made in britain...

CLAPTON

we are the 6th largest manufacturing country

Kennyboy66

Really2 wrote: »

Indeed, I know many go mad at thatcher but the above does show how uncompetative we would have been if we had carried on building everything.

We can't compete on wages on cheap items. Most of the UK industry would have gone had we done nothing, IMHO embrasing service was a good move.

The problem was that the policies that led to the pound being massively over-valued ($2.40) got rid of a huge swathe of good manufacturing as well as the bad.

On the plus side, its hard to imagine much Japanese investment coming without the union law reforms. Without that its difficult to imagine any UK car industry at all.

Graham_Devon

Really2 wrote: »

We have 1000 pocket sprung memory foam matresses in our house all UK made.

How many do you need!?

Stud.

StevieJ

misskool wrote: »

well, he's in a factory making suits: £1.50/hour in china, 6 working days. labour costs = £4 per suit

Maybe someone should inform the Chinese proletariot that those suits are retailing for £100 in London

macaque_2

misskool wrote: »

interesting spin, value versus volume.

Moving the low-cost, high labour production to China where it's cheaper and the service industry which is high value and better paid for British worker. Only 20% of the retail price is paid in China, 80% of it stays in the UK.

In the case of speciality chemicals, that is a fallacy. Chinese prices are no longer cheap, especially for high spec materials. The German Chemical market is booming.

In recent years, UK chemical companies have focussed on blending imported chemicals (and making healthy margins for a few years). These companies are now faced with sourcing problems for the raw materials. They are also losing business to Indian and Chinese companies who are moving up the value chain. The UK chemical industry has now lost its critical mass. Trade shows, equipment companies, research facilities and service companies are all moving to where the action is.

globalds

Graphene looks like the next big revolutionary leap for engineering and electronics .....Lets hope the UK can get a piece of that action.

PasturesNew

Pimperne1 wrote: »

We could probably "make" ...... tin, ... beer, farm produce,

Lots of tin where I live, you just dig it out of the ground
And they make beer and produce food round here.

PasturesNew

globalds wrote: »

Graphene looks like the next big revolutionary leap for engineering and electronics .....Lets hope the UK can get a piece of that action.

There's this stuff been found:
http://www.southwestbusiness.co.uk/cornwall/Rare-expensive-element-South-Crofty/article-3200975-detail/article.html

A RARE element used to make iPods, mobile phones and flat screen televisions has been discovered at South Crofty, potentially worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
Indium is an important ingredient in the manufacture of touch-screen technology and a small amount is used to make every liquid crystal display screen, including laptops, digital clocks and GPS receivers.

Degenerate

PasturesNew wrote: »

We manufacture chavs... but nobody's managed to tap into the export market for those yet.

Kudos to Simon Cowell for at least making an attempt with Cheryl Cole.

Mr_Mumble

StevieJ wrote: »

Maybe someone should inform the Chinese proletariot that those suits are retailing for £100 in London

Chinese wages are going up by around 10% per annum in real terms (6% inflation, mid-teens wage increases) while British wages are falling 3% in real terms (2% wage inflation, 5% inflation). If I were Chinese I'd be pretty happy if this continues, whose children will be wealthier in a couple of decades? The Chinese!

My worry isn't that that the Chinese have a competitive advantage over Britain now (no point Rory Mcllroy doing his own gardening if the kid down the road will do it for £50 per hour) but what happens when the Chinese worker makes similar wages to those in Britain and they still have an economic advantage because of better transport infrastructure, lower taxes, less burdensome regulation, cheaper energy costs and a higher skills base.