Why am I posting this?
Why is Ford making this public? Now?
Why does this even matter?
(and while we are at it... Why don't bullfrogs have wings?)

Ford will double China purchases

"Ford needs cheaper parts from China, where an average manufacturing job pays about 10% of an equivalent union job in the United States, to meet its goal of cutting $6 billion in annual costs by 2010."
^
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BULLSH1+.

I have already posted on this board what Chinese laborers make. This article MUST be using part cost analysis to estimate what labor rates are... maybe the sub-suppliers are making 10% of what the US makers would, but the actual laborer is making more like 2 or 3% of what the US laborer does.
The average labor unit in China's Jiang-Su Autonomous Region (including Shanghai, PuDong, KunShan, SuXiou, XingTau) gets about $120/month.

I have no way of knowing what amount of parts GM is sourcing from their Shanghai operations, but I'm sure it's growing too. GM-Shanghai is huge, and growing like nobody's business.

I'm going back in January (again) for another installation of new production equipment. I guess I'm just getting WAY to sensitive to this seemingly perpetual loss of manufacturing jobs to Asia.

 

"I have no way of knowing what amount of parts GM is sourcing from their Shanghai operations, but I'm sure it's growing too. GM-Shanghai is huge, and growing like nobody's business."

Is Ford-China sales growing like GM? Or was that just an underhanded jab at GM?

 

Wave of the future my friend. But as I was told in another thread, we should all just shut up and adapt.

 

Let's be frank, manufacturing 'jobs' are going and it wont be coming back.

Even those companies who have brought their manufacturing back to the US for one reason won't be hiring large amounts of people ever again. Even those companies who discovered that China wasn't that great figured out they could bring 'some' manufacturing back to the US , but instead of hiring lots of employees (like they previously did) they have instead made significant investments into automation and robotics.

So in otherwords those who have both computer and mechanical skills and are educated in automation/robotics will have a good career repairing and servicing the 'bots' that will run the US factories of the future (even more then they do today).

 

Yep.

 

Where was the keyboard you are typing on & the monitor you're looking at made?

 

.... Thailand.

 

Haha, I actually had to check...Dell, made in China.

 

Even if the US increased tarriffs and taxes on foreign-made goods it won't significantly increase manufacturing jobs in the US to levels they were before.

If companies are 'forced' to come back they will offset risk/cost associated with healthcare, retirement, workmans comp, and etc by replacing workers with automation and bots.

 

I'd be OK if that (replacing human labor with automation) was what was driving down the number of manufacturing jobs in the US. That's consistant with what's been going on ever since the Industrial Revolution began, and it keeps elevating the skill level of the average US worker (someone's gotta build those robots, install them, maintain them, etc.). Instead, what we're seeing are a bunch of companies who say "f*ck it!" and pack up their factories for a move to China. There is a huge f*cking difference between those two attitudes, in my opinion.

 

Interesting internal conflict you have there.

 

Cheaper labor has also been a driving force since the start of the industrial revolution as well. Businesses are always looking for ways to cut cost and increase profitability and marketshare when ever they can. Sometimes there's an advantage in staying local for both marketing and logistic purposes and in other cases it doesn't make sense.

As robots continue to decrease in price more and more companies willl be able to afford to use them and that will do more to bring manufacturing back to the US.

 

This whole subject would be a non issue (or at least would let it's critics make themselves look silly) if only we had the same access to China's market as they do to ours.

But... we don't.

That's not their fault. It's ours.

 

Not to turn this into a history lesson...
GM was the first American company to really invest heavily in China's market back in the 1990's, and they are reaping the rewards of being there first. They are WAY bigger and selling more units than any other US player.
Typical Chinese upper-class prefer a Buick G8 minivan over an Audi A6 or a BMW 5-series - no chit! Our "limos" that cart us from hotel to airport, business dinners, etc are almost always Buick minivans. All our company cars are Buick G8's.

Ford is just now really making inroads. They just built the first Ford dealership in KunShan this year - they opened it while I was there in June/July. Ford only sold about 15-20% of what GM sold there last year - and GM sold something like 650,000 units IIRC from the Shanghai Daily back in June.

Directly answering your question - yes, Ford's sales in China are growing on par with GM's sales based on percentages, but GM is selling far more units simply because they are established. Chinese people don't know the Ford brand, and will have to learn it and become comfortable with it before it catches on.

 

I feel like a spy.

I'm learning how the enemy works, so I can better combat from home!

I won't go down quietly...