Hi Guys:
Today on CBC Radio One there was a discussion of the China mfg. model and it was explained that several Chinese mfg firms have now moved from China to either Cambodia or Laos as labour costs in China have doubled since 2004.
So possibly Bachmann and others may move their mfg to those locations as well if train sales do not recover.
Thoughts ?
Norman
Norman,
That is quite possible, there will always be one place where people work for even less money and one can reap the extra profit.
The customers will be tickle-pink, too. The interesting experiences with QC will start all over again.
BTW Märklin just expanded their facilities in Györ, Hungary. They firmly believe that going Euro-centric will show better results than the hoopla in far off lands. http://www.spur-g-blog.de/?p=16135 Three shifts around the clock.
OTOH it could be just one of those elitist moves, eh?!? 
Kader is Chinese, I seriously doubt they would ever move considering they don’t seem to give two figs about costs today. They will charge what they will charge.
“there will always be one place where people work for even less money”
This is why we have unions, so people will not be exploited. In a perfect world, every wage earner would belong to a union.
Unions = Overpaid, under worked people with little or no pride in workmanship because they have a union to defend their poor workmanship. Union Made USED TO mean something. Look at General Motors, more cars recalled this year tan they made in the last seven.
I’m off my soapbox now.
We are doing work with a firm that is Chinese, stateside corp headquarters, 4 manufacturing buildings in China.
We are having a meeting next week (at my place thankfully) and had trouble setting the date with the president, he is in Cambodia.
So yes, Chinese manufacturers are looking at Cambodia. They cannot charge what they charge, if the manufacturing costs go up, then there’s no advantage to buying things from a Chinese company.
Yes, the people in China are waking up, and don’t like polluted water, air, food, etc. So the owners of the companies are looking for new places to exploit. I guess Africa will be the last place to exploit, although maybe no one will be left after Ebola kills everyone.
What a world.
Greg
There is a considerable shifting around of cheap goods factories .
It started with Japan , then Korea , then Taiwan , then--------and so on .
My son pointed out an LGB model with “made in Phillipines” on it . That could have been just the chassis.
Various models available at a reasonable price are now coming out of Hungary , Czech Republic , Poland , and the old East Germany still makes stuff cheaper than the West .
This my friends is a result of Capitalism . Competition . Having free access to world markets . All those things that we claim to strive for .
So as long as the quality is there , I accept it . If we don’t accept price cutting by giving these jobs to poorer countries , we will have to give them the well overused “overseas aid” instead . And pay through the nose for “Western” produced kits and stuff.
China is different , they need the currency that is brought in and the means to train future engineers ,and access to overseas markets , and given the increased costs suddenly appearing on Chinese manufactured goods , must be pretty near to having achieved their aim . Even their own totally owned Model Company , Trumpeter , has had sudden price increases . But they are still of a comparable quality to the other kit companies , and have the confidence to come out with obscure items . Like 1/35 scale static model locos . And armoured trains to go with them .Plus the track .
And quietly beavering away in the background are Russian toy companies who also make good quality at cheaper prices .
Another thing that has crept in is “mould sharing” . Tamiya now offer kits with the legend "This kit contains parts made by Italeri ". Others have similar arrangements . I wonder if this is the way forward , sharing mould set-up costs ? It is certainly very popular with modellers who will happily pay extra for one kit rather than buy a second to make the item they want .
There will always be a way of getting items made cheaply by going to a less well off country .
You may find in future that Ebola is not the only thing to come out of Africa .
Mike
There is something about the manufacture of models of machines that made this country that is inherently wrong. The world-wide search for cheaper labor may, hopefully, come to a halt with the advent of robotics and 3-D printing. Few of the Large Scale community do modelling work towards an historical prototype. It is satire to have people making models of steam engines diesels that they never saw.
Oh I don’t know Ed , it’s better to make something to do with trains than not make anything at all .
But I empathise with the point you make .
Mike
Ed, if the molds are designed off of prototype plans and photos, does it matter if they never saw it? I never saw a USRA light Pacific in day to day service, but I do know what one should look like. Ok, I don’t know where all the plumbing goes, and all of the appliances on it, but that is why we have reference materials.
