Markets and Manufacturing Might be Down, but Product Inspections and Factory Audits in Asia Keep Growing

With 8,500 inspections performed during the second quarter of 2009 (+26 percent vs. Q2 2008), AsiaInspection, a quality control company, pinpointed some illuminating trends.

As consumers demand safer and more environmentally friendly products, AsiaInspection continued to see interest from companies keeping a close eye on every step of their supply chain, in order to prevent costly and embarrassing product recalls. After countless tainted product scandals coming from China and other Asian countries over the past two years, Factory audits in Asia jumped +61 percent from the same quarter one year ago while product inspections were also stronger with +26 percent growth.
Companies around the globe are striving to improve their product, environmental, and social standards. As an example, Wal-Mart recently announced that by 2012, 95 percent of their production must come from factories that receive the highest environmental and social audit rankings.

China continues to be the world’s manufacturing floor
Sales of inspection equipment echo the daily news with the United States remaining the most affected by the crisis in terms of imports from Asia. Indeed, AsiaInspection’s turnover from US clients decreased by -4.8 percent between Q2 2008 and Q2 2009. In contrast, Europe was bullish with +29 percent growth, and emerging markets in Asia and South America saw brisk growth of +73 percent.

Based on the geographical split of inspections performed by AsiaInspection, China continues to be the world’s manufacturing floor. The company saw product inspections in China jump to nearly 7,000 for the quarter, a +25 percent increase compared to Q2 2008, this despite tens of thousands of factories shutting their doors since early 2008. However, other low cost Asian countries outpaced China with a cumulative growth of +42 percent during the same period.

At a time when markets are contracting, this reflects the ongoing trend of companies securing their supply chain while maintaining low costs by producing in Asia.

www.AsiaInspection.com