Why Thailand Ford?

[zilo]

Originally Posted by Theo@BluePower

Build a car in Thailand costs Ford about $800
Build a car in Australia costs Ford about $10,000

Sure, but that is not completely attributable to labour cost alone.

Ford Australia have to pay govt costs that are often non existent in Asian countries.

Like factoring in overall profits that can be sent back to the US with much less tax paid as incentives to manufacture there.

Ask Ireland how many Intel microprocessors are manufactured there since the tax breaks finished....ZERO

[aussie muscle]

Originally Posted by Dodge

im in the stainless business when i go to china they tell me lots of factorys from china moved to thailand because the china gov charges export tax to the factorys so they move to thailand for even cheaper manufacturing . where does it stop even china is winging to much overheads

It's been a constant moving of seats. they started in Japan after WW2, when that got too expensive, they moved to Taiwan, that's too expensive now, so they moved to mainland china and now that they are getting expensive they are moving to countries like Malaysia and Vietnam. Next they'll move to northern africa for cheap labor.

[Kieron]

Correct Aussie Muscle. In fact, general manufacturing in Vietnam is the go already and they are even beginning outsourcing to Cambodia. Malaysia is out of the loop and only good for oil/palm oil.

[Wretched]

Originally Posted by Kieron

Correct Aussie Muscle. In fact, general manufacturing in Vietnam is the go already and they are even beginning outsourcing to Cambodia. Malaysia is out of the loop and only good for oil/palm oil.

Add the Philippines to that list and not only for manufacturing, they have begun taking on low level IT tasks from India.

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by aussie muscle

It's been a constant moving of seats. they started in Japan after WW2, when that got too expensive, they moved to Taiwan, that's too expensive now, so they moved to mainland china and now that they are getting expensive they are moving to countries like Malaysia and Vietnam. Next they'll move to northern africa for cheap labor.

The companies will go off shore to chase 3rd world countries for cheap labour for increase profit under the guise for the shareholders benefit.
Just pure greed imo.

I think it is about time the share holders spoke up for the benefit of their own future generations.

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by Kieron

Correct Aussie Muscle. In fact, general manufacturing in Vietnam is the go already and they are even beginning outsourcing to Cambodia. Malaysia is out of the loop and only good for oil/palm oil.

I just bought a Champion brand T shirt the other day, looked at the label and it says Made in Cambodia.

I thought it's great to see US companies exploiting cheap asian labour

[Syndrome]

Confucius said man who walks sideways through airport turnstile is going to Bangkok. Maybe that is the appeal. :-P

[Davehoos]

AUST GOV--people in Australia already have utes..in thailand they want what we have.

[Davehoos]

documentary on TV about Japanese clothing company going to Bangladesh.

4.3 billion middle class in developing market.

[Brazen]

The company I work for has an engineering drafting office in Thailand, I worked with someone who was sent there to run it for a while. Very different work culture over there.

Staff will sometime with no warning simply not show up to work for a week or more, they will say there was family issues and that would be that. There is never any questioning it. Also people are promoted on age or the length of time with the company never on ability, so people will simply just coast through their jobs biding time till its their turn, they know if they try hard the older person is the next in line for promotion anyway. The Australian office is much more productive and efficient even if it is more costly I can see more work being carried out in Australia as wages increase in Thailand or the dollar drops further.

[Davehoos]

I worked in a factory in Sydney- moorebank- 80's-90's currently in local government.

I hear the same story from most people.

constant turn over of staff-the average long term staff was waiting for retirement not wanting promotion or retraining.

public transport stoppages due to weather or strikes. when it rains the roads are cut. winter, cold and flue summer heat stress. people disappear for cultural reasons. Melbourne cup- the week after a public holiday.

promotion based on family conections or people that wont rock the boat.

difference---not much.

[GTP-RPD]

Sorry for resurrecting this but I just couldn't help myself

I wonder if a few of Fords global decision makers clackers would be clacking now.

http://www.news.com.au/world/thailan...-1226927453780

This is serious stuff and very rarely ends well.

[BHDOGS]

it wont affect buisness at all that country is always turning over government to multi national corps it will just be a cost of doing business they could care less about people dieing just there profits.

[Road_Warrior]

Originally Posted by Road_Warrior

Or another military coup.

There's a lot of instability in the region at the moment, not getting much coverage in the press here, but China is assertively staking its territorial claim over the South China Sea. Other nations who share this body of water are challenging China's claim...with warships...

Hmm crystal ball was working well that day.

This will all be over in a few days, chaps.

Maybe.

[HULK_I6T]

Just territory to be built in Thailand?

