Sino-German Affairs

[below_freezing]

Acer and Lenovo selling more computers in Germany than HP



Acer und Lenovo verkaufen in Deutschland mehr Computer als HP | heise resale

PC sales are still very low profit though. The key is to do higher value added things. Lenovo is currently moving into smart TVs.

 

[Götterdämmerung]

PC sales are still very low profit though. The key is to do higher value added things. Lenovo is currently moving into smart TVs.

Indeed, but Lenovo is strong in corporate client side where the after sale service and support is very lucrative. Due to its IBM inheritance Lenovo has a broad corporate client base.

 

[danger007]

^^^ I bought new lenovo laptop...within two month got bubbles on paint just aside of touch pad ......my bad...don't know what to do...

 

[below_freezing]

Indeed, but Lenovo is strong in corporate client side where the after sale service and support is very lucrative. Due to its IBM inheritance Lenovo has a broad corporate client base.

I believe the PC market is already in its sunset days, including laptops. That's because of the dual pressures of rising component prices and price wars between the companies. Even after service is small cakes compared to the big fry. Lenovo is already moving towards tablets, optical equipment, TVs, phones, mainframes... basically, anything except PCs.

 

[danger007]

I believe the PC market is already in its sunset days, including laptops. That's because of the dual pressures of rising component prices and price wars between the companies. Even after service is small cakes compared to the big fry. Lenovo is already moving towards tablets, optical equipment, TVs, phones, mainframes... basically, anything except PCs.

im started hating lenovo,bad choice. i should prefer sony or dell instead of Lenovo...

 

[below_freezing]

im started hating lenovo,bad choice. i should prefer sony or dell instead of Lenovo...

All computer assembly companies very much the same, you know? Dell actually has cooling problems, which is much more dangerous than than paint problems.

 

[ashokdeiva]

The OP should have come up with a better title like "SINO - GERMAN PARNTERSHIP" or some thing like that,
the present title is a poor choice of word (Affairs) as if its about some extra - marital or premarital relationship between two opposite sex

 

[danger007]

All computer assembly companies very much the same, you know? Dell actually has cooling problems, which is much more dangerous than than paint problems.

But i liked lenovo at first... that is why i pick Lenovo...... but within short period got bubbles on paint......

 

[BoXilai]

I'm started hating lenovo,bad choice. i should prefer sony or dell instead of Lenovo...

Lenovo thinkpad W, T Series are very awesome. One of best choices for designers, programmers and businessmen. But Thinkpad does not belong to Chinese Technology.

 

[Götterdämmerung]

The OP should have come up with a better title like "SINO - GERMAN PARNTERSHIP" or some thing like that,
the present title is a poor choice of word (Affairs) as if its about some extra - marital or premarital relationship between two opposite sex

Err, the word affair comes from French (fr. à faire; lat. ad facere), which means what has to be done but also matter, business, case, issue and it was much later that the word also got the meaning of romance. It all depends on the context.

 

[Götterdämmerung]

China Goes Shopping for German Factories

By Aaron Kirchfeld on June 14, 2012

Germany’s midsize businesses, long considered the backbone of the country’s economy, for years scorned advances from Chinese companies. Then the global economy slumped and German companies stopped playing hard to get. So far this year, nine German “Mittelstand” companies, typically family-owned with fewer than 500 employees, have agreed to be acquired by Chinese buyers, bringing the total to 21 since the beginning of 2011. China surpassed the U.S. last year to become the largest foreign direct investor in Germany by number of deals. “Many Mittelstand companies ran into problems during the financial crisis,” says Christian von Stetten, a German lawmaker in Berlin who helps oversee a Mittelstand committee. “A Chinese investment can make sense and be a way out of the crisis.”

The biggest Chinese takeover came in January when Sany Heavy Industry agreed to buy Putzmeister Holding, Germany’s largest cement-pump maker, for $653 million, including debt. In 2009, Putzmeister’s sales had plunged by half, to €439 million ($549 million), prompting a restructuring and a search for an investor, according to Putzmeister Chief Executive Officer Norbert Scheuch. “Sany was love at first sight,” Scheuch says.

Not that long ago, German owners said they feared that Chinese buyers would dismantle their companies and cut or transfer jobs to China. That would have undermined a segment of Germany’s economy that employs 70 percent of the country’s 42 million workers and yields technological know-how in specialized niches such as machine building, solar power, and automotive supply. “There were concerns that, like American companies and some venture capitalists, the Chinese will suck a company dry, take the filet pieces out, and then dissolve it,” says Marc Tenbieg, head of the Deutscher Mittelstands-Bund (DMB), which represents more than 14,000 small and midsize enterprises.

Chinese purchasers have focused on distressed companies. In January, LDK Solar (LDK), China’s second-largest solar panel maker, agreed to buy Germany’s Sunways, one of the domestic panel makers struggling to cope with competition from Asia. Less than three months after the Sany transaction, China’s XCMG Group, a maker of construction machinery, agreed to buy Putzmeister’s main domestic competitor, Schwing. In March, Hebei Lingyun Industrial Group agreed to purchase Kiekert, the world’s largest supplier of car latches, which had been taken over by its creditors.

Chinese executives are easing German resistance with promises of job security and appeals to national pride. Sany plans to make Aichtal, the southwestern German town where Putzmeister is based, its global headquarters for concrete machinery outside of China. Sany also agreed to keep open all German production sites until 2015 and to avoid layoffs tied to the acquisition through 2020. It will use the German brand in all countries other than China, taking advantage of the “Made in Germany” cachet. Its goal is to boost Putzmeister’s annual sales to €2 billion by 2016, from €570 million in 2011.

