Strategies of Small Apparel Suppliers' Upgrading in China: Analysis Based on Global Commodity Chain

In recently China, many middle and small private firms closed down in Shenzhen, Wenzhou. Many of them are labor-intensive industry, such as apparel, footwear, toy and household electrics. The observed reasons are obstacles of accessing credit caused by financial policies; wage increasing and inputs price inflation, etc. The impacts include short-turn or long-turn factors, but it reveals the symptoms in low-tech manufacturing that depending on low-cost competitive advantages is unsustainable. This paper based on Global Commodity Chain (GVC) analysis, and focus on apparel industry. The main conclusion is in the processes of apparel GVC upgrading, the assemble or manufacture stages must migrate, and the apparel firms should change their roles and functions in commodity chain. It is long-term tendency.