China crisis and Plan B

[Mark]

It seems, in a rare moment of astute forward planning, the government are wargaming various economic fallout scenarios that might arise should China's rhetoric over Taiwan evolve into something more geopolitically disruptive. 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/15/uk-rehearsing-economic-fallout-scenarios-if-china-invades-taiwan

With tongue firmly in cheek, I hope they're drawing up robust contingencies for the manufacture of future n gauge models.

Mark

[AlexanderJesse]

Looks as if Peco will be the main hope with their firm belief in "Made in UK"

[ntpntpntp]

Oh, I thought it was about the bands

[NinOz]

With tongue firmly in cheek, I hope they're drawing up robust contingencies for the manufacture of future n gauge models.

Mark

No worries.  Will be under the essential supplies category.

[Ali Smith]

During the episode of Hornby: A Model World in which their starter set was being re-designed there was a brief mention that the possibility of having it manufactured in India was being investigated. Clearly someone in the industry realises that the current arrangements may not be viable in the long term.

[joe cassidy]

I saw on the TV news that Apple are moving production of iphones to India.

[bigdawgks]

Any move out of China, even if inevitable, will unfortunately likely result in a noticeable drop in quality. It would be wise to first search for other locations that may be already producing model trains or similar products (model kits?). A lot of the institutional knowledge of factory workers would be lost if leaving China (unless you could bring some of the factory managers along). To offset this the manufacturing companies would need to spend more money hiring more skilled laborers and development time would take longer, so overall we would be looking at significant price increases. Makes you wonder if it'll be any better than just switching to domestic production.

Personally I think the days of good, affordable, mass produced ready to run trains are numbered. Either prices will continue to increase, quality decrease, or more people will take up kits and scratch building (3D printing will help sustain this). Not being able to keep production in China will quickly accelerate that change.

[emjaybee]

You do, however, need to bear in mind that India is very much leaning toward Russia. They're looking, currently, at building Russian armour under licence.

[joe cassidy]

India has had good relations with Russia since independence but is a fiercely independant country and they do what is their in their own interests and don't kow-tow to anyone.

There is already a huge American investment in IT in India.

That doesn't stop India from politely ignoring suggestions from the US about where they should buy petrol.