General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Would you buy a $22 American made shovel when an $8 China made one is available? [View all]NightTemplar
(49 posts)Let's run with the example of the $8 shovel. It's $8 at the retailer but they probably buy it for around $5. That means that the importer of the shovel is into it for about $3 including ocean freight and customs, etc.
So you run a factory in China and an American company approaches you to build shovels and tells you that their budget is set at $2 each.
There's only 1 way to make a $2 shovel, to use the cheapest metal stampings on the cheapest machines run by your cheapest employees.
The Chinese mfg. is responding to the requirements of the AMERICAN who approaches him. There IS NO evil Chinese entity sending cheap crap to USA. There is only AMERICAN companies looking to make a buck.
On the other hand, China is capable of producing products of such high quality as they're indistinguishable from top US or EU items.
Top Chinese mfg are loaded with brand new German made machining equipment and the latest CNC gear run by German trained staff with German supervising management.
Americans have brought on some of their own mfg woes... I can say with CONFIDENCE that MANY foreign companies HATE dealing with US companies because US companies have a reputation for being SLOW, over priced and in general difficult to work with.
I've PERSONALLY supervised a project with parts made both in the US and in China. And I must say that some US companies are a nightmare to deal with. Parts are not made to spec, they're not completed on time and you basically get a "call our lawyer" upon confronting them.