Time - INT (2022-05-23)

At the workshop of Dushan

Runyang Sports Equipment Co.

in Dushan county, Guizhou prov-

ince, a scale machine is used

to strictly control the weight

of each baseball the factory

manufactures — between 5 and

5.2 ounces.

Here, more than 10,000 base-

balls roll off the production line

every day and are exported to

the United States and Europe.

Li Guangxiu, 67, a villager in

Dushan county, has fi nished her

work at a tea-making plant and

returned home. She washes her

hands and starts to watch TV

while sewing the outside leather

covers for a baseball.

“Sewing a baseball is to tie

a shoelace on the ball,” said Li,

who has never played the sport

and has barely watched it on TV.

More than 3,000 people in

Du shan and four other counties

in the region have been working

on the production of baseballs,

contributing to the growth of the

local economy, said Shi Jinfen, a

worker at the Runyang factory

where she earns a monthly sala-

ry of about 5,000 yuan ($785) in

the peak season while the sum is

between 2,000 and 3,000 yuan

during the rest of the year.

“To make one baseball, it

takes seven steps, including

making the cork center, wrap-

ping it with leather and sewing

the stitches by hand,” said Shi.

Lu Zhidai, a villager in Dushan,

said it took her 15 days to learn

the craft at the factory. After

passing a test, she can supply

20 baseballs a day that can

sell for 1.65 yuan per ball to the

factory.

To make a high-quality base-

ball, quality control is crucial.

“Customers have strict re-

quirements for the weight of the

ball. A small deviation can have

a big infl uence on its trajectory

and speed,” said Wu Jili, a quality

inspector at the company.

Nine out of 10 baseballs

Runyang produces are exported

to the U.S., and the rest to the

European market and Japan.

The total number of exports

from Runyang amounts to about

50% of China’s total baseball

exports.

Geography makes Dushan an

important link between inland

Guizhou and major coastal ports

in Guangdong province and the

Guangxi Zhuang autonomous

region. Products can be trans-

ported to ports in one day.

According to Jiang Shaohong,

the company’s production direc-

tor, the factory has grown from

a small workshop to a complete

baseball production line that

employs more than 200 people.

The production line, although

not complicated, requires

manufacturing facilities and

equipment that are self-devel-

oped to achieve manufacturing

effi ciency. But most importantly,

the skills of employees have

served as the key to the success

of the factory.

“Making a baseball is a labor-

intensive process. The quality of

baseballs depends more on the

people who make them,” said

the director.

Since the beginning of this

year, the company has collected

orders for more than 5 million

baseballs.

The factory produced 3.8 mil-

lion baseballs last year, generat-

ing a production value exceeding

27 million yuan.

Runyang’s parent company

is headquartered in Dong-

guan, Guangdong province, a

manufacturer and exporter of

baseballs for about two decades.

Its business model is to

outsource rubber, leather wrap-

pings and strings to farmers in

the villages. The farmers, after

training, are given a sewing

machine at home to help them

stitch the leather.

The local government in

Du shan has issued supportive

policies to facilitate the manu-

facturing businesses, including

tax reductions in the fi rst two

years, and halving the taxation

in the following three years for

the plant.

The measures have echoed

the provincial policies in devel-

oping industries. In January,

the provincial government

issued policies to cultivate 11

key development centers in the

province. Guizhou has planned

500 industrial projects, aiming

to attract investments of 280.6

billion yuan.

Since the outbreak of the

pandemic, the Runyang factory

has been on a roller-coaster

ride, said the plant’s production

director Jiang. For nearly six

months in 2020, the factory had

not received any orders from

overseas markets. To keep the

factory running, many workers

were dispatched to re-examine

the quality of each baseball. If

any minor fl aws were found, the

baseballs were sent back for fur-

ther quality repairs. It was a relief

when in August, 2020, orders

from the U.S. returned and the

factory resumed production.

Additional information is on file with the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.

ADVERTISEMENT

Quality control is of utmost importance

when weighing in on world-class balls

BY WANG

ZHUOQIONG

and YANG JUN

Baseball

production

swings big

Baseballs produced in Dushan county, Gui zhou province, are popular in the

United States and Europe. PHOTOS BY WEI ZONGBIN / FOR CHINA DAILY

The leather that covers a baseball is

hand-sewn by well-trained residents

in Dushan county, in June.