Toyota to stop manufacturing in 2017

[Woodchukka]

What do equivalent workers earn in the US? What about in Europe? What about in Asia?

Will stand to be corrected however have been told some US companies have moved manufacturing back to US as GFC hurt wage rates over there and are now more competitive on world stage.

[mjrandom]

The US has cheap reliable energy and transport costs. Labour is cheaper than here but not as cheap as Asian or Africa. Business is a combination of all sorts of costs, labour, power, infrastructure, logistics and materials etc etc so it all depends how the balance is made up as to whether business is viable or not. To solely blame high wages for the car industry in Australia failing is as dumb as blaming the current government. The demise has happened over a long time and several governments and no single issue is at fault. We have too much choice of what to buy, the top seller now sells significantly fewer cars than the same position 10 or 15 years ago. Volume is where costs can be amortised and if we are only making for a reduced home market with a token export market then we have no chance to compete.

It saddens me that the industry and the supporting manufacturers will be gone but as I understand it Ford and GM had made their decision pretty much regardless of what was offfered from the government coffers.

I posted before some options that could have been used to help support the car industry here, no LCT on local manufacture, no FBT on local manufacture, reintroduce tariffs etc but these wont make the industry sustainable. The other issue that is hard to fix is the perception problem. On another forum there is a thread about luxury cars. What luxury car can I get for $40k etc. These people are not talking about luxury cars they are talking about European cars and think European equals luxury. Go for a pedal in a poverty pack BMW or Mercedes and then the same spend in a Calais. I know which offers more features and higher levels of luxury. I also know which I would buy. I have had mates laugh openly at me spending $100k on a Commode. So I ask them what are the alternatives? They can't answer that and then I take them for a drive and they shut up altogether.

[planetdavo]

That's how things used to be until Hawke/Keating changed the rules.

Why did they change the rules? Because our cars were uncompetitive on a world stage, and uncompetitive industries don't lead to having a productive workforce. Look how good our cars are now compared to other counties' cars.

When every local manufacturer shuts up shop you have to look at why. In this country, people simply get paid too much for us to compete in this area. Fortunately none of these companies are our biggest manufacturer. Also, the commercial media loves these stories. Do peoplel realise that over the past few years the IT industry in Australia has lost WAY more jobs that all our local car manufacturers combined? The Australian economy is changing, as it always has, and as individuals it is far better to look to the future and seek out and act on opportunity than mourn the ways things used to be.

The unfortunate reality is that, whilst the Button Plan gave us better local cars, it also started banging nails in the manufacturing industry coffin.
Plans like that come from an idealistic world of everyone being "equals", but as we all (now) know, the world ain't even close to being full of "equal" countries.
I suspect that the next recession in this country is going to be mighty painful if mining and tourism get hit hard...

[XUV]

last time i heard ford, GM and toyota are far from broke. ford and GM paying back massive loans since the GFC. We were spending far too much money subsidising these companies, good money after bad
s!

yes, why is it we give this money to whom ever? Why isn't it a loan ?
The American Gov and Warren lent the money at 5% , and with the CPI at sweet fuk all to 2% , that's a 3% return, not to shabby in this climate.

We shouldn've got rid of our nuclear program , we need more scientist and engineers of every sort and we need courses for the specialized
then we'd be smarter and working smarter.

The money that was going to the car makers must be spent to retool and retrain the ex workers and the parts makers .

on the car front , this is what we're up against and when the local demand is satisfied , get ready for a car dump.

It is the world’s largest manufacturing nation and in 2012 China built 19.27 million vehicles up from just 2.1 million in the year 2000.
That year the US built 10.5 million vehicles, Japan 9.9 million, Germany 5.6 million Korea 4.6 million.
http://www.news.com.au/national/aust...-1226824729488

[Micks]

Sellers of nearly anything will charge what the market will bear. If someone in Australia is silly enought to pay $260k for a Porsche that can be bought for $90k in the US, or $90k for a large ute that can be bought for $30k in the US, why wouldn't they sell it for that?

That's just my point exactly!!

[planetdavo]

Sellers of nearly anything will charge what the market will bear. If someone in Australia is silly enought to pay $260k for a Porsche that can be bought for $90k in the US, or $90k for a large ute that can be bought for $30k in the US, why wouldn't they sell it for that?

