http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ni-hao-yall-us-hinterlands-woo-chinese-firms-043201210.html After decades of siphoning jobs from the United States, China is creating some. Chinese companies invested a record $14 billion in the United States last year, according to the Rhodium Group research firm. Collectively, they employ more than 70,000 Americans, up from virtually none a decade ago. Powerful forces — narrowing wage gaps, tumbling U.S. energy prices, the vagaries of currency markets — are pulling Chinese companies across the Pacific. Mayors and economic development officials have lined up to welcome Chinese investors. Southern states, touting low labor and land costs, have been especially aggressive. The flow is at least starting to move the other way. One reason is that in the past decade, the cost of labor, adjusted for productivity gains, has surged 187 percent at Chinese factories, compared with just 27 percent in the United States, according to Boston Consulting Group. In addition, Chinese electricity costs rose 66 percent, more than twice the United States' increase. The start of large-scale U.S. shale gas production has helped contain U.S. electricity costs. And the value of China's currency has risen more than 30 percent against the U.S. dollar over the past decade. The higher yuan has raised the cost of Chinese goods sold abroad and, conversely, made U.S. goods more affordable in China. Those rising costs have cut China's competitive edge. In 2004, manufacturing cost 14 percent less in China than in the United States; that advantage has narrowed to 5 percent. If the trend toward higher wages, energy costs and a higher currency continues, Boston Consulting predicts, U.S. manufacturing will be less expensive than China's by 2018. This part also gets me...whereas in other countries there's red-tape to shake investors and money, officials here will line up, grease the wheels, and try to fast track the process for some business: Wilcox County also gave the company 100 acres of a 274-acre industrial park it bought for $1.2 million and a break on local property taxes. And Alabama offered to reimburse the company up to $20 million of its costs for building the $100 million factory. It will get the full amount if it ends up hiring 500 people, says George Alford of the Wilcox County Industrial Development Authority. Local officials assembled all the public agencies and utilities Golden Dragon will have to deal with — from Alabama Power to the Port of Mobile — in one room on one day so company executives could have their questions answered at once. So when was the official day the South earned 3rd World Nation status?
For anyone wanting to watch again. <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/768h3Tz4Qik" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The South already produces more automobiles than the traditional auto-industry. I would guess less red tape and taxes, less union influence. Americans can be great workers and the US is a lawful society and foreign companies see that.
The major downside to hiring in the US, especially for a large company, is having to pay for the healthcare for employees, which wouldn't be an expense in most other countries. If employers didn't have to pay that, I would expect that the US would be much more competitive.
you make it sounds like this is unprecedented, which it isn't. It's deja vu all over again ! Japan Inc. was the trailblazer, followed by So Korea Inc and now China, Inc. Japan's original platbook: Leveraging the advantage of the relative low wage to gain market share, then dominate it, then, after decades of dominance, move operations to where the largest market is, the USA, to contain / manage the volatility of the currency dynamics you obviously have never been abroad! insofar as greasing the wheels---trying to fast track projects for some businesses---the US pales in comparison to other countries. In china, it's called Guanxi, in Japan Inhwa, in SK wa man, you need to crawl of your cave sometimes. China bought the Wordorf Astoria Hotel in NYC, heavy industrial cos in Il and Ohio; it has been courted by Gov Scott Walker and spineless Pau Rian, w the promise of huge tax breaks and cutting-red tapes for FoxConn to open up a state-of-the art factory near Janesville, WI it is still much cheaper than being held hostage by the vagaries of the currency dynamics
Damn adoodoo. I'm not too fluent in DB, but this is a language mixup. I was being sarcastic 2 years ago of American cities stealing red-blooded, hardworking, hammer and sickle carrying Chinese Jerbs. They're getting screwed. Doubly screwed. More screwed than you know. Trust me. Lower down that insecurity index, breh. Here in the states we complain about red, white and blue collar Jerbs being lost to the 3rd world along with the song and dance Western companies go through to build or sell in China. Speaking of man cave. Highly recommended to unwind and relax.