Greg Elmassian said:
We are doing work with a firm that is Chinese, stateside corp headquarters, 4 manufacturing buildings in China.
We are having a meeting next week (at my place thankfully) and had trouble setting the date with the president, he is in Cambodia.
So yes, Chinese manufacturers are looking at Cambodia. They cannot charge what they charge, if the manufacturing costs go up, then there’s no advantage to buying things from a Chinese company.
Yes, the people in China are waking up, and don’t like polluted water, air, food, etc. So the owners of the companies are looking for new places to exploit. I guess Africa will be the last place to exploit, although maybe no one will be left after Ebola kills everyone.
What a world.
Greg
Yes Greg, what a world.
In today’s world, thanks to modern communications, we know what’s going on almost anywhere in the world, but just as it has been from times very long ago we can’t do anything about it.
To quote a small item from WIKIPEDIA.org
“May you live in interesting times" is an English expression purporting to be a translation of a traditional Chinese curse. Despite being so common in English as to be known as “the Chinese curse”, the saying is apocryphal and no actual Chinese source has ever been produced.[1] The nearest related Chinese expression is “宁为太平犬，莫做乱世人” (níng wéi tàipíng quǎn, mò zuò luànshì rén) which conveys the sense that it is "better to live as a dog in an era of peace than a man in times of war."
Comment on the above quote; looks like the English translators/interpretors had to tone it down to suit the times.
I saw them, remember in ‘bulk’ form … Dad that thing is HUGE!!!
Bob Cope said:
Unions = Overpaid, under worked people with little or no pride in workmanship because they have a union to defend their poor workmanship. Union Made USED TO mean something. Look at General Motors, more cars recalled this year tan they made in the last seven.
I’m off my soapbox now.
Without unions, you would not have the working conditions you enjoy. Or should I say, used to enjoy. Maybe you would like to go back a hundred years to those working conditions. Since the Reagan administration, unions have been on the hit list. It’s high time our younger people get the message and organize. It’s not easy and pain will be a part of the effort. But those who suffered pain back in the day, made our lives better.
Don’t you tell me about lack of pride in workmanship. I am a retired union master carpenter. I worked with some of the most skilled and conscientious men and women I ever had the pleasure of knowing.
If you want to talk about overpaid crooks, just look at CEOs, making over 300 times what the average wage earner makes today. Compare that with CEOs of forty years ago, when their salary was 30 to 40 times the average worker.
It’s easy to blame labor for the high cost of goods. Well why don’t you look at the high profits these crooks want for themselves.
You want to know why it’s so hard for young people to get jobs today. It’s because they’re all competing against one another instead of joining forces.
Dan Padova said:
. . . . . . .
You want to know why it’s so hard for young people to get jobs today. It’s because they’re all competing against one another instead of joining forces.
Without getting into the us-versus-them politics, can I point out that competing for a job (or for anything else) is very much a feature of capitalism.
I would also suggest that, union or no union, people’s living conditions and job conditions improve as efficiencies and inventions make things less expensive to buy, making everyone richer and moving them up the social scale (and moving the scale at the same time.) “A rising tide raises all boats.”
And finally, Dan, how does competing for jobs make it harder to get a job ? If there are a finite number of jobs, and a larger number of applicants, then of course everyone competes and some don’t get one. Or are you suggesting we should give them all a job, thus making the cost of production much higher?
When I was a tadpole, my uncle, a proud union bricklayer, told me that a journeyman bricklayer could lay 1200 bricks in a day, but the union would only allow him to lay 800 bricks a day to ensure employment for all who wanted to lay bricks. I told him that I thought that was crazy. He called me a tadpole.
This happened back in the late 1950s, I’m sure that it doesn’t happen anymore, does it, Dan?
Is “tadpole” a union term?
Stupid tablet
Stupid machine
Deleted
I don’t think we need to worry about Skynet, anytime soon.
You can say that again Steve!
(oh you did! 
)