April 30, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

April 15, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Chinese manufacturers are being hit by rising raw materials prices, increased inflation and currency appreciation all at the same time. This is leading some companies to look outside China for their low manufacturing cost solution. While these trends are likely to continue, I think that China will remain a competitive and attractive manufacturing hub for much of the world for many years to come.

While input cost are on the rise, productivity gains are only beginning to be felt and companies in China should look towards increasing worker productivity as the next frontier of COGS savings.

Read the full article here.

April 11, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

In an exciting development, the Chinese government took a major step forward in improving communication and coordination across the logistics sector. The newly formed Ministry of Transport will combine the activities formerly conducted by the Ministries of Communications and Construction, the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) and the State Post Bureau under one roof. This will lead to streamlined organization and control of many logistics activities, thus enabling China to drive down its logistics costs.

Unfortunately,  the Ministry of Railways was not folded into the Ministry of Transport at this time. We all hope that progress is made on that front over the months to come.

 For logistics managers concerned w...Read More

February 26, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

The data is in from the first comprehensive wage study conducted in China and the results are instructive for US managers who source goods from China. The summary is:

• The average China hourly wage is $0.98/hr, so there is still a significant wage difference between the US and Chinese labor costs
• Benefits actually are a larger percentage of the hourly wage in China vs. the US
• Benefits rates are going up
• There is upward price pressure on wages that has and will continue to erode a portion of China's low cost manufacturing position amongst its global competitors (India, Vietnam, etc) but as they move up the value curve, China remains an attractive place to locate manufacturing and develop supplier partners.

See t...Read More

February 19, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

The world's sea-crossing bridge is opening in June. The world's largest deep-water port facility will be operational by 2010, a rail system and highways system designed to rival the United States'. Throw in some Magnetic Levitation  trains and you have to agree with the author of this article that the scale of the infrastructure project going on in China right now is indeed "mind boggling" See the complete article here.