Another Japanese giant fell, and Dalian Motor Factory closed!

According to Nikkei News, Japan’s Toshiba will close a factory in Dalian, China at the end of September this year. The base is also Toshiba’s first production center in China, which has a history of 30 years.

According to a statement provided by Toshiba to the South China Morning Post: The company has sold its TV business and medical equipment business, and the business structure has changed. As the current production of industrial motors and signal transmitters will stop, we have decided to dissolve and liquidate Toshiba. Dalian company has no plans to start new production.

For those who know Toshiba, this news is not surprising. Toshiba started its reconstruction plan as early as 2018 and promoted business adjustments during the reconstruction process. Dalian's industrial motor business declined and was included in the abolition. One of the projects. It is understood that the "Toshiba Dalian Company" will start the dissolution and liquidation procedures after October. In the future, this business will move to Vietnam and Japan for production. However, even if this factory in Dalian is closed, Toshiba's railway parts and elevator production bases in Dalian, China and other regions will remain in operation.

According to public information, Toshiba's Dalian plant was established in 1991 and used to produce LCD TVs and medical equipment and other products. Currently, it mainly produces industrial motors and broadcast transmitters. Around 2010, the factory had about 2,400 employees at its peak, but now only about 650 are left. Due to the sharp decline in output, the factory is about to close down.

According to the company's data, Toshiba's Dalian plant has continued to show a downward trend in revenue since 2014. Net profit is also showing a downward trend, with net profit in both 2016 and 2017 being only one million yuan.

As a Japanese company, Toshiba has 39 major joint ventures and wholly-owned companies in China, with a total of about 10,000 employees. Half a century ago, Toshiba used to be a symbol of Japanese manufacturing, "Toshiba, Toshiba, Toshiba in the new era!" The Toshiba brand of that year, just like Noriko Sakai's smile in the advertisement, has infinite beauty and has become a part of many people's memories.

However, in the consumer electronics business, since 2000, Chinese home appliance brands have begun to rise, and the emergence of Midea, Haier, Gree, TCL, Konka, etc., has made Toshiba's consumer electronics business steadily retreating in the Chinese market and inevitably heading for decline.

In fact, the deterioration of Toshiba's Dalian plant did not happen overnight.

In 2015, Toshiba Dalian Plant began to gradually fall into operating difficulties;

In 2010, Toshiba's color TVs sold in China have basically entrusted TCL OEM;

In 2013, Toshiba's color power plant in Dalian ceased production;

In 2016, Midea acquired an 80.1% stake in Toshiba Life Electric Co., Ltd., the main body of Toshiba's white goods business, with its own funds of approximately 53.7 billion yen, and obtained 40-year global authorization of the Toshiba brand, more than 5,000 home appliance-related patents, multiple manufacturing bases and markets channel;

In 2018, Hisense acquired Toshiba Image Solutions (TVS) equity held by Toshiba, TVS became a subsidiary of Hisense Holdings, and Hisense obtained the 40-year global brand authorization of Toshiba TV;

In 2019, Toshiba announced that it will further reduce about 350 employees in the semiconductor department and recruit early retirees;

In 2020, Toshiba announced its withdrawal from the long-term loss-making system LSI chip business;

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As a former home appliance giant, Toshiba has continuously reduced its consumer electronics and semiconductor businesses in recent years. It has sold its businesses several times in order to "recover blood" and sold some of its businesses to Chinese companies. At the same time, due to the rapid rise of Chinese local manufacturing brands and the division of Toshiba's original market share, its home appliance business gradually began to decline. Statistics show that from 2012 to 2015, Toshiba has accumulated losses of up to 12.5 billion yuan in three years.

As part of the restructuring of operations, Toshiba has restructured its global production plants. Not only in China, Toshiba announced in September 2020 that it would close the Fukaya Office in Fukaya City, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, which is the mainstay of TV production. The office will be closed at the end of September 2021. This base served as Japan's first color TV factory in 1965, but it ceased production in 2012, ending domestic production in Japan.

In this regard, many netizens said that it is "a pity" because they used Toshiba TV at home.

As a leader in the field of home appliances, Toshiba has fully enjoyed the dividends brought about by the reform and opening up of the Chinese market for 30 years, and has also brought best-selling products to the Chinese market. With the rise of Chinese home appliance brands, Toshiba's competitive advantage is declining. Not only Toshiba, but also some Japanese home appliance brands have also been acquired or withdrawn from the market.

However, these Japanese companies are not "defeated." They did not give up the Chinese market, but gave up the traditional home appliance track to transform and upgrade to high value-added industries, such as new energy, artificial intelligence, chips and other fields. According to the Toshiba China website, Toshiba's business in China has occupied an increasingly important position in the Toshiba Group.

Therefore, for Chinese companies, they should think about how to achieve "innovation to win" from a longer-term perspective.