Lembram-se do banhista gordo?

Lembram-se do banhista gordo?

Confrontar com "Logistics Bottlenecks Hamper Efforts to Produce Less in China":

"Companies looking to move some production from China to other Asian countries to avoid mounting U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports face significant bumps in the road.
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Manufacturers and supply-chain experts say logistics infrastructure in Southeast Asia, where many goods-makers are scouting for new production sites, remains far less developed than China’s long-established connections between factories, suppliers and customers around the world.
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Poor roads, sparse rail lines and congested ports in Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia and other potential manufacturing destinations in Southeast Asia have stretched out delivery schedules and raised shipping costs, according to manufacturing and transportation company executives, even as companies have migrated some factory work to the region in the past decade in search of lower labor costs.
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Even before U.S. tariffs, factory work in Southeast Asia has been growing as companies have sought lower costs while wages and other expenses in China have increased. That manufacturing migration has taken on more urgency for some producers as the trade conflict between the U.S. and Washington has heated up, with a new round of back-and-forth tariffs this spring and threats of higher levies this summer."

Para reflexão

"If the trend continues, Africa could become the world’s next great manufacturing center, taking that role over from China itself.
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What It Could Deliver
Such an industrial revolution could lead to 100 million jobs, a new pool of globally competitive manufacturing companies, and the elimination of extreme poverty in Africa."

Não creio que seja relevante para os países africanos substituírem a China como exportadores de bens low-cost para a Europa e Estados Unidos, mas será muito relevante para criar um mercado de consumidores em África e reduzir a pobreza.

"Over the past few years, I’ve talked to nearly 50 Chinese manufacturing entrepreneurs across half a dozen African countries. In the following pages I describe how their investments are transforming Africa’s economy and society by providing millions of Africans with formal employment for the first time, fostering a generation of African entrepreneurs, and inspiring African institutions to support vibrant manufacturing clusters. These entrepreneurs are not saints, of course. Bribery, poor working conditions, and problematic environmental practices are pervasive. But Chinese manufacturers are arriving in larger and larger numbers in Africa, and manufacturing—unlike natural resources or services—leads to the possibility of industrialization. An industrial revolution in Africa: This is no longer a far-fetched notion." 

Trechos retirados de "The World’s Next Great Manufacturing Center"

África será a novo destino do low-cost?

Os gafanhotos do low-cost andam sempre à procura da próxima zona para onde deslocalizar, assim que a actual começa a dar sinais de saturação. Recordar:

• Lembram-se do "banhista gordo"?;
• O efeito do banhista gordo (parte II);
• O efeito do "banhista gordo"

Além do efeito do "banhista gordo" há que ter em conta as rivalidades políticas ancestrais, em "Vietname. Milhares de manifestantes incendeiam 15 fábricas chinesas":

"Uma manifestação em que participaram cerca de 20 mil pessoas em várias cidades na província de Binh Doung provocou o incêndio de 15 unidades industriais estrangeiras instaladas no Sul do Vietname. Na sequência desses incidentes mais de 400 pessoas foram detidas.
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A maioria das propriedades localizadas no Parque Industrial Vietname-Singapura I & II (VSIP) foram atacadas por manifestantes que estão indignados contra a instalação pela China de uma plataforma de petróleo no mar do Sul da China em território reclamado pela China e pelo Vietname."

Ver também "Vietnamese mobs ransack foreign factories in anti-China violence":

"“Countless Taiwanese factories were set on fire, smashed and ransacked,” said Hsieh Shuting, vice secretary-general of the Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce, in Vietnam on Thursday. “A large number of Taiwanese businessmen are evacuating Vietnam for Taiwan.”
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There were reports on Thursday that several hundred Chinese workers had fled Vietnam via a border crossing into Cambodia to avoid the violence.
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The attacks have echoes of violent protests against Japanese companies in China in 2012 related to a separate dispute over the Senkaku Islands – which Beijing claims and calls the Diaoyu – in the East China Sea."

Tudo a contribuir para dar mais força a esta corrente "Lição para os portugueses: nunca confiar no low-cost". África será a novo destino do low-cost?