Round Wood

[jeff...]

So I go to the BORG - because I needed a couple of pieces of quarter round like 8' long - no worries I thought it's just a little tiny piece of wood. Well they don't stock 1" quarter round. But being the wood working kinda guy I am - I buy a 8' long piece of 2" diameter poplar and figure I'll rip it on my table saw and make what I need - I'm embarrassed to say what I paid for this 2" diameter x 8' long piece of poplar - so don't ask.

Anyways, I take it up front to the oh so friendly cashier and happen to look real close at the little white bar code tag - It says Made in ??????? - Take a guess where and no it's not China nor is it Made in USA - Now this is POPLAR we are talking about here not some exotic lumber from far away lands - you know those trees that grow here in AMERICA - Poplar.

So can I venture to say - what we grow it here, cut it down here, maybe saw it here (maybe) maybe dry it here (maybe) put it on a boat, send it 1/2 across the world they spin it and make a 2" diameter piece, put it back on a boat, off loaded at port, put on a truck, delivered to a warehouse - delivered to BORG, stocked on a shelf by a BORG'ITE for me to purchase and what all the can be done cheaper over there - than right here in the USA? - WHAT AM I MISSING? I'm obviously stupid cause I just don't understand.

Thanks

 

[Mike Davis]

It's another example of the great race to send all of our hard earned wealth overseas and gratuitously make all people all over the world equal.

 

[Ozzie-x]

I read an article today by a botanist (or some other kind of official photosynthesis type guy) about yellow poplar, and according to him, yellow poplar only grows in the eastern portions of North America. So we roughly know where your high dollar 2" dowel at least started out. I'll guess Japan. I've read about the Japanese sawmill ships. Some of those load the rough logs in America, set sail, process the wood on the open seas and return back to America to off-load the final product without ever touching land.:eusa_thin

 

[jeff...]

I read an article today by a botanist (or some other kind of official photosynthesis type guy) about yellow poplar, and according to him, yellow poplar only grows in the eastern portions of North America. So we roughly know where your high dollar 2" dowel at least started out. I'll guess Japan. I've read about the Japanese sawmill ships. Some of those load the rough logs in America, set sail, process the wood on the open seas and return back to America to off-load the final product without ever touching land.:eusa_thin

Nope it's not Japan, but your dog gone close and I can say for certain there ain't no poplar that grows over there.

Yep I've also read about the sawmill ships, I'm just not getting it - how in the world can a log be processed cheaper at sea than on shore? I'm confused - someone enlighten please I'm missing something.

 

[woodArtz]

Just goes to show you... If you want it turned; turn it yourself :gar-La;. I guess Malaysia...

 

[jeff...]

Just goes to show you... If you want it turned; turn it yourself :gar-La;. I guess Malaysia...

Nope not Malaysia but the country does end in sia. The Dark Side - Nope

 

[woodArtz]

Distance from Raleigh to Indonesia... 10359 miles :gar-Bi

 

[jeff...]

Distance from Raleigh to Indonesia... 10359 miles :gar-Bi

You got it - that 2" diameter x 8' long peice of good ole home grown poplar was Made in Indonesia - at 20,718 miles round trip - that's some lumber run hu? Can someone PLEASE explain how this works - I mean I know I don't get out much but how in the world can a log from a poplar tree grown right here in our neck of the woods go all the way to Indonesia to be made into a big dowel and be sent back here for cheaper than we could do it right here at home? - someone please help me understand I must be stupid.

 

[Bas]

You got it - that 2" diameter x 8' long peice of good ole home grown poplar was Made in Indonesia - at 20,718 miles round trip - that's some lumber run hu?

I guess that's the one good side of oil prices getting so high. It will make more and more sense to grow, process and sell stuff locally. Plus, we get to keep some skills around too that otherwise may die out. And it's good for the environment too. Now if only it didn't make gas so expensive...

 

[FredP]

I dont get it either jeff. :dontknow: maybe if we put our heads together we could figure it out!:widea: or maybe we would just come up with a half wit tween the both of us......:rotflm: Free trade is a oxymoron. WE PAY FOR IT!

 

[NZAPP1]

- at 20,718 miles round trip - that's some lumber run hu?

See I told you a Greensboro run would not be to bad :gar-La;:gar-La; sure a lot shorter then that run :swoon:

 

[ptt49er]

..., I'm just not getting it - how in the world can a log be processed cheaper at sea than on shore? I'm confused - someone enlighten please I'm missing something.

Because of TAXES, local, state, and federal, and big Gov't Regulations. It's cheaper for the company to ship it out and then ship it back.

 

[Travis Porter]

Don't forget the liability insurance as that adds a tidy sum to it all as well.

 

[CaptnA]

<poof>

just one more brain cell imploding from the sadness of it all
probably makes sense to someone, just not me

 

[DaveD]

Look at those little tags on produce and see where some of your vegetables come from.:no::nah::tongue2::realmad:

Also I have a container of Dole peaches that says the peaches are a product of the USA and packaged in Thailand. Makes me want to gag.:kamahlitu

If the world ever wants to screw over us big time all they have to do is stop all dealings with us for a month or so. 30 years ago I thought we had the upper hand with these foreign countries. Now I'm not so sure. We could probably still cause them problems by not shipping scrap steel overseas and stopping all food exports to other countries though. Let em gag on all their stinkin oil (amongst other things).

 

[gator]

Just some assumptions and some very rough math:

Let's say one person can do 30 an hour (one every two minutes - loading the machine, automatic turning, unloading the machine). USA costs are $20/hr (wages, overhead, insurance, taxes, fringes, etc), Offshore costs are 25¢/hr = almost 66¢ difference each piece. Typical shipment of 200000 pieces = $132,000 difference in cost. $132K pays a lot of freight and profit.

Numbers may be off but the theory is good.

George

 

[jerrye]

Simple economics. Supply vs. demand.

I sell a product that originally was produced in US, then went to Mexico, now mostly produced in Asia. The percentage of Asian sourced product sold in US is 90%+. There are still producers in the US; how they survive I don't know. A customer recently told me he had a US producer quote him. The same bag he can source in Asia for ~$13, and can source in Mexico for ~$18, he was quoted ~$27 by the US maker. The reason? Cost. Labor? Mostly, combined with higher cost of doing business. We are so idiotic in our willingness to sue that liability insurance costs are now, according to what I hear, the highest cost of doing business in the US. That's a driving reason why doctors are getting out of practice. Yes, we've largely done it to ourselves. The cat's out of the bag now, so...?

 

[DavidF]

I think this sums it up really. US costs are just so high because we want the life style we have. Others are in the position where the costs are much cheaper. In fact, with the quantities involved the cost does not even need to be that much cheaper; a 100,000 of any saving is a lot of cash. Another example, a Chinese customer of ours said that they would buy a pick and place machine ($250,000) IF we we put a full time engineer on site for 12 months!!! We did just that, a fully trained GOOD guy for $60 a month, yes $60! we got the sale. Can you imagine trying to do that over here?

I am sure it will all come full circle as these emerging countries aspire to the good life and costs rise, it happened with Mexico and is happening in China, eventually there will be so few cheap manufacturing bases left that the work will come back. I hope!

 

[jerrye]

pick and place machine

David, are you in the packaging equipment business?

 

[DavidF]

David, are you in the packaging equipment business?

No, surface mount component assembly for the electronics Industry. And yep, they are all still threatening to outsource....