BEIJING, Aug 17: China’s toy manufacturers have not been hurt by the recent recalls of its products overseas, with global customers maintaining their orders, an industry chief said on Friday.

China Toy Association executive vice president May Liang said its members had not reported any order cancellations so far.

“I think the foreign brand owners and importers are still quite confident in Chinese-made toy still, After all they have been dealing with Chinese goods for a long time so they should have an idea themselves,” Liang said.

“I call on foreign customers to believe that the ‘Made in China’ labels are safe and that they look at the recalls objectively and understand that they were isolated incidents.” Liang’s remarks came after US toy giant Mattel this week announced a global recall of 18m Chinese-made product.

Mattel’s recall of Barbie dolls, Batman action figures and other toys amid fears they contained toxic lead paint or dangerous magnets.

Mattel subsidiary Fisher-Price this month also recalled nearly one million Chinese-made toys, including Sesame Street characters, that were decorated with lead-based paint.

Another firm had to pull Thomas the Tank Engine train wooden toys off US shelves for similar reasons.

Liang said she expected importers would step up inspection on Chinese-made toys before they place future orders.

“No doubt, they will now pay even more attention to quality control and will scrutinise the details of the every production stage, but they won’t just cancel orders, that would be a rather rash decision.”

But she said China’s manufacturers would learn a lesson from the recent recalls by applying more stringent standards on quality control, even though that may lead to an increase in production costs.

“We hope our companies will pay extra attention to quality to prevent a catastrophic blow to the industry,” Liang said.

China is the world’s biggest toy manufacturer and last year exported nearly 18 billion dollars worth of goods.—AFP