[Closed] Is there nothing that China can't make and ship to UK cheaper than doing it here

Apples?

apples...make?
don't they grow?

the soap is rendered from the bodies of political dissidents

Stilton Cheese.

He didn't say PEOPLE in China. Apple trees make apples.

Finely toleranced rolls for papermaking machinery. FACT.

Quite a large number of high tech products. Complex pharmaceuticals. (we export 45% of what we manufacture)

good....high end precision stuff is what is needed.
I served my apprenticeship at a engineering company manufacturing textile machines that was wound up due to competitors moving out their manuf to the PRC. 650 or so folk told that's it, don't come in tomorrow.
V sad day.

Nope

Ideas.

Quite a large number of high tech products. Complex pharmaceuticals. (we export 45% of what we manufacture)

They can't make love like us brits.

Is true.

I've wondered the same thing with timber flooring. It seems it's cheaper to chop down European Oak Trees (from forestry in IIRC France/Germany/Czech Republic/Scandinavia etc), ship them to China, where they chop them up, make them into Engineered Boards i.e. 6mm Oak layer with approx 15mm Plywood backing, box them, wrap them and send them back here sold as "Engineered European Oak". Staggering really, but I'm sure someone could show me the sums to prove it's cost effective. Just seems wrong.

Mind you, the machining is spot on compared to stuff machined here 🙂

CaptJon - Member

Ideas.

Well they've a few of those, including, papermaking, the compass, gunpowder, mechanical clocks, the abacus, rockets, pontoon bridges, paper money, writing, smallpox inoculation, porcelain, silk, matches, the civil service, landmines, cast iron, umbrellas, the crossbow, the parachute, canal locks, and printing.

And it looks as if they are still coming up with ideas. From a couple of weeks ago :

[url= http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/mar/28/china-us-publisher-scientific-papers ]China poised to overhaul US as biggest publisher of scientific papers[/url]

[i]"The Royal Society said that China was now second only to the US in terms of its share of the world's scientific research papers written in English. The UK has been pushed into third place, with Germany, Japan, France and Canada following behind"[/i]

Ya, most companies want to make huge profit so move their plants abroad to the country of Dear Leaders. Good for short term profit but in the long run they are essentially committing UK to industrial/economical suicide. They take the money out of the community without replenishing them. Take and take only. Benefit the minority few of the super rich ... Then of course we are addicted to cheap goods where our moral etc just go out the windows the moment money is discussed but then we want to have a good life so we need more money ... So everyone wants to become a manager ... so everyone want to be a chief ... so everyone wants to be famous celebrity ...

Yes, they can manufacture all that you have and beyond ...

Gary_lager - is a lot of that stuff not done in singapore, taiwan and japan etc?

Yes! Good quality products that don't fall apart after a months use. Can't wait to see all those parked up mg's, actually saying that they'll probably be of the same quality of the last effort using the iconic badge!
Edit, Poor grammar and punctuation for the above! I apologise!

Yep, Wheat Flour.

I read an article criticising Young's the frozen seafood company for closing there prawn shelling plant in the uk. Turns out its cheaper to ship prawns to vietnam, have them shelled by hand, freeze them and send them back than it is to have them shelled by machine in the UK!

"Cornish Pasties" [i]have[/i] to be made in Cornwall now not China.

adam5555 - Member
Turns out its cheaper to ship prawns to vietnam, have them shelled by hand, freeze them and send them back than it is to have them shelled by machine in the UK!

If this is the case then this company is so greedy that their only main concern is for their own pocket rather than the community that give in to their pocket. Greedy pig and that's how they kill their own industry by blaming overseas competition.

Kevevs - Member

"Cornish Pasties" have to be made in Cornwall now not China.

What stop the company from sending the ingredients to China to be mixed then ship back to be baked? Still made in Cornwall but with Chinese hands that's all.

If this is the case then this company is so greedy that their only main concern is for their own pocket rather than the community that give in to their pocket

Stand up comedy

Gary_lager - is a lot of that stuff not done in singapore, taiwan and japan etc?

This is just a part of the decline of the big pharma industry in the UK though, there are other more fundamental reasons why it's all gone to shit than just cheap, skilled labour in China.

From experience with our latest new model, they can't make good sheet metal press tools nor injection moulding dies, the tool parting lines on the mouldings look more like feature lines!!!

anything can be made cheaper. Make it better.

good....high end precision stuff is what is needed.

most companies want to make huge profit so move their plants abroad to the country of Dear Leaders. Good for short term profit but in the long run they are essentially committing UK to industrial/economical suicide.

Everyone laments the 'loss' of the manufacturing industries. They don't care that in general they were poorly paid, dirty horrible jobs. I mean, do you really want your kids growing up to work in the underwear factory on Corrie? That's the manufacturing industry, low skill, low pay, no career progression.

No doubt in 50 years time we'll all be back here lamenting the loss of the service industries, hell we're doing it already, "ohhh its terrible these Indian call centres taking our jobs". Who the f*** wants to work in a call centre, I mean you might want a job, any job at all, but do you really want to work in a call centre above anything else?

Do you know what they said during the industrial revolution 150 years ago? The only true industry is farming, this manufacturing lark is pointless, farming will make us great.

I imagine 500,000 years ago some cave dwelling ancestor turned to his friend and said "this farming lark will never catch on, getting food form the trees is the only real way of doing it"

Black pudding

Scotch Whisky

Swiss bearings, Champagne, Bordeaux, Scotch whiskey and rapidly perishable items.

