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HP: Foxconn clampdown could push up prices
http://www.x404.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=15951		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  pcernie [ Sun Feb 26, 2012 12:37 pm ]
Post subject:  HP: Foxconn clampdown could push up prices
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/373117/hp-f ... -up-prices

That's a 'problem' that could go well beyond tech...
Author:  paulzolo [ Sun Feb 26, 2012 12:59 pm ]
Post subject:  HP: Foxconn clampdown could push up prices
pcernie wrote:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/373117/hp-foxconn-clampdown-could-push-up-prices

That's a 'problem' that could go well beyond tech...

Using China as the world's workhouse is going to come to en end eventually. The cheapness is what we like, but as living standards improve and as economies rebar alone, we'll see China starting to push up prices.

I think what we have right now is a very devalued view of the worth of human labour, and the hunt is on to find somewhere as cheap as China. It seems that Brazil may be the next location for cheaply built hardware.
Author:  Linux_User [ Sun Feb 26, 2012 1:38 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: HP: Foxconn clampdown could push up prices
Western economies will become more competitive as conditions & pay improve in developing countries.
Author:  ShockWaffle [ Sun Feb 26, 2012 2:57 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: HP: Foxconn clampdown could push up prices
paulzolo wrote:
I think what we have right now is a very devalued view of the worth of human labour, and the hunt is on to find somewhere as cheap as China. It seems that Brazil may be the next location for cheaply built hardware.

Not likely, Brazilian manufacturing has been in the doldrums for a long time and shows little promise of changing, their economy is driven very much by mining and farming, soon oil extraction will be in full swing and so manufacturing won't get much of a look in. That sector suffers when those others soak up all the investment capital and inflate the currency, not to mention when the government runs a high deficit which also soaks up capital (which is increasingly the case there). And on top of all that, the Brazilian government interferes too much, which prevents investment. And they impose punitive import tariffs, which guarantees they would end up in a brutal trade war should they chase that sort of business. Bangladesh, Vietnam and their ilk are the countries where cheap assembly manufacture is going to move to. But there's still plenty of dirt poor regions in China for them go to as well.

Meanwhile the Chinese are investing increasingly in plant to replace workers (which is why Germany has done so well lately). Foxconn and others will be shedding millions of cruddy jobs over the next decade, and it's far from obvious what those people are going to do for a living - so far China has taken steps to prevent services and retail flourishing, but those are the areas that should soak up excess workers. So the next time you encounter some dufus wittering on about how China will inevitably be the global economic superpower, and countries like ours are destined to be subservient to them, try to help them learn that things are more complicated than that.
Author:  paulzolo [ Fri Mar 02, 2012 3:26 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: HP: Foxconn clampdown could push up prices
Foxconn plans to build five Brazilian factories to produce Apple products:

http://www.tuaw.com/2012/01/31/foxconn- ... uce-apple/

Quote:
Apple relies on electronics assembly firm Foxconn to build iPads and iPhones in China. Now Foxconn is reportedly planning to build five new factories in Brazil to help meet the demand for Apple products. There's already one plant cranking out iPads and iPhones, and each of the new factories is expected to have about a thousand workers.
Author:  ShockWaffle [ Sat Mar 03, 2012 1:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: HP: Foxconn clampdown could push up prices
When I read that what I see is that Brazil had to make a series of exceptions to its standard policy to entice a single foreign manufacturer to invest in a small number of trivially small sites (by their standards) that are mostly designed to produce for the domestic market.

Their primary rationale is that container ships are leaving Brazil loaded with huge quantities of iron ore and soya (via ports built by Chinese construction firms) and returning with goods that are subject to punitive tariffs, so now somebody wants to replace some of those finished goods with components for local assembly that can be sold more cheaply within Brazil than the finished articles could.

This is not a Brazilian manufacturing renaissance. Unless Brazil removes the restrictions that it had to suspend in this case for all, they cannot under any circumstances ever be a net exporter of manufactures. And their labour costs aren't low enough to make it worth the effort of trying.
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