring men's vests. The shift in emphasis reflects the loss of South-East Asian markets but also a change to more profitable lines of business. Nonetheless, employment in cotton knitting in 1969 numbered 8,200 spread over 245 factories. But factories engaged in woollen knitting numbered 341 employing 22,800 people. In 1959, the whole knitting industry employed only 7,300 persons, an estimated two-thirds of whom were engaged in cotton knitting. The change in the product pattern of this industry is very striking. It arises of course from the new and profitable markets found in Western Germany, Britain and the United States for woollen knitted sweaters and similar garments. But the figures conceal the shift in emphasis on the cotton side into knitted fabrics suited to outer garments rather than underwear!

Clothing

In 1959, clothing manufacture was a sector of industry becoming increasingly important, but its pattern was already rapidly changing. Concentration on knitted underwear, the cheaper range of shirts, and children's clothes had already given way to mass production of more expensive and well tailored shirts, women's dresses, pyjamas, rainwear, jackets and slacks of many different kinds, and the nucleus of a fashion industry. Very few of these goods ever appeared in the domestic market, the mass demand in which was for cheaper goods differently styled. Output and export of shirts had as early as 1956 called forth protectionist rumblings in Britain and the