CLIA chairman says China will have more tanning clusters
05/09/2012
Ten years ago, Pingyang County, which is in Zhejiang Province, had 1,200 tanneries. The authorities there said in 2007 that only those achieving a high level of environmental performance could continue and all but 57 closed down. Now they have said that these companies must stop producing leather altogether in June 2014, with the ban on beamhouses from January 2013 the first step towards that. The county wants these companies to manufacture finished goods instead using leather produced elsewhere.
Speaking at a press conference at the All China Leather Exhibition in Shanghai at the start of September, Mr Su said: “I don’t have any information from the local authorities there, but it’s been the case for some time in coastal areas of China that tanners have been asked to concentrate on processing from semi-finished leather, while wet-end production is moving more to the interior. This is part of a policy for the restructuring of the leather industry in China.”
Later, he told leatherbiz that leather clusters would become more common, but insisted that existing clusters in coastal regions, including ones that are in place in Shandong, Fujian and Hebei, would continue to operate, including well run beamhouse operations.
At the same time, he pointed out that new clusters are already being built in places such as Henan in the centre of China and in Liaoning. “Moves towards the interior will continue,” he said, “and new tanning clusters will continue to be built in the centre and the north of the country. It is also the case that tanneries in the coastal areas are making enquiries above moving the wet-end part of their operations to clusters in the interior. This is the way more tanneries will go in the coming years.”
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