By Ellen Zhang and Kevin Krolicki
GUANGZHOU, China (Reuters) – Bin Zhang is in the business of fun, but his job has become less so because of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Zhang, 36, whose company, iFun, has customers all over the world and gets orders ranging from $50,000 to $500,000 for his products – everything that’s needed to set up an arcade, play area for kids in a shopping mall or for a trampoline park.
Until recently, a fifth of sales from Zhang’s company, iFun, which has a factory in China’s southern manufacturing hub of Guangzhou, went to the United States.
But Trump’s extra tariffs this year of 145% on imports from China have forced Zhang’s U.S. customers to put orders on hold.
iFun is one of more than 30,000 exhibitors at the Canton Fair in Guangzhou, China’s largest trade fair, which will run through May 5.
Still, Zhang is hopeful, like many business owners in Guangzhou, which has been dubbed the factory of the world, that Trump will roll back the tariffs before the pain really hits China.
If that doesn’t happen, Zhang is confident of doubling his $17-million business in the next five years and selling in other markets.
“We can move our time and energy to other markets, like maybe Mexico, Canada or South America,” he said in an interview at his factory, painted in vivid tones of green, yellow and red.
Inside the factory larger than a football field, 150 workers assemble colourful vinyl-covered boxes that will be turned into a connected set of toddler-sized buildings and slides. Ice cream machines, popcorn makers and astronaut statues await shipment.
In another area, workers test a long line of arcade games: air hockey, arcade basketball and a shooter game where imaginary U.S. forces are preparing to open fire on robots with a “satellite laser canon.”
One box nearby reads: “Super Time Machine: Made in China.”
“It’s just for fun,” Zhang says.
Nowhere outside southern China is Zhang able to access the dense supply chain he relies on to fill his orders. About 90% of the materials he needs are within a few hours’ drive.
He plans to build another factory in the southern region of Guangdong and does not believe an offshore location, even with tariff savings, would match the speed of his China operations.
Like many Chinese entrepreneurs, Zhang has something between a conviction and a hope that Trump will blink on tariffs.
“Our people have talked with many customers from the U.S., There’s always this thinking,” Zhang said. “Maybe today he puts (on) such high tariffs, maybe tomorrow he will cancel.”
(Additional reporting by Xiaoyu Yin and Tingshu Wang in Guangzhou; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
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