procurAsia: China Industrial Sourcing Assistance Services

Is China sourcing right for me? Infographic

Not all sourcing projects will end up in China. The current Chinese market realities make it harder for some businesses to source from China. In many case, a good china sourcing feasibility will save lots of time and money. Or at least, it will raise the right questions to be answered during the supplier search and qualification.

We have prepared a simple Infographics summarizing the main factors we consider important in China sourcing feasibility. We hope it is useful for you.

CHINA SOURCING FEASIBILITY INFOGRAPHIC

For each areas that has impact on sourcing feasibility, we describe situation that are favorable (Good), unfavorable (Poor) as well as what practical actions can be taken when the reality falls in between.

China Sourcing Feasibility Infographics

Categories Best Practices, Highlights, Sourcing

Reshoring Manufacturing: When does it make sense?

Factory Workers - USA Like many others, I follow the media frenzy about manufacturing reshoring, especially in the US. While most articles focus on anecdotes and specific “success cases”, a few provide deeper analysis on what makes reshoring possible and when it makes senses. Over the last weeks I have found a few very good articles from that category. We all would love to see manufacturing job at home and workers in our neighborhood live a future safe life. Unfortunately, these articles are not as bullish on the reshoring trend.

1. Getting caught in reshoring hype?

The first article describes when it makes sense to consider reshoring manufacturing and when it does not. It summarizes the approach that any decision maker would be expected to take when considering such decision. Read More→

Categories Highlights, News & General Info, Practices

China solar PV module manufacturers – Video

Solar PV module - China industrial sourcing A few years ago, the solar PV (photo-voltaic) market was extremely hot.

Solar PV a few years ago

The market was very active and buyers are struggling to get products for Europe mainly. Price were valid for a few weeks only and large buyers were purchasing the capacity of Chinese supplier for a full semester.

These were great days for Chinese solar photo-voltaic panel manufacturers. They could not add capacity fast enough to meet demand.

Solar PV today

A few years later, and the market has fully shifted from a supplier’s market to a clear buyer’s market.

All European government are under undeniable budget pressure and have aggressively cut solar energy subsidies. The US have not compensated for the EU market shrinkage. And Chinese production capacity has at least doubled. In addition, a trade war was started when EU launched an anti-dumping suit a few months ago.

Categories Cleantech, Good Suppliers, Industries, To Know More

China exports shift to higher value goods

A simple analysis of China exports data confirms a trend that careful observers have already seen:

China experiences rising costs reducing its edge for simple product manufacturing . . .
. . . but, it is moving toward exporting higher value and higher end goods.

End of China as a manufacturing powerhouse?

Many people still see China is a pure low cost country:

producer of cheap and low end products,
export of products prone to quality problems,
history of goods leading to safety and health hazard.

Categories News & General Info

China’s prospects for export-driven growth

I just found a good article in the East Asia Forum about the mid term prospects of China exports growth – and therefore the prospects of China sourcing.

This article by three economists (Brendan Coates, Dougal Horton and Lachlan McNameeis) is a well documented and balanced piece.

Some of the key points in the article.

” China will become less competitive in low-cost, labour-intensive manufactured exports. But this decline is likely to be gradual, at least in the short term. China continues to enjoy unparalleled economies of scale in production, its logistics performance remains superior to all comparable emerging economies, and cost savings may still be found in China’s less developed western regions.”

“Over time, higher labour costs in existing export industries will be somewhat counter-balanced by falling production costs in new, more advanced industries that will benefit from the latest round of new technologies and capital investment.”