[monte.b]

civil war maybe ,problem is the army has all the guns doesnt look like a very good place to invest millions of dollars to me ,they could burn the lot and i hope they do

[brismike]

Originally Posted by Wretched

Add the Philippines to that list and not only for manufacturing, they have begun taking on low level IT tasks from India.

Yep .. That's exactly where my IT job went when I was made redundant and the work was "Outsourced" to save the organisation cash. Worked for them for 40 years and always did a good job IMHO.

Got a decent payout though so can't complain. The pity is the work is now not available for a young Aussie IT guy.

Cheers Mike

[johnydep]

Originally Posted by GTP-RPD

Good luck with your new plant and a stable workforce.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/01/11/wo...tml?hpt=ias_c1


Ford’s production was hurt by Thailand’s worst flooding in almost 70 years last October, causing losses of more than $80 million, Hinrichs said.

Thailand Floods

“We lost a lot of production in the fourth quarter and coming into the first quarter, we still felt the languishing effects of that,” Hinrichs said. “But it hasn’t changed our fundamental strategy, which is our commitment to Thailand, as an export and manufacturing hub.”

If we had an outstanding FOA management team, Union and Governments in place at the time, we might of had a chance of winning it. However, we were all hanging onto the mining dream and ever increasing OS income

[Dr Smith]

Originally Posted by johnydep

If we had an outstanding FOA management team, Union and Governments in place at the time, we might of had a chance of winning it. However, we were all hanging onto the mining dream and ever increasing OS income

With the greatest of respect how was that going to happen. The only way is to lower the cost of every input into producing a car here, from energy, labour, raw materials, marketing, advertising, transportation, rates, land prices and on and on...labour component of building a car is around 15%, as to R&D, well Australia is already ahead based on our expertise, ability and productivity. How does one lower the cost of all these components and still have every supply chain and employed person within them live a decent life, buy food and a house, send kids to school, etc...

I'm hugely ****ed off with those economists/advisers in the media earning $300,000+ telling those on considerably less you have to accept losing your "conditions" so we can remain competitive and you can keep your job. That's all good and well but is food going to take a 20-30% cut, school fees, interest rates, house prices, clothing..etc. And remember that OS wages in these countries are so much lower then our dole payments. Not many people (legally) raise a family and live a comfortable life only earning dole-payment level income in Australia. Lets not forget the Thailand government has "bought" these plants into their country with massive incentives and then locked out imports by dodging all FTA's (John Howard has a lot to answer for here), sure they had the cheap labour, but most factories are robotic, so they cost the same to buy in any country, steel is bought on international markets as are other commodities.

[johnydep]

Originally Posted by Dr Smith

With the greatest of respect how was that going to happen. Th...........

How does any country and their industry make things happen?

Working together! That's why I mentioned the three main groups, involved: The company, the Unions and Governments (State & Federal).

The Hawke Labour government, with the heads of the unions and big business did it in the mid to late 80's. Why did it not happen again? Maybe too easy to throw money at it for short term fixes?

The Hawke/Keating government got 'productivity' levels up, which laid the foundations for 20 years of prosperity.

As for the other costs; some can also be mixed in the group of three - Councils, land, electricity, etc.

There's no magic tree that business can come to. It's not as if it hasn't been done before. As mentioned before; the Hawke government did it. Also look at what other countries have done to help their industry. The Chinese government is a big one.

Just because it looks hard, does not make it right to lie down and die.

[Dr Smith]

Originally Posted by johnydep

How does any country and their industry make things happen?

Working together! That's why I mentioned the three main groups, involved: The company, the Unions and Governments (State & Federal).

The Hawke Labour government, with the heads of the unions and big business did it in the mid to late 80's. Why did it not happen again? Maybe too easy to throw money at it for short term fixes?

The Hawke/Keating government got 'productivity' levels up, which laid the foundations for 20 years of prosperity.

As for the other costs; some can also be mixed in the group of three - Councils, land, electricity, etc.

There's no magic tree that business can come to. It's not as if it hasn't been done before. As mentioned before; the Hawke government did it. Also look at what other countries have done to help their industry. The Chinese government is a big one.

Just because it looks hard, does not make it right to lie down and die.