Oh so true...for people that understand the way the world works.
Same reason a house on a block of dirt costs so much in this country now. People will pay it.
Earn decent bucks on average in a country, and the cost of everything in that country matches it. People believing they can have the expenses of a cheaper country with the pay packet of an expensive country really is head in the clouds sort of stuff.

[Plenty]

Don't like unions! what about professional associations too?

Doesn't like unions, means more money to line his pockets with. Typically the so called "professional" world can't stand the fact that trades people earn more than them. It hurts even more because they are still paying of their HECs fees 30 years on. People are paid what it needs to keep them working, if demand in other sectors draws labour away for money it's only natural that other sectors increase the wages to retain employees.

[planetdavo]

Doesn't like unions, means more money to line his pockets with. Typically the so called "professional" world can't stand the fact that trades people earn more than them. It hurts even more because they are still paying of their HECs fees 30 years on. People are paid what it needs to keep them working, if demand in other sectors draws labour away for money it's only natural that other sectors increase the wages to retain employees.

When the mining boom ends, there's going to be some massive pain coming the "tradies" way...

[Plenty]

That's how things used to be until Hawke/Keating changed the rules.

Why did they change the rules? Because our cars were uncompetitive on a world stage, and uncompetitive industries don't lead to having a productive workforce. Look how good our cars are now compared to other counties' cars.

When every local manufacturer shuts up shop you have to look at why. In this country, people simply get paid too much for us to compete in this area. Fortunately none of these companies are our biggest manufacturer. Also, the commercial media loves these stories. Do peoplel realise that over the past few years the IT industry in Australia has lost WAY more jobs that all our local car manufacturers combined? The Australian economy is changing, as it always has, and as individuals it is far better to look to the future and seek out and act on opportunity than mourn the ways things used to be.

My dad worked in the electronics industry in the mid 80's and into the mid 90's in Australia and it was a very busy industry. Panasonic, NEC and companies like Phillips etc all made quality products here but again the Asian manufacturing industry took over and did it cheaper. He now works in the construction industry (office based). Just goes to show if you look right back then the writing was on the wall, only we couldn't see it.

[Plenty]

When the mining boom ends, there's going to be some massive pain coming the "tradies" way...

No, the tradies will be fine, it's the boys and girls from other sectors that will be out of work. They are so in need of labour that someone straight from Woolworths checkout can get a job, it's these people that will find it hard to re-adjust.

[Micks]

When the mining boom ends, there's going to be some massive pain coming the "tradies" way...

There not all Tradies though Dave!!

[XUV]

When the mining boom ends, there's going to be some massive pain coming the "tradies" way...

they can come work the farm, with 20 mil chinese moving to 'their' middle class each year ( the chinese figures are frightening/staggering ), they gunna need to eat their new found wealth.

they, the chinese will need us, on way or another , which is good considering this http://www.news.com.au/technology/a-...-1226825644654
media alarmisn , hmm , but as Joh Bjelke-Petersen said ' one must learn to walk with a foot in each paddock astride a barb wire fence. yep , tippy toe every 10 inches.


sorry if it's off-topic , but it's all relevant and hopefully jolts this country into gear , but e stumble thru it like we always do

[2TEAZE]

Well It's interesting that Volvo Group designs & manufactures heavy duty trucks in Australia for Australian conditions...all the while with no tarrif protection, no financial assistance from the government, employs thousands of people, gives back to the community, helps develop the minds of tomorrow with excellent engineering scholarship schemes for the universities &trades for apprentices, and an environmental care policy second to none.

Volvo Bash away....

[Plenty]

sorry if it's off-topic , but it's all relevant and hopefully jolts this country into gear , but e stumble thru it like we always do

Mate we as a nation can never match a "super power" like China, we just don't have the scope to enable it. What we do have though is some much stronger allies, much better trained and with superior technology. One thing our ADF could do is upgrade the piece of crap F88S Austeyr, SOCOMD are using the "new" SCAR system in various config but we need to give the feet on the ground the best we can.

Sorry for off-topic.

[XUV]

Well It's interesting that Volvo Group designs & manufactures heavy duty trucks in Australia for Australian conditions...all the while with no tarrif protection, no financial assistance from the government, employs thousands of people, gives back to the community, helps develop the minds of tomorrow with excellent engineering scholarship schemes for the universities &trades for apprentices, and an environmental care policy second to none.

Volvo Bash away....

Good to see.
Are Volvo group chinese owned ? like the car company, or is it seperate?