Trade body TUC urges Govt to hold special manufacturing summit take on Chinese challenge
30 Jun '05
3 min read
'China, Europe and UK Manufacturing' says that China first emerged in low cost industries like textiles in the 1980s, but in the last decade switched to the production of industrial machinery and telecommunications equipment. In the last few years, there has been a rapid expansion of Chinese companies producing goods like office machinery and computers and electrical machinery.
According to the report, between 2000 and 2004, UK manufacturing lost over 720,000 jobs (18 per cent of its workforce), with the biggest losses occurring in textiles, clothing and footwear (employment fell by 48 per cent), electrical and optical equipment (29 per cent), industrial machinery (21 per cent), and mineral and metals (18 per cent).