It's mental how shipping from the west outward inhibits export, but manufacture and cheap delivery/shipping from the east=loads of export. I guess it helps when you pay people nowt.

thisisnotaspoon - Member

Everyone laments the 'loss' of the manufacturing industries. They don't care that in general they were poorly paid, dirty horrible jobs. I mean, do you really want your kids growing up to work in the underwear factory on Corrie? That's the manufacturing industry, low skill, low pay, no career progression.

No doubt in 50 years time we'll all be back here lamenting the loss of the service industries, hell we're doing it already, "ohhh its terrible these Indian call centres taking our jobs". Who the f*** wants to work in a call centre, I mean you might want a job, any job at all, but do you really want to work in a call centre above anything else?

So everyone wants to become the chief or the manager.

No matter how much progress there are still people that need low end jobs and I am sure they will not be as horrible as what they used to be. Yes, it is dirty and yes it is hardwork but it is still a job some people need to do. Perhaps not you nor me but others. Even for call centres.

there it is, [i]any[/i] job's better than no job.

That's the manufacturing industry, low skill, low pay, no career progression.

(incidentally mind, i enjoy my job in manufacturing. after a brief stab at office work, i'm infinitely happier running around all night and coming home exhausted, oily and mildly irradiated)

surely it'll all reach a tipping point in the future when the East becomes the main powerhouse and start outsourcing to sweatshops/call-centres over here anyhoo. plus ca change

The outsourced research effort in discovering drugs is mainly China and India, though.

Or am I misunderstanding something? (I'm not in the industry but I have done some work Clinical Trials Organisations)

Champagne and probably Bordeaux

You may find that the Bordeaux you're drinking comes from a château owned by the Chinese, Herman. Imbalances in trade mean we are no longer exchanging low tech for high tech but selling the family china, house, farm, hotel, business... . Look at ownership paterns in central London and Paris, and yes, the Bordeaux vinyards too.

Well they've a few of those, including, papermaking, the compass, gunpowder, mechanical clocks, the abacus, rockets, pontoon bridges, paper money, writing, smallpox inoculation, porcelain, silk, matches, the civil service, landmines, cast iron, umbrellas, the crossbow, the parachute, canal locks, and printing

They were all a long time ago though. China had a golden age, then it all went dark for a long time.

If this is the case then this company is so greedy that their only main concern is for their own pocket rather than the community that give in to their pocket

Right, but which prawns do you buy?

Do you go and buy the cheapest product of a given standard, or do you shop to see which is made more locally?

What do you have in your home that was made in China? Do you even know? Did you do your research and make a choice based on that when you bought it?

You can't blame companies for wanting to cut their costs when you (as a part of the market) are the very reason they want to cut costs.

But isn't that a lot of that inevitable because you're looking for places where there are large numbers of ill, drug-naive population?

Or am I misunderstanding something? (I'm not in the industry but I have done some work Clinical Trials Organisations)

Interestingly - Wyeth put a lot of money into clinical research in Scotland as it represents a unique environment for study. Nowhere on earth is there such a population of sick people, supported by a first world network of healthcare. So its a goldmine of high quality data.

Someone said apples higher up bu I'm sorry to say that you're wrong. I used to work for the UK largest fruit juice manufacturer and we shipped in a significant amount of our apple concentrate from China. Although we used more of it, it has a very low acid value (no "bite") so you have to blend it with good old english apples. They had, before I left, managed to find a cheaper Polish source for high acid apples.

Well, there's been talk for several years now about the tipping point when the far east outsourcers discover that fast moving jit systems require local production. I wonder whether that'll actually happen?

Hope customer service.

Houses.

Chinese companies haven't yet been able to make pithy form posts, so our jobs are all safe.

Wyeth put a lot of money into clinical research in Scotland as it represents a unique environment for study. Nowhere on earth is there such a population of sick people

Everyone wants things cheaper + Companies want to make more profit = move manufacturing to areas where Governments offer crazy incentives to employ people in low tech, labour rich industries.

The UK wants to develop Advanced Manufacturing, the government needs to put money into it.
The government though, has been here in China, asking Chinese companies to invest their money into the UK.

brands - far eastern kit is manufactured to the same quality generally but no one rides a hong fu bike do they

bongo films.

Wiring accessories, in my trade dreadful stuff comes over from China.
One particulary bad product was steel conduit boxes, looked okay from the outside, but the insides were so bad that any wire put through them was instantly stripped. This led to fires and electricution.
Had the same with lights, sockets etc etc.

They CAN make good stuff in China, they just sometimes don't!

I bet they can't make that funny workman's sucking noise that precedes the phrase 'ooooh, that's gonna be a tricky job'

Well the Finnish/English company I work for exports 75% of it's production to China. And we're doing pretty well at it.
😀

Wiring accessories, in my trade dreadful stuff comes over from China.
One particulary bad product was steel conduit boxes, looked okay from the outside, but the insides were so bad that any wire put through them was instantly stripped. This led to fires and electricution.
Had the same with lights, sockets etc etc.

Isn't this part of the plan? Undercut the competition and sell crap. Receive the revenues from said crap and re-invest in the company, gradually improving quality. You know, just like the Japanese did

Actually that's exactly what they do, in a year or so it'll be 'top dollar'

Actually that's exactly what they do, in a year or so it'll be 'top dollar'