The Devil's Advocate

28

Don’t make it in China

Over the last decade, the manufacturing sectors of many Western economies have been eviscerated by the rush to ‘offshore’ to low-cost centres like China and India.

But recently, there seems to be a subtle shift in this tide. Jobs are coming home.

Partly this is due to China overheating. Real wage costs have increased 40 per cent in a year in some regions, and fickle workers will shift jobs for the smallest incentive. I’ve spoken to manufacturers who dread the Chinese New Year holiday as many of their workers simply don’t return afterwards. Compounding this are rising shipping costs and infrastructure hurdles (such as the ‘one-week traffic jam’ in one regional port), and concerns over rampant intellectual property ...