16 years ago we wanted to make some mandrel bent boost pipes. So T304 stainless pipe, 3 mandrel bends, a cut, then a tig welded section for a boost controller and a flange to bolt to throttle body. You get the idea. We found out china would make the whole thing for less than we could buy the straight section of 304 pipe for!
I doubt you can buy much metal that doesn't come from China these days. A lot of our steel mills are down never to return.
The companies over there probably get super cheap prices because they are selling company to company and no shipping between companies.
Or they are doing what Ford did when he started the model T. The whole car was made by Ford. Castings, Stamped metal, upholstery, etc. all by Ford. I think the only thing they didn't make was the tires, light bulbs, and possibly the wires in the wiring. GM used to make it's own wiring. GM's Packard division made wiring.
In an effort to create a company that can show imaginary/paper profits to keep investors happy, American companies will lease instead of buy and sub contract instead of making it themselves. It's a bad business model for long term stability & growth in my opinion. Samsung started by making 1 part of their TV's now they make about 98% of them. Grew like gangbusters over the years and not subject to another companies price gouging for a valuable part.
Beside the Chinese probably up charge raw material if it is shipped here because they have to make money and don't want us manufacturing them out of business.
There are many reasons why stuff produced in China is cheaper including:
* Non-Existent environmental restrictions
* Abundant workforce supply
* Wage structure is low, increasing but still low compared to western economies
* Certain
new business startups can get special financing for new factory buildings, automation and machinery
* New businesses often get special priorities
But now economic conditions in China are getting tougher with the decrease in the global economy, and certain major industries are moving out of China to Vietnam, Indonesia, and Philipines. China continues to supply certain key components but now the assembly and final mass production is frequently done outside of China. As China tries to move up the ladder designing/building higher $$ ticket industrial and consumer products. I have traveled to China @least 30 times over the last 15 years, developing/sourcing products and negotiating significant purchases by major business brands/clients, the total of many of these purchases are in the high multi-million $$... Without an on-site local, experienced, sourcing QA team, there are no guarantees about final product quality.
Just my $0.02...
