Re:U.S. companies banned from selling components to ZTE
by jacquesm on Monday April 16, 2018 @04:18PM
(#16852329)
There are all kinds of extra costs to consider besides labor, though what labor remains will always be a factor.
Other such factors are environmental regulations, tax breaks, shipping costs (which should always work out in favor of domestic production), cost of raw materials and energy (as you noted), access to those raw materials, knowledge, cost of land and other capex.
A high volume factory is nothing like a steel shed on concrete slabs, a factory is a building that is very much optimized for its function, and yes, it's not hard to build them elsewhere but once you have them they are hard to move.
A nice example is the semiconductor industry, which used to be a United States / Europe affair and then after a brief detour through Japan ended up mostly in Taiwan, China and South Korea.
Other such factors are environmental regulations, tax breaks, shipping costs (which should always work out in favor of domestic production), cost of raw materials and energy (as you noted), access to those raw materials, knowledge, cost of land and other capex.
A high volume factory is nothing like a steel shed on concrete slabs, a factory is a building that is very much optimized for its function, and yes, it's not hard to build them elsewhere but once you have them they are hard to move.
A nice example is the semiconductor industry, which used to be a United States / Europe affair and then after a brief detour through Japan ended up mostly in Taiwan, China and South Korea.