Thread: Nissan shedding workers.

nissan anouced a few months ago that they would be converting the casting plant to manufacture towbars and extras for navara and other nissan products-to plan for the extra costs from the carbon tax over the next few years.they would need to modify the plant and shed short term jobs.

alloy casting is exteamly energy costly and they anounce ahead of time they would be suporting global warming policies.

they planned to install robots to polish alloy bars- chrome etc as hand finished items from asia had proven to be costly interms of warranty and the quality of finish.It may also be a coincidence that asia products sudenly became hard to get[floods] and poor quaity.

Plant then moved into the accessories business. Which would have been a bonzer move if the economy was good.

Has this new plan failed?

Plans have been around to keep the hunter valley plants operating.
there is no reason to do sothe alloy goes mostly to france im told and exported back as extrusions.heresay.

I have plenty of friends that have jobs ot the tomago site-[I thought the kurri site had closed].a few of my neighbours got jobs there when they became unemployed in the timber industry.government payed them to employ them.as skill workers they have been trained to supervise contractors and data entry.

I have a lot of freinds that work off site to suport theon going construction and they have told me of cancelled expansion on site including a casting plant and gas plants.If CSG fails to get going the plant will close anyway.

a hypothetical friend has done an audit on what to frieght overseas the shipping costs the decontamination.it all adds up to move.It might be beer talk and who knows..the only reason it has stayed open this long is an election wipout that now looks as if it will occure anyway..

the companies suporting tomago have had to cancel other jobs in the area-most of the time they are the local contractractors to overseas or victorian companies payed less than they would at mining jobs.the power people would love to see them gone as would most NSW electricity buyers..

closing BHP was the best thing for the city-come on get a port working-the tubemakers and commsteel is different as they value add.

my one steel freinds have gone to WA after working around the harbour-all secret hand shake stuff..all they tell me is shortages of scrap steel needed to produce steel,because it shipped to china/india cheeply.

Has this new plan failed?

Not so much as failed, but they were relying on a stronger market. Now all that I have posted so far is only what any one there already knows., or allowed to be known. It is only my opinion based on what facts I have learnt as to which direction this plant is heading. They may sort things out and I hope they do. But they certainly have hard road ahead to survive. All I will say is there are other reasons other than a slack economy.
Cheers Hall

Originally Posted by garrycol

It has nothing to do with the Government (everything in this country is the Government's fault) - if we are not competitive then we are just not competitive.

We should only be in areas where we have a competitive advantage over other countries - for us that is no longer in heavy industry. For us it is the tertiary sector - finance, IT, service, high tech etc - and digging dirt out of the ground.

Garry

There is the problem You dont really understand the meaning of competitive advantage do you?
Chinese companies get a cash bonus for every tonb of steel they export. BSL was in the top 10 cheapest for cost per ton of slab steel even with china's low wages we where still cheaper but throw in a govt bonus, carbon tax and 110 AUD/ U.S dollar exchange and it is a losing battle.
For power they pay an extremely discounted rate that is produced with very few enviromental controls. One study actually found that 30-50% of the mercury fall out in USA was from chinese power and manufacturing
They have no such thing as copyright on anything, and pollution controls in manufacturing are virtually non existant along with controls on chemicals used in making products. How much lead would you like on your kids toys? maybe some chemical powder in milk formula thats toxic?And is it just me or does the cherry look identical to a rav 4 with their great wall ute looking like a isuzu/rodeo/colorado with a bit of glad wrap on the grill? FFS if i could copy a design that cost millions to make build it shoddily with a borderline legal safety rating and then would be able to sell it cheaper i would also have " competitive advantage".

Originally Posted by frantic

There is the problem You dont really understand the meaning of competitive advantage do you?

Well yes I do - I will match my economic academic qualifications in the area with most people on here.

Unfortunately in one post on here the full mechanisations of competitive advantage cannot be explained - yes certainly there a range of considerations such as subsidies, artificial cost structures that need to be taken into account - the bottom line when all these are taken into account we are just not competitive (a general statement that may not apply in all scenarios) in manufacturing - some of it is using older practices, some is labour costs, some are other factors. Eg Lightforce lights are a great Aust product - the individual components are all machine made but the lights are assembled and packed by hand - this should be done by machine and reduce costs further. In this example their competitive advantage is the intellectual property in their design not in their construction and assemply. That is why many companies design here and build overseas.

That is also one of the reasons Nissan moved from an Australian manufacturer to an importer of vehicles. It is also one of the reason many Japanese vehicle manufacturer has moved offshore from Japan because of increased manufacturing costs in Japan so it is not only Aust where this is happening.

Garry

Originally Posted by garrycol

Well yes I do - I will match my economic academic qualifications in the area with most people on here.

Unfortunately in one post on here the full mechanisations of competitive advantage cannot be explained - yes certainly there a range of considerations such as subsidies, artificial cost structures that need to be taken into account - the bottom line when all these are taken into account we are just not competitive (a general statement that may not apply in all scenarios) in manufacturing - some of it is using older practices, some is labour costs, some are other factors. Eg Lightforce lights are a great Aust product - the individual components are all machine made but the lights are assembled and packed by hand - this should be done by machine and reduce costs further. In this example their competitive advantage is the intellectual property in their design not in their construction and assemply. That is why many companies design here and build overseas.

That is also one of the reasons Nissan moved from an Australian manufacturer to an importer of vehicles. It is also one of the reason many Japanese vehicle manufacturer has moved offshore from Japan because of increased manufacturing costs in Japan so it is not only Aust where this is happening.

Garry

OK. What is the solution then??? What will prevent us from becoming a big hole in the ground???
Regards
Robbo

If high wages and costs are the problem why isn't German manufacturing going down hill?. Pat

The "bottom line" is in many areas we are still competitive but have been made artificially uncompetitive by other govt.'s subsidies. Please you dont need a degree to see that.
This results in industries with no choice but to shut down. Anyone remember the case where it was cheaper to buy the completed uniforms from china than the raw uncut material which was going to be sewn by jail inmates in a low risk facility?
China's aim is to own/control(as only manufacturer) as many finished product industries as possible, so the world has no choice who to buy from.Now you have a mass of products that are being copied by chinese companies with a vast majority of the original manufacturers to scared to prosecute them (good luck staun) for fear of the chinese govt's reprisals.
There is not enough money in Oz to enter into a trade subsidy war.