Made in China, Bought in India

[ccpp]

BY David Shaftel
Mumbai




It’s time to take a Flawed and poor-quality Chinese goods have repeatedly threatened to bring the already-tenuous Sino-India trade relations to a head, but the perception that Indian consumers will not buy Chinese goods because they are of a comparatively lower quality no longer holds true, said Indian businesses representatives who were present at the Hong Kong Trade Development Council-sponsored Lifestyle Expo held in Mumbai on Friday.

Although one would expect that there was much more than low prices at stake, SS Biradar, president of the Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association, insists that price is often the sole consideration of most Indian buyers.

“The price is the bottom line. Chinese products will not last as long as Indian products, but Indian consumers will buy them because they are cheap,” he said.

Donald Tsang, head of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, who was a speaker at the expo’s inaugural ceremony on Thursday, said trade between China and India was proceeding at a rapid pace. “In the first eight months of this year, the value of our total trade grew by nearly 43 per cent, as compared to the same period last year,” he said.

Tsang was part of a delegation from Hong Kong and Guangdong that included Guangdong Governor Huang Huahua and Fred Lam, executive director, Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC).

“Our bilateral trade for the first eight months this year was $40.3 billion and the whole year’s trade volume is expected to total over $60 billion,” said Fred Lam of the HKTDC, adding: “Trade is now a vital link between our two countries.”

The three-day trade fair is aimed at linking more than 160 vendors of Chinese electronics, household goods, fashion apparel and accessories with Indian retail vendors, such as Biradar, who see a future in durable goods imported from China.

Asked to comment on the alleged substandard quality of Chinese goods, Ramesh Srinivas, executive director (consumer markets) at KPMG in India said that the perception that Chinese goods are of excessively low quality is diminishing. “Many companies get around this by selling products made in China, but branded locally,” he said.

Take the case of mobile phones sold under the Tata and Reliance brand names, which are made in China, Srinivas said, as are many kitchen appliances sold by the Indian company TKK Prestige.

A lot of electronic goods as well as plastic goods are sold under the banner of Indian brands these days, Srinivas said, adding: “But the perception that Chinese goods are of lower quality is starting to go away. It’s more of brand perception that anything,” he said.

Some traders said that though Chinese goods were cheaper, Indian consumers “would buy them and throw them away soon as they break.” An official at the India Trade Promotion Organisation, who declined to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said that any economic or political rivalry would not play in the minds of the Indian consumer, as long as prices remain competitive.

Interestingly, Manu Melwani, the owner of the renowned Sam’s Tailor of Hong Kong, who also attended the expo, took the opposite tack, saying that selling high-end tailored suits in India was a better strategy.

“Indians recognise quality,” he said. “There is so much wealth here. It seems Indians will buy anything as long as it is expensive.”

Although the “Made in China” label might not enjoy much acceptance in India, Indian traders at the expo said the quality of Chinese products exported to India has improved considerably, though further progress is necessary.
Posted on October 29, 2010

Tehelka - India's Independent Weekly News Magazine

Help me out here, if indian think chinese goods are cheap, Why are there so many indian still buy from china? Pay more and buy Japanese items instead.

 

[Peacefulll]

BY David Shaftel
Mumbai




It’s time to take a Flawed and poor-quality Chinese goods have repeatedly threatened to bring the already-tenuous Sino-India trade relations to a head, but the perception that Indian consumers will not buy Chinese goods because they are of a comparatively lower quality no longer holds true, said Indian businesses representatives who were present at the Hong Kong Trade Development Council-sponsored Lifestyle Expo held in Mumbai on Friday.

Although one would expect that there was much more than low prices at stake, SS Biradar, president of the Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association, insists that price is often the sole consideration of most Indian buyers.

“The price is the bottom line. Chinese products will not last as long as Indian products, but Indian consumers will buy them because they are cheap,” he said.

Donald Tsang, head of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, who was a speaker at the expo’s inaugural ceremony on Thursday, said trade between China and India was proceeding at a rapid pace. “In the first eight months of this year, the value of our total trade grew by nearly 43 per cent, as compared to the same period last year,” he said.

Tsang was part of a delegation from Hong Kong and Guangdong that included Guangdong Governor Huang Huahua and Fred Lam, executive director, Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC).

“Our bilateral trade for the first eight months this year was $40.3 billion and the whole year’s trade volume is expected to total over $60 billion,” said Fred Lam of the HKTDC, adding: “Trade is now a vital link between our two countries.”

The three-day trade fair is aimed at linking more than 160 vendors of Chinese electronics, household goods, fashion apparel and accessories with Indian retail vendors, such as Biradar, who see a future in durable goods imported from China.

