Tuesday 16 June 2009

Manufacturing And Importing Your Product From Asia

By Davina Cruella Sandwich

For many many years now, companies have been having their products mass-manufactured in Asia, usually in and around Southern China as this is now recognised as the global manufacturing centre of the world.

The reason for this is that you get a lot more for your money in China than you do pretty much anywhere else because of the exchange rate, a single unit of their currency (Yuan) is worth far less than a single unit of ours.

That is pretty much the main reason that a lot of companies source their products from Asia. I mean, what more reason does a company need to do something if its going to save them lots of money in the long term? But there are some other advantages, and a few disadvantages.

The advantages are few, but still obliterate the disadvantages in my opinion. Of course the main one, price is a big factor as I previously mentioned. There are 11.2 Chinese Yuan for every 1 British pound so you do get a lot more for your money.

The second advantage I will mention is how close you can get to the Chinese trade industry, which is of course advantageous, and thirdly you will probably end up a lot closer to your raw materials, therefore saving money on that as well.

One of the main disadvantages of this, is the cost of importing the products from China. This can be seen as extra expenditure, but compared with the money saved on the manufacturing, I would say this bares an insignificance.

Another disadvantage is the shipping time. Now this might be more of a disadvantage as it may actually result in loss of turnover, depending how demanding your market niche is. Also, although the good sourcing companies will ensure that you get the best service, there may be some issues of quality in the beginning as the workers get used to making a new product. As well as the fact that you cant predict the local conditions very easily, financially or otherwise.

In summary, it is my personal belief that sourcing form low cost countries such as Southern China is far more advantageous to businesses than domestic sourcing.

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