One big difference, our northern neighbours are now far more industrialised, have massively larger populations and don't have the same cost of living expenses etc...you either do something they cannot, because we can never do it cheaper and once their level of industrialisation matched our's then their domestic markets greater size aids their volume levels meaning margins don't have to be as high. We were never going to beat them once they caught up unless we produced something they couldn't for what ever reason. It's not about giving up. Eventually our smaller domestic market becomes a handicap for certain things. Don't get me wrong, I'm a local manufacturer of goods sold locally, I'm not the cheapest, it's my personalised service that keeps me ahead. I couldn't compete if price was the sole criteria my clients relied on. My growth has created the ability to buy better again due to volume however one of my opposition handed out pressure washers like chocolates...again once their service quality was questioned my competitiveness wasn't so important as reliability of supply. (farming industry in this case) but I'm surviving on less then 5 hours sleep a night and I pay my staff and suppliers before I pay myself, lol.

[johnydep]

Originally Posted by Dr Smith

One big difference, our northern neighbours are now far more industrialised, have massively larger populations and don't have the same cost of living expenses etc...you either do something they cannot, because we can never do it cheaper and once their level of industrialisation matched our's then their domestic markets greater size aids their volume levels meaning margins don't have to be as high. We were never going to beat them once they caught up unless we produced something they couldn't for what ever reason. It's not about giving up. Eventually our smaller domestic market becomes a handicap for certain things. Don't get me wrong, I'm a local manufacturer of goods sold locally, I'm not the cheapest, it's my personalised service that keeps me ahead. I couldn't compete if price was the sole criteria my clients relied on. My growth has created the ability to buy better again due to volume however one of my opposition handed out pressure washers like chocolates...again once their service quality was questioned my competitiveness wasn't so important as reliability of supply. (farming industry in this case) but I'm surviving on less then 5 hours sleep a night and I pay my staff and suppliers before I pay myself, lol.

Like I said before, we're not the first to go through this. Actually, we have been through this before, and come out on top. We can do it again.

Look at America, they are just coming out of the dark and are now starting to be very competitive in manufacturing and other sectors.

Look at Germany; high wages and extremely high electricity prices, yet the world wants their products.

We need to all work together on this one, if we want to see the boom of the early 2000's again. The group of three I mentioned previously, need to work together. Actually you can add the Opposition in there.

We could go on all day about this and that, electricity and water, land and taxes, etc. But to save time, just read up on the Hawke/Keating days. Look at the difference back then and now; government, unions, business and even opposition (Liberal Party) working together for the country. Changing the industrial system, passing legislation, promoting and encouraging business and the work force.

What's changed?

[johnydep]

Originally Posted by Dr Smith

..... but I'm surviving on less then 5 hours sleep a night and I pay my staff and suppliers before I pay myself, lol.

I know what you mean. I'm working harder and longer for less, than I was a few years back. Work is still coming in strong, but overheads have gone up and it's very difficult to pass them on. I also lost a guy (retired), I could easily hire another but I don't know how the economy will be in a year or two; not with the way the industrial/governmental system is look - fight each other to the death.

All I'm saying is that, if everyone got together for the good of the country (like the Hawke/Keating era) we'd be in a better position to compete with other countries and to grow and prosper again.

[Dr Smith]

Originally Posted by johnydep

Like I said before, we're not the first to go through this. Actually, we have been through this before, and come out on top. We can do it again.

Look at America, they are just coming out of the dark and are now starting to be very competitive in manufacturing and other sectors.

Look at Germany; high wages and extremely high electricity prices, yet the world wants their products.

We need to all work together on this one, if we want to see the boom of the early 2000's again. The group of three I mentioned previously, need to work together. Actually you can add the Opposition in there.

We could go on all day about this and that, electricity and water, land and taxes, etc. But to save time, just read up on the Hawke/Keating days. Look at the difference back then and now; government, unions, business and even opposition (Liberal Party) working together for the country. Changing the industrial system, passing legislation, promoting and encouraging business and the work force.

What's changed?

Lol, I'm old enough to have lived & worked during their reign and may have voted for one or the other . As to what's changed......lack of strong leadership....in all camps and an even more cynical population with a greater level of self-interest then I can remember... see I'm becoming on old codger as well. One of Keatings best lines (or one he repeated), something like "In the race of life always back self-interest...at least you know it's trying".

[Whitey-AMG]

What is old will become new again.

Eventually we aussies will need to work for $2.50 per hour without choice. You wanna job, that's the rate. Ford will be paying Thai workers 40.00 per hour in an overheating asian economy to keep them from striking and some genius executive will say..... hey that place down under in the @ss end of the world will make our product for 2.50 per hour, why dont we set up camp down there. There's an old abandoned factory in Geelong we can use, govt says its free to rent... Rofl.

[CyberWasp]

It really highlights how much we screwed things up here when it is worth investing a fortune into a country with unstable government / military take overs / unstable weather over Australia.