07-24-2012, 10:31 AM
Counterbalancing the regulatory and labor problems in the US, I believe there are problems with corruption in China, which might well interfere with the ability to build larger plants there. Also, I've read that without US-style accounting standards, it's easier for companies to get in hot water, which seems to be one factor that caused the A-size plant to go under and be acquired by Kader. I don't think China has ever been manufacturing heaven, but for 20 years or so it was very cheap. No longer. In my lifetime, offshore manufacturing has moved from Japan to Austria/Italy/Yugoslavia (AHM-IHC), briefly Brazil, to Korea to China. Over time, nobody's been frightened to try something new -- I remember the first tries at Korean brass. So how about India, Indonesia, Viet Nam, Mexico? I think some sort of shift is inevitable.