Guangzhou is the humming heart of the global fast fashion industry, but uncertainty over US tariffs is putting pressure on orders and profits
L
ingering at a day market for labourers in Panyu, an urban village on the outskirts of Guangzhou, Ms Qiu looks dejected. She is looking for a local factory that will hire her for the day to sew clothes – cheap tops and dresses that will be churned out on to China’s e-commerce platforms, or bundled up for export to western shoppers. But she is not having much luck.
“The whole industry is struggling, and now there is a high tariff on Chinese goods because of the trade war. Many foreign clients have decreased their orders from China,” she says, declining to give her first name.
Guangzhou, China’s southern metropolis and the capital of Guangdong province, is home to nearly 20 million people. It is also the humming, whirring and buzzing heart of the global fast fashion industry. In its urban villages, ramshackle settlements that have been absorbed into the city’s sprawl, millions of workers toil day and night in informal workshops to produce cheap garments. In one small, crowded factory, women sit behind sewing machines next to teetering mountains of starched black tutus. In another, pink denim jeans destined to be sold on fast fashion website Shein are piled high on every available worktop.
