German sportswear company Adidas AG said Wednesday that it plans to shut down its only self-owned apparel factory in China, a move analysts said is a response to increasing costs in the country.

Adidas will close its wholly owned factory in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province in October, as part of the company's efforts to restructure global resources, improve efficiency and leverage scale, Adidas China said in a statement e-mailed to the Global Times Wednesday, noting that the company does not plan to relocate the factory elsewhere.

Adidas will offer desirable compensation for affected employees in the factory, which is higher than the relevant international standards, the statement said.

Industry experts said that Adidas' move is intended to reduce labor costs, which have kept rising in China in the past few years.

"Monthly salaries of workers in China's sportswear industry are around 2,000 yuan ($314) to 3,000 yuan," Ma Gang, a sportswear market watcher in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, told the Global Times Wednesday.

However, the average salary of Adidas' workers at a factory in Cambodia is only $130 per month, the company said last week after earlier media reports claimed Cambodian workers are being paid 10 pound ($15.6) a week.

"Closing the factory could also help Adidas save operational costs and focus on marketing and sales in China," Ma said.

After the shutdown of the Suzhou factory, customers can still buy Adidas' Chinese-made products, which are sourced from the German company's more than 300 supplier factories across the country, according to the statement from Adidas.

"I care more about the products' designs and prices rather than their production sites. With similar prices and designs, I prefer those made in China rather than Southeast Asian countries, as I think the former ones have better quality due to more skilled workers," said Yang Xiaoqi, a 28-year-old sportswear fan in Beijing.

Adidas is not the only one to move its manufacturing business out of China. Its main competitor Nike closed its self-owned shoe plant in Taicang, Jiangsu Province in March 2009.

"Outsourcing manufacturing could help foreign sportswear brands increase efficiency and reduce costs," said Zhu Meng, a consultant at Beijing-based Adfaith Management Consulting.

"The move shows global clothing companies are gradually losing interest in China as a manufacturing base," Zhu said. "Instead, the country's huge consumer market potential is attracting global companies to open more retail stores, as well as set up research and development centers here.

But foreign and homegrown sportswear brands are facing a decline in China sales due to the country's economic slowdown.

Nike announced in June that its China sales amounted to $694 million in the fiscal quarter ending May 31, down 3.9 percent from the previous quarter. Fujian-based Peak also issued a warning of significant profit drop for 2012, citing industry-wide inventory correction and sluggish economic conditions.