Trump & Autos: Koreans Suck Up, Germans Don't
BMW seemingly says, "Yo Trump, remember our yuuuge Spartanburg, South Carolina plant?" I just wanted to update you on this mildly disturbing trend of various multinational concerns actual…
Showing posts with the label Supply Chain
Trump the Trade Comic: GM Small Cars in Mexico
American nagger-in-chief Doanld Trump has made a habit of criticizing any and all American firms having manufacturing activities overseas. From his nuance-free viewpoint, all such manufacturing is a…
Mfg Costs: Leave PRC for Cambodia, Laos & Myanmar
Cheap, cheaper, cheapest: in search of low wages in Southeast Asia's CLMV. The previous post on how China aspires to be Asia's Germany in producing high value-added manufactures jogged my me…
Adios Sweatshop: PRC's Mfg Plan to be Asia's Germany
Is the sweatshopped China of today soon going to be its past? A few days ago I featured a post on how low-cost manufacturing is migrating to even lower-cost locations than China such as Vietnam . So,…
And Vietnam's Largest Foreign Investor is...Samsung
Making mobiles for the Man in Vietnam, AKA Samsung. Unbeknownst to many, Vietnam has, in a number of respects, become the " Republic of Samsung ." As labor costs in China have gone up as it…
As Asia Goes to Heck, Remember Factory Asia
The system of production spread throughout East/Southeast Asia has been dubbed "Factory Asia" as we make goods for the rest of the world. In doing so, we (or is it MNCs more accurately spea…
Foxconn's Terry Gou & OEM's Global Pecking Order
Designed in the US, manufacturing logistics determined in Taiwan, made in China. Actually, the post's title is a bit inaccurate insofar as all except two of the world's top electronics contra…
'Reshoring' Fad: Fed by 'Made in the USA' Fad?
I am in the minority over at Yahoo! News Country of origin remains a sticking point in IPE no matter what economic liberals say. Today, let us look at a possible 'multiplier effect' where inv…
Screw Panama; Chinese & $40B 'Nicaragua Canal'
It's been a long time since we've had a video feature, but now is as good a time as any. Recently, a young Chinese telecoms magnate came to an arrangement with the (rather impoverished) Nicar…
Car Talk: Detroit is Dead; Long Live S Carolina!
Despite giving up its distinction of being the world's largest car market to China in 2009 , the United States remains comfortably in second place. What's more, the average price of a passeng…
End of an Outsourcing Era: 787 Nightmareliner
There is a justifiably very well-cited article in the Review of International Political Economy by Gary Gereffi, John Humphrey and Timothy Sturgeon concerning "The Governance of Global Value C…
Back in America: Is "Reshoring" Overblown?
There's an interesting feature over at The Atlantic on how more American manufacturers are moving back to the United States since expected savings from moving more production to the likes of Ch…
Gadgets Make the World Go Round: 15 Yrs of ITA
During these dark days of Doha Round deadlock, good news from the WTO is hard to come by. But, even your ever-pessimistic correspondent has managed to fetch--wait for it-- reasonably good news involv…
Pol Eco of Trade Stats: Value-Added, Anyone?
Can it be that a large part of economic conflict in the world is down to artifactual statistical considerations? That in fact could be the conclusion you would draw if the latest effort to change the…
Japan, PRC & Dumbly Shooting Down Flying Geese
The migration of the so-called " Flying Geese Model " has been responsible not only for integrating more regional economies into the world economy's fold but also raising living standar…
Strange Tales of Delta Air Buying an Oil Refinery
With airlines being almost universally unprofitable these days--even Thai Airways is reportedly going to have an unprofitable 2012 or only its second unprofitable year in 51 years of operation--sayi…
Apple & Samsung: Who's Got Whom by the Balls?
[NOTE: For those who don't get the title, play this AC/DC song .] There are two broad debates going on regarding the current dominance of Samsung in the consumer electronics space. First we hav…