Posted on 08/04/2015 10:33:36 AM PDT by GoneSalt
Before World War II, red-brick textile mills that processed cotton and wove it into cloth were all over the southern United States, dotting the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama. But in the last 50 years, automation, free trade agreements and competition from countries like China whittled down the historic industry until it was almost gone.
Now some textile jobs are coming back, but on much different terms. As the New York Times reported Sunday, some Chinese manufacturers are setting up shop in the United States, after finding it cheaper to produce their goods in the American South than in China.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
How can the Chinese produce in America cheaper than Americans producing in America?
Unions?
By using illegal labor while the government looks the other way.
Wow. What a crock-o-poo. Glad jobs are MAYBE coming back, but why can’t American companies figure this crap out?
Cheaper cotton maybe?
Do you mean that workers at Chinese owned plants won’t be unionized...buy workers at American owned plants will be unionized?
If the cost of manufacturing (including labor) is the same, then it means that the Chinese are willing to accept a lower profit margin than the Americans. Might pay their salaried workers less too.
Will be interesting to see if they succeed.
Nothing in the article says that Chinese can produce goods cheaper in the U.S. than Americans can.
Yes, I understand that. I would like to see a side-by-side comparison to see how they can beat us in our own back yard.
The cost of material should be the same. Cost of labor (minimum wage) should be the same. So, if a Chinese manufacturer and an American manufacturer is working in the same town, how could the Chinese undercut the American firm?
Is it due to salaries to the management? If it’s a publicly traded company, do they have to meet financial expectations of the shareholders that Chinese companies don’t have to worry about?
Maybe they expect the same kind of regulatory environment they have in China. Ya know anything goes.
Why do you say that the Chinese can produce goods in the U.S. cheaper than Americans can?
Please provide some evidence to support your contention that they are “beating us in our backyard”. I doubt if you can find any.
I was in Asheboro, NC a year ago, at a campground. I heard a humming sound in the distance and asked someone what it was. He said it was the only cotton mill still running in North Carolina.
Southern textile workers were not as a rule unionized. They rejected unions.
There are several big Southern textile firms that still have mills in the South. They are privately held.
No shipping costs? Plus a factory worker in China is usually fed and housed at the factory like in a dormitory................................
No mention of the thieving garment workers’ unions that drove costs through the roof and forced manufacturers to go overseas to begin with.
Here’s the “money” statement” in the article:
“As China’s economy has developed, wages have risen, and so have the costs of land, energy and other raw materials.”
Plus, our relative energy costs have plummeted and producing in the US gives companies access to free trade with Mexico and Canada through NAFTA.
Many American textile firms were destroyed by so-called free trade, and now the Chinese companies that largely destroyed those firms are moving the highly automated yarn mills back to the US since other factors make it about as cheap to produce in the US.
But the labor intensive sewing factories are staying in even cheaper labor nations than China: Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Bangladesh, Pakistan, etc.
Don’t worry, Obama is waging his war on natural gas and coal to drive energy prices back up, and jobs back offshore.
As far as I know, there’s still a College of Textiles at NC State—Going strong after 110+ years.
Chinese companies have the capital American companies used to have.
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