Sony, Harley-Davidson, Others Move Production from China to Thailand

IndustryWeek ^ | 8/19/2019 | Bloomberg

[central_va]

Americans like products from China

They have no choice. You sound like a Nazi saying that Jews like showers.

Personally, I am relieved when is see made it the USA on products that I buy. I am not alone in that.

[ASA Vet]

Employees MC parking lot at the Rayong, Thailand GM plant.

[central_va]

A communist gov’t pretending to embrace capitalism while manipulating their currency, stealing technology, and illegally subsidizing companies all in collusion with the GOPe, Free Traitors™ and Wall Street.

Fixed it. No charge.

[ASA Vet]

Why are you insulting garter snakes?

[setter]

“You over look the most important consideration.
Americans like products from China”

No, we don’t like products from China. We just have no other source to get them at the moment.

[Beagle8U]

Harley used to make a really cool 250 CC trail bike, but it really wasn’t made them, just branded by HD. I wish I had bought one in the 70’s.

[eyeamok]

That’s hardly a mainstream “antique” Jap bike

I guess it really isn't mainstream, but I have 2 of them and they are newest Street Bikes I own, the others are 2 1976 RD400's, which one is a Canadian Version that looks just like a Daytona and a 1976 Z1B 900

[CrazyIvan]

“BTW I heard about a Yamaha Vmax the other day with under 8k miles for $2000. Trying to get it bought.”

It is very much a buyers market right now. A friend of mine road my BMW and fell in love with it. He found an excellent used one in the Chicago area for a great price.

[central_va]

15-20% more for a TV and other stuff made in those countries it will happen.

Why stop at 20%, why not say 90% or 100% higher? TV's made in the USA would cost over $12,000, right?

That is crap and you know it. If it were 3% higher I'd be amazed.

[central_va]

Even if your plant is completely automated and hermetically sealed, you simply can’t make lead acid batteries here any more.

Even IF true that is no reason to justify the de industrialization of the USA.

[ASA Vet]

That’s it although no fun.

The girlfriend of the week provided the "fun."
If she didn't, she was replaced before weeks end.

[PapaBear3625]

When they move the production to South Succotash, Alabama we can call it “winning”. Until then, it’s just more aliens doing the jobs Americans should be doing.

When talking about a country which is potentially a hostile nuclear adversary, anything which reduces their capacity for making more weapons is winning.

[billyboy15]

Yes, electronics are one of the things for which prices are constantly going down. I remember my very first computer bought in 1992. It had just 4MB of memory and not much more on the HDD. It had a 12 inch monitor and a dot matrix printer. It cost over $1700 and that was on sale.

For 15% of that price today or a bit more you can buy 100 times the setup.

As for your TV. I like Sony in fact I have one now (75”) but I also like and have owned Samsung. On Amazon you can buy a 65” Smart TV for under $500.
As an aside, my friends brother in 1959 but a color TV. One of the first ones available, it had a round screen and everything on the screen had a green tint. It cost him (in 1959) $995.00. That equates to $8500 in today’s dollars.

[billyboy15]

Yes, apparently you would be amazed.

[Beagle8U]

They can even leave their helmets on their bikes and expect them to be there when they get out of work!

[bert]

I understand your sentiment but you are quite wrong.

Quality products from China are in fact desired because of the implicit value. Products of low quality are also imported and consumers learn to discriminate against poor quality.

Buying American is desirable but not in the face of unreasonable expense.

Like it or not, we live in a competative world. If China loses the trade it will largely move to other countries, but not home. Production costs will not permit beating the competition. Some can and some will partially return

A program to develop assembly ancd possibly manufacturing in Honduras and Guatamala would be helpful in solving the China problem.

[thefactor]

I understand manufacturing products near where those products will be sold. Toyota and Honda have factories in the US, for instance. But for American companies to manufacture overseas products that will be shipped and sold in America is sad. I am all for maximizing profits, but it’s crazy to me that shipping something thousand of miles is cheaper than making it near where it will be sold.

[NorseViking]

Unions and regulations do it.

[JoeFromSidney]

I spent nearly 2 years in Thailand during Vietnam. I still have a soft spot in my heart for the country and the people. I wish them well.

[Zhang Fei]

[Yep. It was cheaper for the company to ship their US peaches to Thailand for packing - and then ship them back - than to have them packed at home. Crazy, eh?]

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Wage and real estate cost differentials. Wages at 10 cents on the dollar*. 20 cents to get a super high quality Thai labor force thrilled to show up at work every single day, 6 days a week. Transportation cost, port to port, round trip, is 10 cents per lb for a refrigerated container.

* $12 per hour stateside vs $1.20 in Thailand.

https://www.reuters.com/article/thailand-wages/thailand-recommends-daily-minimum-wage-hikes-up-to-7-percent-idUSL4N1P52MI