GUANGZHOU: Wu Guomin profited for at least a decade by producing lamps under the big brands of "Philips" or "Wipro". But that was before the financial crisis.

After an array of trade barriers that hurt his company, Wu, vice president of Zhejiang Yankon, China’s largest producer of energy-saving lamps, decided in September to brand its lamps as "Energetic" in electricity-strapped India.

"It took years for us to realize that a self-owned brand is the formula for long-term success for Chinese exporters," Wu told Xinhua at the recent Canton Fair in Guangzhou City.

"To push for our own brand is a must, not an alternative," Wu said.

Yankon produced 300 million bulbs annually, about 60 percent of which were for exports. But more than half of them were sold under other foreign big name, which outsourced their businesses to countries with low labor costs.

Many Chinese exporters had a similar story. Without self-owned names, they had to serve as workshops for the world’s big brands.

In 2002, India imposed anti-dumping tariffs on made-in-China lamps to make way for their domestic producers.

Although imports from China were slashed from 5 million a year to 1 million as a result, Chinese exporters still had a niche in India.

But this year, the situation became worse when India added an average 50 percent anti-dumping tax on burners -- a key component of lamps -- imported from China. That meant Yankon’s products would be unavailable in a country with a huge demand for energy-efficient lamps.

Made-in-China goods have frequently been the targets of anti-dumping investigations, based on the argument that their lower prices could threaten domestic producers in the importing nations.

Then Yankon suffered another pinch of its OEM (original equipment manufacturer) business model after its overseas orders were slashed by half in May, during the worst days of the global financial crisis.

"Without the self-owned brand, we are the most vulnerable in the face of the slightest market changes," said Wu, who added that he became determined to launch a global brand offensive. 
                                                                                                  Source: China Daily