Asked to comment on the alleged substandard quality of Chinese goods, Ramesh Srinivas, executive director (consumer markets) at KPMG in India said that the perception that Chinese goods are of excessively low quality is diminishing. “Many companies get around this by selling products made in China, but branded locally,” he said.

Take the case of mobile phones sold under the Tata and Reliance brand names, which are made in China, Srinivas said, as are many kitchen appliances sold by the Indian company TKK Prestige.

A lot of electronic goods as well as plastic goods are sold under the banner of Indian brands these days, Srinivas said, adding: “But the perception that Chinese goods are of lower quality is starting to go away. It’s more of brand perception that anything,” he said.

Some traders said that though Chinese goods were cheaper, Indian consumers “would buy them and throw them away soon as they break.” An official at the India Trade Promotion Organisation, who declined to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said that any economic or political rivalry would not play in the minds of the Indian consumer, as long as prices remain competitive.

Interestingly, Manu Melwani, the owner of the renowned Sam’s Tailor of Hong Kong, who also attended the expo, took the opposite tack, saying that selling high-end tailored suits in India was a better strategy.

“Indians recognise quality,” he said. “There is so much wealth here. It seems Indians will buy anything as long as it is expensive.”

Although the “Made in China” label might not enjoy much acceptance in India, Indian traders at the expo said the quality of Chinese products exported to India has improved considerably, though further progress is necessary.
Posted on October 29, 2010

Tehelka - India's Independent Weekly News Magazine

Help me out here, if indian think chinese goods are cheap, Why are there so many indian still buy from china? Pay more and buy Japanese items instead.

Why only India, even the US, Europe and the entire Western world buys Chinese stuff. Wal-mart stores are FULL of Chinese stuff. Yet Chinese goods are called cheap and crap.

Its a stereotype of your country that was built in this decade. This stereotype should gradually go away in the next 6-10 years.

 

[Jackdaws]

A lot of products are made in China. But the point is that brand plays an important part in the buying psyche. Today if I buy an Apple iPod, a Samsung Galaxy or an Onida LCD - neither of these will be made in USA, Korea or India respectively - all will be made in China. But I am paying as much for the product as I am the brand associated with it because quality perceptions as well as because of guaranteed service backup if needed. If I buy a Chinese product name Blackcherry it could break down tomorrow and I could do nothing about it.

 

[Abhishek_]

relax CCPP, the perceptions are based on the past experiences and cheaper prices (which were necessary to enter the market). The quality has been going up consistently and over time this negative perception will change as well. Patience my friend, Patience.

 

[below_freezing]

cheap =/= lack of quality, expensive =/= quality.

handmade suits in britain before industrialization were several times as expensive as machine made suits a decade later.

likewise, an illiterate, uneducated indian worker trying to put a DVD player together by hand can never beat an automated machine in china operated by skilled engineers doing the same.

 

[Abhishek_]

hypocrite, Peacefull is the one trolling.

Most developing nations (China and India included) have a similar stereotype freeze. I don't think he was being demeaning to china.
Seems to me CCPP is deliberately mixing business deals and nationlistic sentiments, I've noticed his demeaning posts on other threads as well.
As for peacefull, if he continues this way, You and I both know how long he will last here.

 

[Hafizzz]

FYI :

Many made in China products are not Chinese products at all. They are Western products assembled in China. Westerners that used to assemble these products lost their jobs and are angry at the Chinese people. However, many of these Westerners who hate the Chinese factory workers don't know that these Chinese workers are actually victims themselves. They are way under paid (they get paid peanuts working to assemble Western products) but instead of sympathizings
these victims the Western Media chose to bash them by labeling them as "Job Thieves".

Westerners (mostly American factory workers) should be angry at their own business people who exploit Chinese workers so that they can maximize their own profits.

And by the ways, have you heard of the saying "You get what you paid for" ??? American companies pay China peanuts for cranking out
products but yet American consumers want maximum quality for minimum pay. Will USA sell F-35 for $30 to China ? The answer is NO !! USA will sell $30 worth of F-35 plastic plane and not the real one.

 

[below_freezing]

FYI :

Many made in China products are not Chinese products at all. They are Western products assembled in China. Westerners that used to assemble these products lost their jobs and are angry at the Chinese people. However, many of these Westerners who hate the Chinese factory workers don't know that these Chinese workers are actually victims themselves. They are way under paid (they get paid peanuts working to assemble Western products) but instead of sympathizings
these victims the Western Media chose to bash them by labeling them as "Job Thieves".

Westerners (mostly American factory workers) should be angry at their own business people who exploit Chinese workers so that they can maximize their own profits.

