Inside of a factory in Anhui Province
Inside of a factory in Anhui Province
Follow Daniel, an AsiaInspection certified inspector, on a day in the factory. See what the inspector sees in this two-minute video and learn the basics of what is checked during a Pre-Shipment Inspection.
Check out the latest safety study from AsiaInspection and learn more toy safety tips: Toy Safety Tips 2010.
Over the last 5 years:
$288 Product Inspection or Product Recall?
Walmart known for their “hot” deals, is recalling 1.5 million Chinese-made Durabrand DVD players sold exclusively at Walmart stores around the World. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced the DVD players were a high risk for overheating and catching fire. Of the 12 reported incidents, five have caught fire and put consumers at risk.
The AsiaInspection barometer: Markets and manufacturing might be down, but Product Inspections and Factory Audits in Asia keep growing
The figures from the Quality Control industry in Asia account for a good indicator of the health of International Trade. Based on a few selected indicators, AsiaInspection publishes this barometer on a quarterly basis.With 8,500 Inspections performed during the 2nd Quarter of 2009 (+ 26% vs. Q2 2008), AsiaInspection 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% from the same quarter one year ago while Product Inspections were also stronger with +26% 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% 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 Inspections by client zone 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% between Q2 2008 and Q2 2009. In contrast, Europe was bullish with +29% growth, and emerging markets in Asia and South America saw brisk growth of +73%.
Based on the geographical split of Inspections performed by AsiaInspection, China continues to be the world's manufacturing floor. AsiaInspection saw Product Inspections in China jump to nearly 7,000 for the quarter, a +25% 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% during the same period.
At a time when markets are contracting, this reflects the ongoing trend of companies securing their supply chain while maintaining costs low by producing in Asia.
Governments and consumers are making quality a priority. After millions of toy recalls throughout the world in 2007 and 2008, toy Inspections performed by AsiaInspection had an impressive year over year growth of +42%.
AsiaInspection will publish the Q3 barometer based on similar indicators next October.
Whatever the type of goods, there are some tips that each Importer should keep in mind while importing from China or greater Asia.
At AsiaInspection, we visit 25,000 factories every year. This enables us to formulate these “10 tips for Quality Sourcing from Asia”, that we believe can prove particularly valuable should you deal with Asian vendors:
Recent buzz around the Chinese tainted milk suggests that you can eat safely as long as your food was not produced in China.
But let's be realistic and see that China is under the spotlight because the country provides most of the world's goods nowadays (although less than 1% is food), and because it's always more frightening and impressing when China is concerned.
Indeed, not less scary food-related accidents happened and keep happening in Europe or America too. Take last year for instance: some Canadian meat caused the death of 15 people just a few days before the tainted milk scandal due to a Listeria bacteria outbreak, Italian mozzarella cheese was recalled for containing potentially cancer-causing dioxins, and American chocolate was found to contain Quinoline Yellow, a food colorant banned in some countries as it may cause dermatitis, provoke hyperactivity and reduce intelligence at children.
A media coverage trend quite convenient for Western countries, who can thank China for letting them keep "their" scandals discrete...