These assurances seem to have won over the 3,000 employees at Putzmeister, which has built a reputation providing cement-pumping machines used to build the world’s tallest building in Dubai and to deal with the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan. “We prefer the Chinese because they have a long-term strategy, whereas Anglo-Saxon private equity firms are all about a quick turnaround,” says Sieghard Bender, a union leader who had organized protests against the takeover. “Sany will do everything to make the Putzmeister deal a success.”

The test for the Putzmeister and other takeovers will come if new owners start making management changes, closing factories, or firing workers, says Tenbieg, the Mittelstand representative. “At the moment everything looks rosy,” he says. “Now we have to see whether promises are kept.”

The bottom line: Sany’s $653 million purchase of Putzmeister highlights the increase in Chinese acquisitions of midsize German manufacturers.

Kirchfeld is a reporter for Bloomberg News in Frankfurt.

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This is a truly win-win situation for both of us!

 

[terranMarine]

I agree, better sell it to Chinese companies that really are interested in German companies. They are known for their quality and precision something that we think it's important and would want to keep "made in Germany" on the products. Many western companies only want to chop take overs into pieces and make large profits. Hopefully the market will get better but i doubt that the euro crisis can be solved that easily with many countries in financial problems. Lets hope these take overs can survive under Chinese management so these skilled workers can keep their jobs.

 

[Götterdämmerung]

This is very good for Lenovo and Germany

Lenovo considers moving part of PC production line to Germany

Staff Reporter
2012-06-06
10:27 (GMT+8)

A model shows off a Lenovo notebook at a computer fair in Hong Kong. (Photo/CNS)

Chinese electronics giant Lenovo is considering moving part of its PC production line to Germany to bridge a supply shortage in Europe, reports the Shanghai-based First Financial Daily.

Media outlets reported on Monday that Lenovo, which does not have its own factories in Europe, is considering producing computer parts through Medion AG, a German electronics manufacturer that has been majority-owned by Lenovo since last August. Medion owns a factory in the Soemmerda region in the central state of Thuringia.

"At present, we are looking at whether, in addition to Medion products, we could also produce Lenovo brand-name products in Soemmerda," Lenovo's Europe, Middle East and Africa regional manager Gianfranco Lanci was quoted as saying.

Despite reports that Lenovo will make a decision on the move by the end of the summer, a spokesperson told the First Financial Daily that it is merely a possibility and that the company has yet to make a decision.

Lenovo currently uses a supplier in Hungary as a European manufacturing base for some of its products. The company announced in 2007 a US$20 million investment into a factory and distribution center in Poland, but the plan fell apart in light of the global economic downturn and after the construction company signed to build the facility went bankrupt.

Analysts say Lenovo is restructuring its global business model this year and has once again turned its focus to the European market, which has seen sharp drops in shipments due to the EU sovereign debt crisis. Shipments of PCs in Western Europe were down to just 58.3 million, a drop-off of 16.3% from the previous period. Earlier in the year, Lanci was quoted as saying that he wanted to bring Lenovo into the top three in his region before the end of 2013.

The majority of Lenovo's manufacturing takes place in factories in China, Mexico and India. An industry insider says that while there may be supply shortages in Europe, relocating production to Germany is probably nothing more than wishful thinking on Lanci's part because of significantly higher labor costs.

An IT expert says moving a manufacturing line is a risky decision that requires a large-scale investment, and under the current circumstances there is no need for Lenovo to take this step. The economies of scale from producing in China are clear, and its manufacturing industry is also very mature, the expert added.

The expert told the First Financial Daily that there only three conceivable reasons why Lenovo might consider moving production to Germany. The first is to make special products for which China does not yet have the expertise to produce. The second is contractual obligations that would prevent Medion from shutting down production at its Soemmerda factory, and the third is government subsidies that make manufacturing more cost-effective in Germany.

Link: Lenovo considers moving part of PC production line to Germany

 

[Viet]

This is very good for Lenovo and Germany


Link: Lenovo considers moving part of PC production line to Germany

Sie klingen die ganze Zeit, als ob Sie ein Fan von China sind. Ich weiß die Chinesen sind gut, ja gut im Kopieren. Als Deutscher sollte man vorsichtig sein - im Umgang mit denen, was man verraten kann und was nicht. VW kann in China ein Lied davon singen. Da kopiert ihr Geschäftspartner ganze Automotoren und Getriebe, produziert sie and verkauft unter ihren Namen.

Anstatt China, Deutschland soll ihren Fokus verstärkt auf Vietnam richten. Vietnam und Deutschland unterhalten eine ‘Strategic Partnership’. Hier soll Deutschland mehr tun, um Vietnam zu unterstützen: wirtschaftlich, politisch und auch militärisch!

Nur ein starkes Vietnam kann ein Gegengewicht zu China spielen:

Ein militärich starkes Vietnam kann China von ihren Abenteuern in der Region abhalten.
Ein politisch starkes Vietnam gemeinsam mit anderen ASEAN Ländern ist ein ernsthafter Gesgprächspartner zu China.
Ein wirtschaftlich starkes Vietnam stellt eine Alternative zu China dar.

Dies alles liegt auch im Interesse Deutschlands.

 

[Audio]

Ein wirtschaftlich starkes Vietnam stellt eine Alternative zu China dar.

This is not really possible. You are too klein!

I agree on the first part though...would be interesting to see comrade's Götterdämmerung's opinion on this.