And by the ways, have you heard of the saying "You get what you paid for" ??? American companies pay China peanuts for cranking out
products but yet American consumers want maximum quality for minimum pay. Will USA sell F-35 for $30 to China ? The answer is NO !! USA will sell $30 worth of F-35 plastic plane and not the real one.

By now, the only part of an ipod that's american is the box.

1.) the circuit boards and other parts are designed and printed by one of hundreds of no-name companies. This step is necessarily automated.

2.) the screen is designed and produced by another (though large) no-name company that specializes in optronics. there's at least 10 in my city alone. This step is also necessarily automated.

3.) they're assembled at a very large plant that buys from local factories which mass produce components, puts them together, sticks it in a no-name box and sells them at a higher price to the western vendor

4.) the goods are delivered to the western vendor one month later.

5.) they're then packaged with the Western name, and sold to the final consumer at 3x the regular price.

here's the value chain:

for every 10 USD the western vendor (which only packaged the product, it might have not even designed it; it definitely did not design the circuit board, chips or screen) makes, about 3 USD is given to the assembler, 1 USD of that is given to the component manufacturers, and 50 cents is given to the workers overall.

in the end: the engineers who design circuits and screens are not paid. the workers who assemble things are not paid. even our bosses aren't paid as much as they should be. western consumers are ripped off. only western business wins.

 

[9870]

cheap =/= lack of quality, expensive =/= quality.

handmade suits in britain before industrialization were several times as expensive as machine made suits a decade later.

likewise, an illiterate, uneducated indian worker trying to put a DVD player together by hand can never beat an automated machine in china operated by skilled engineers doing the same.

“The price is the bottom line. Chinese products will not last as long as Indian products, but Indian consumers will buy them because they are cheap,” he said.

 

[StingRoy]

Without getting into the India China bashing, I will give you my opinion of how things are in the US. Just recently I spoke to a friend of mine, who had given his car for brake replacement. I asked him.. you just did that a few months back, to which he replied ... yeah man... Chinese parts don't last long.

Then I asked which brake pads did you go for this time, he said American made because even if it was twice the cost you save up the labor cost and save the time spent. I asked him did you check if the brakes were indeed American made... he said he wasn't sure... but he knew it was an American brand.

The point is that while some Chinese goods do undercut other in terms of price, I have generally seen that the brand makes a lot of difference. I use Apple and IBM products and they are all made in China, but in quality terms, they are the best. But I would think twice if I were buying an "iFone" (instead of iPhone) or "Thinkdad" (instead of Thinkpad)

 

[ccpp]

Most developing nations (China and India included) have a similar stereotype freeze. I don't think he was being demeaning to china.
Seems to me CCPP is deliberately mixing business deals and nationlistic sentiments, I've noticed his demeaning posts on other threads as well.
As for peacefull, if he continues this way, You and I both know how long he will last here.

Ha Ha, for telling the turth, if you consider as demeaning post.

 

[below_freezing]

Without getting into the India China bashing, I will give you my opinion of how things are in the US. Just recently I spoke to a friend of mine, who had given his car for brake replacement. I asked him.. you just did that a few months back, to which he replied ... yeah man... Chinese parts don't last long.

Then I asked which brake pads did you go for this time, he said American made because even if it was twice the cost you save up the labor cost and save the time spent. I asked him did you check if the brakes were indeed American made... he said he wasn't sure... but he knew it was an American brand.

The point is that while some Chinese goods do undercut other in terms of price, I have generally seen that the brand makes a lot of difference. I use Apple and IBM products and they are all made in China, but in quality terms, they are the best. But I would think twice if I were buying an "iFone" (instead of iPhone) or "Thinkdad" (instead of Thinkpad)

Thinkpad? IBM? You mean Lenovo, Chinese brand headquartered in Beijing, manufacturer of the LENOVO (not IBM branded) ThinkPad R500 and owner of the IBM division of PCs, which I am using to type to you right now?

 

[true_indian]

hahaha...You calling us hypocrite. What about chinese 'peaceful'? Wasn't he a troll. You were happy with thanking him for calling us loosers.

 

[true_indian]

Thinkpad? IBM? You mean Lenovo, Chinese brand headquartered in Beijing, manufacturer of the LENOVO (not IBM branded) ThinkPad R500 and owner of the IBM division of PCs, which I am using to type to you right now?

But Lenovo was inorganically bought. China didn't develop it from scratch.

 

[below_freezing]

But Lenovo was inorganically bought. China didn't develop it from scratch.

do you seriously think that a personal computer is high tech stuff? heres a nice hint: nothing consumer is high tech, because consumers don't know how to use high tech. only capital goods are high tech. why do we need to reinvent the wheel for something low tech like this? Lenovo buying IBM was a business move designed to make money, not to acquire technology we had in 1980.