Increased cost of imported machinery?
#21
(11-11-2016, 09:48 PM)AHill Wrote: Time will tell, but if you look at the costs over the last 10 years of imported goods from China and Taiwan, they have risen quite dramatically.  I purchased my Powermatic PM2000 table saw (Taiwan made, 3HP, 50 in fence) in 2008 for about $2200, delivered.  Can't touch it for less than around $3300 now.  That's a lot more than inflation.

The going price for the PM2000 3hp 50" is just under $2900, and the usual sale price is about $2600.
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#22
Don't expect a trade war, which is what tariffs would lead to. And, as said above, it would dramatically increase the price to the US consumer on most basic mfg goods, leading to a potential recession. Just not gonna happen.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!" Arthur 'Big Guy' Carlson
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#23
lil

I don't think the costs to put it on a boat and ship it over will skyrocket, they will change just as they have over the last 15 years or so. Now the cost to get it into our borders will most certainly skyrocket "if" the trade imbalance is corrected, that is after all what the Prez elect has been talking about. The USA has been on the backward side of the trade deals for a long time. They, being any other country including our buddies, charge hefty import taxes on American built widgets, to protect their own widget makers livelihoods. Now their products are hardly taxed at all, or HF would have failed 2 months after inception. America can't pay an adult wage, even if it is the minimum wage against products made by slaves and children that make pennies a week. Yet HF brings in trinkets, and sells them to us for less than our companies can make the packaging for them, given a minimum wage.
Worst thing they can do is cook ya and eat ya

GW
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#24
I wouldn't worry about it.  Our imports were something like $670 billion a year or two ago, and we exported something like $630 billion.  There's a big gap in the two, but the folks who export that $640 billion aren't going to want to see a trade war.  In the end, decisions will be made not on what's good for the American consumer.  They will be made on what's good for American business, as they always have been.  If you look back, the current President went into office saying very much the same as the new guy with regards to trade, but has done the opposite.  Stump speeches and governing are two different things.  

John
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#25
Tariffs always sound good but the whipsaw is retaliatory tariffs. China is somewhat different, as people forget they are communists playing capitalists. It's "China, Inc." and they go to lengths to protect their domestic industries with tariffs and murky regulation. Foreign investors so salivate at the market potential they accept these restrictions. But I think there is going to br a lower level of foreign investment over time. Witness Uber, a very profitable business model, abandons the China market. More of this will happen.
Credo Elvem ipsum etiam vivere
Non impediti ratione cogitationis
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#26
(11-12-2016, 04:03 PM)jteneyck Wrote: Stump speeches and governing are two different things.  

John

Exactly why I said "if" the trade imbalance is corrected.
Big Grin
Worst thing they can do is cook ya and eat ya

GW
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#27
Well, I can tell you that MicroJig products are all made in the US except their new clamps. There is no clamp forging capability left in the US.

Kreg is also virtually all made in the US if not all US. And FastCap has been working for eight years now to bring all of their manufacturing back to the US.

Larger equipment is a different story, but you do have some options.
Ralph Bagnall
www.woodcademy.com
Watch Woodcademy TV free on our website.
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#28
Maybe someone mentioned this already, but "Made in USA" doesn't always mean "made in the USA" anymore.
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#29
(11-15-2016, 10:16 PM)daddo Wrote: Maybe someone mentioned this already, but "Made in USA" doesn't always mean "made in the USA" anymore.

The interesting thing is the US has the most stringent laws in the world regarding "Made in the USA" and any indication of that without even specific language such as using the US flag on products, it also has one of the most aggressive postures towards enforcement.  So you will not seen much if any "Made in the US" claims that aren't accurate for very long.  You will however see use of Assembled in the US with global components etc such as Dewalt is using.  There are very few woodworking machines left being made in the US, it is possible to build out a new shop with nothing but US built machines but the basic 5 machines (TS, DP, BS, jointer and planer) are going to run you near 6 figures.
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#30
(11-12-2016, 04:42 PM)Admiral Wrote: Tariffs always sound good but the whipsaw is retaliatory tariffs.  China is somewhat different, as people forget they are communists playing capitalists. It's "China, Inc." and they go to lengths to protect their domestic industries with tariffs and murky regulation. Foreign investors so salivate at the market potential they accept these restrictions. But I think there is going to br a lower level of foreign investment over time. Witness Uber, a very profitable business model, abandons the China market. More of this will happen.

It seems like just leveling the playing field and remove incentives to 'offshore' might go quite a ways. I remember years ago ('70s?)a reason given for the U.S. inability to compete with Germany & Japan was that they had modern factories due to their old industrial base being destroyed. Many U.S. plants were WWII/post WWII vintage. I've wondered if there was an unspoken policy to let the postwar U.S. industrial base 'expire'. Then the environmental movement didn't exactly encourage rebuilding 'dirty' industry.
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