事件解析：富士康大幅涨薪，利益链上谁来买单？

经历中国大陆厂区多位员工自杀事件、并饱受国际舆论批评的富士康(Foxconn)，日前宣布将当地薪资水平调高一倍以上，从原有的900元人民币月薪(约130美元)，自10月起增加至每月2,000元人民币(293美元)。

富士康总裁郭台铭在接受媒体采访时表示，该公司的调薪是为了维护员工的尊严；他指出，富士康积极确保工作场所与薪资标准能顺应员工迅速变化的需求，而这些条件都是最高规格的。对富士康来说，这或许是为了扭转社会舆论对该公司发生数起员工自杀事件的负面观感，但其拉高薪资的举动却可能对整个高科技产业领域造成显著影响。

外包制造是西方、日本甚至亚洲OEM厂商广泛采取的策略，并因为能提供客户最低的价格以及最快速的生产周期、制造效率，而快速崛起至整个产业链的最顶层。像富士康这样的EMS厂商包办全球重量级OEM厂商的大部分制造业务，要逆转这样的委外代工趋势会非常困难，因为那些OEM不仅卖掉了工厂，多数也失去了维持竞争力所需的制造专业技术。

EMS厂商开发并培养出一套庞大供应链所需的基础设施，以支持他们的业务营运与维持竞争力；在众多EMS厂商的巨大厂房中，除了包含如富士康所拥有的43万名员工生产线，外围还有提供支持的第三方供应链服务业者，例如零件供应商、通路商与物流商，以确保EMS厂商维持无缝接的运作。

对OEM厂商来说，如果要放弃外包、重新建立这样一套生产据点与服务流程，将花上好几年的时间，这也意味着大多数设备制造商不太可能会认真考虑这么做。因此富士康的调薪举措对供应链产生的影响，会是众OEM与其EMS服务供应商得思考该如何吸收薪资水平提高所带来的新成本负担——接下来在东南亚地区的契约制造商势必也将面临要求调薪的压力。

谁将为此买单？

很难想象富士康不会考虑把新增的成本转嫁到客户身上，薪资调高势必对营运带来压力。EMS本来就是一门打割喉战的生意，这些厂商的营运规模庞大如象，“食量”却小得像老鼠，利润是吓死人的低。以一线EMS供应商Celestica(加拿大)为例，其2009与2008年的毛利率为7%，但却已经比06与07年时的5%大有进步。

伟创力(Flextronics International)的情形也差不多，该公司是全球第二大EMS供应商，过去曾经在该市场一枝独秀，十年前却被富士康挤下龙头宝座。伟创力截止于2010年3月的财务年度营收为241亿美元，但毛利只有13亿美元，也就是利润率仅5.43%；该年度净收入则为1,860万美元。其上一个财务年度营收310亿美元，毛利14亿美元，利润率4.6%。

虽然现在市场目光焦点都在富士康身上，但其EMS竞争对手们所面临的窘境也不相上下；接下来他们也会面临更多调薪的压力，且不只是在中国大陆，还包括其他世界各地的低劳动成本据点。随着富士康调高中国大陆员工薪资的新闻广泛传播，全球各地的制造中心劳工很可能会群起效尤争取，也很有可能赢得EMS厂商们在薪资方面的妥协。

而OEM厂商们也将纷纷证明他们对于不平等劳工政策的不宽贷，其中有不少甚至已经直接对富士康等EMS厂商施压，要求他们改善制造据点的工作环境；此外，这些OEM在最近势必也会升高对EMS们的监督。包括Acer、Apple、HP、Nokia与Sony等OEM大厂都已经提出声明，将采取特额外的步骤确保其EMS供应商遵守劳工政策，并改善生产据点的环境。

(参考原文：Analysis: Foxconn salary hike will stressOEMsupply chain，by Bolaji Ojo )

《电子工程专辑》网站版权所有，谢绝转载

{pagination}

Analysis: Foxconn salary hike will stress OEM supply chain

EMS provider to double salaries in Shenzhen

By Bolaji Ojo

Foxconn International Holdings Ltd. on Sunday, June 6, announced it will more than double the salaries of employees at its factory in China within months in response to a global outcry over recent worker suicides at the site.

Terry Gou, chairman of the EMS company, said salaries would go up in October to 2,000 yuan, or $293, per month, up from 900 yuan ($130) and more than double the minimum wage set by the government for the region.

"This wage increase has been instituted to safeguard the dignity of workers,” Gou said in a statement, according to published reports. “We are working diligently to ensure that our workplace standards and remuneration not only continue to meet the rapidly changing needs of our employees, but they are best-in-class.”

Foxconn might have been responding to the black eye it is receiving from the public over a spate of suicides at its facility but the decision to jack up salaries will have significant implications for the entire high-tech sector.

The contract manufacturer is widely used by Western, Japanese and Asian OEMs and has risen quickly to the top of the food chain by offering the lowest prices to customers coupled with the quickest production turnaround and manufacturing efficiency.

The salary increase announced by Foxconn has significant implications for the entire market. Companies like Foxconn and its EMS rivals have taken over a large chunk of manufacturing activities for the biggest global OEMs and reversing the outsourcing trend will be extremely difficult because OEMs have not only sold their facilities but in many cases have lost the manufacturing expertise needed to maintain a competitive edge.

EMS providers have also developed and nurtured vast supply chain infrastructure to support their operations and make them competitive. At many EMS mega facilities, including the 430,000-employee site Foxconn operates in Shenzhen, third-party supply chain service providers, including component suppliers, distributors and logistics services companies help ensure seamless operations by EMS providers.

Recreating such sites and services will take years if OEMs decide to withdraw outsourcing contracts, which means many equipment vendors are unlikely to seriously consider this option. The implication is that OEMs and their EMS providers will have to figure out how to absorb new wage costs that may mushroom from Foxconn’s decision as other contractors in south East Asia similarly come under pressure to jack up salaries.

Who will absorb the cost increase?

It’s hard to imagine Foxconn would not try to pass onto customers the higher costs the salary increase would impose on its operations.

The EMS business is a cutthroat business where companies work like elephants but eat like rodents, giving them awfully low single-digit margins and even smaller profits. At top-tier EMS provider Celestica Inc., for instance, gross profit margin was 7 percent in 2009 and 2008, a significant improvement upon the 5 percent the company recorded in 2007 and 2006.

The situation is similar at Flextronics International Ltd., the No. 2 global EMS provider, which reigned atop the group until Foxconn zipped past it earlier this decade. Flextronics’ annual revenue in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2010, for instance, was $24.1 billion but gross profit was a piddling $1.3 billion, representing margins of 5.43 percent. Net income for the year was $18.6 million.

Even this low gross profit margin level was better than the company had reported in previous years. In fiscal 2009, for instance, Flextronics racked up sales of $31 billion but reported gross profit of $1.4 billion and gross profit margin of 4.6 percent.

Although the focus so far has been on Foxconn’s operations, its EMS rivals are in more or less the same predicament and pressure will grow on them too to raise wages at not just their China facilities but at other low-cost centers worldwide.

As news of the wage gains won by the Chinese workers spread globally, workers at other centers will most likely seek and maybe even win salary concessions from EMS companies.

OEMs too are falling over themselves to prove they do not condone unfair labor practices and many are already putting direct pressure on Foxconn and other EMS companies to improve conditions at their sites. In addition, these OEMs are likely to increase their oversight of EMS providers in the immediate future.

A handful of the world’s biggest OEMs, including Acer, Apple, HP, Nokia and Sony have issued statements indicating they will take additional steps to ensure their EMS providers comply with labor laws and improve conditions at their manufacturing facilities.