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How Can Pen Companies In China Sell Their Pens At Such Low Prices?


Charles Skinner

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This IS NOT a political question in any sense of the word! NO, NO, NO! My question is ---- What are the factors that enable pen companies in China to produce "quality pens" and sell them at such low prices? I know, I know that the cost of labor seems to be much lower ---- or at least I think I know that. By "quality pens," I don't mean that they compare well up against Montblanc and Pelikan pens, but the two pens I have, have given excellent service.

 

Do the companies sell a huge number of pens to people in their part of the world, and therefore are able to sell at a much lower price than one would expect?

 

Are the material they use for their pen much cheaper over there than they would be here?

 

So, I sure that there are many reasons for the lower prices of these pens. I am just trying to understand why.

 

Your thoughts, please. C. S.

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The same reason as Western countries typically like to offshore their manufacturing to China and other such countries. Labour and raw materials costs less and huge scale manufacturing, so products cost less.

Here is some reading material

http://www.industryweek.com/environment/viewpoint-why-china-cheaper

http://www.economist.com/node/21549956

Edited by Bluey
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It's also huge batches. This lowers production costs too.

 

I think it's the same in many Chinese industries. Machinery is often old and second hand. If you look on the market the chineses buy a lot of old machinery from Europe. Cost of labor is low as you mentioned. Workers are not qualified. Work safety is often ignored. Gear housings are open, safeguards deactivated, electrical wiring is a mess, quality standards are a joke, materials are flimsy - sometimes hazardous. They produce a lot of discard in the Chinese industry but still come out cheap.

 

A technician who operates world wide once told me about it and showed me some photos he took on his tours to China to repair broken and set up used machines - bizarre.

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^

I think that may have how it used to be a few decades ago. It's not been like that for a long time.

Edited by Bluey
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They still poison the the workers who make jeans....including Levies.

 

No clean air or water laws....if there is, they are ignored.

Poison toys from China still slip through German customs.

Edited by Bo Bo Olson

In reference to P. T. Barnum; to advise for free is foolish, ........busybodies are ill liked by both factions.

 

 

The cheapest lessons are from those who learned expensive lessons. Ignorance is best for learning expensive lessons.

 

 

 

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The conversation took place 2 years ago and concerned latest events. So, no, not much changed. They may have newer used machinery now. That's all.

Remember that industry complex that blew up in 2015. Or the poison in milk powder? Not a "decade" ago. They don't care about any regulations and cheat each other when selling raw materials and parts.

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Within the last year here in Oz, building insulation sheeting from China was found to contain asbestos even though certified at source not to. There is no question standards are lower there and in all the Asian countries where we source our clothes and shoes and so on. This is not a "china" or "asia" problem, it is an economic problem. It is easy to make goods cheaper by lowering (or not yet being able to raise much) standards for products and workers. In doing so, one externalises costs (they do not vanish). Note that China is currently working hard to reduce the externalised cost of pollution, even as happened long ago in "western" countries.

 

edit: minor clarification

Edited by praxim

X

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China does not spend money on marketing and boutiques. It does not need to feed the illusion of a luxurious brand which costs a lot of money.

I reckon that the production costs of a waterman expert and other cheap pens are not high as well. Maybe a few dollars.

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It's no wonder they often prefer to remain anonymous. Who would want to advertize junk? :happy:

Edited by Astron
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It's no wonder they often prefer to remain anonymous. Who would want to advertize junk? :happy:

 

I have expensive pens and chinese pens. My chinese pens like the jinhao x450 and 159 are very well built and excellent writers.

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There are no doubt high standard products from China. It's not that they couldn't do it.

But most of the Chinese industry is oriented to make much money in short time with low level goods. And many entrepreneurs are ruthless in their way to achieve that goal. It's something between the industrial revolution and the wild west.

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I have been in Beijing for close to three years now. Fountain pens are readily available. Within three blocks of my apartment, I can find five places selling them. The school I work at teachers Calligraphy with brush pens and fude nibs. They also do a large amount of ink drawings with fountain pens. My understanding is many schools do that as well. Factor in the population of China and you have a volume that will bring costs down. When most nibs are made by Hero and a handful of others, you get an economy of scale that kicks Western companies out the window. The other factors like lax enforcement and dysfunctional legal system mentioned above are also factors.

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1870 and before -1914 Germany was the Japan/China of Europe....and sold cheaper than Britain or France. German products were higher class than US out side of rifle sights, rifles, pistols and so on.

We made good saddles, and US Domestic textiles were third class, in spite of growing Vermont silk (for a while), having great sheep. German Textiles were first class, but had national instituted lower prices. British were running on their reputation in textiles by 1880, the French better, the Germans better and priced lower than any.

 

 

After WW2, both Germany and Japan, who had taken over making cheap junk from the Germans by the first world war......maintained an advantage of keeping the currency at artificial low prices DM (4-1) and Yen (360); until Nixon went off silver and let the US dollar float.

 

Congress bribes easy....so China doesn't have to worry. Japan bribed Congress so they could price dump....sell Sony TV's cheaper in NY than in Tokyo. Congress allowed Japan to destroy the US TV and electronics industries, for a billion a year in lobby costs.

 

We don't have to worry about something like that with China....we have no industry...out side of cars no one else in the world wants. Rest of rant deleted.

In reference to P. T. Barnum; to advise for free is foolish, ........busybodies are ill liked by both factions.

 

 

The cheapest lessons are from those who learned expensive lessons. Ignorance is best for learning expensive lessons.

 

 

 

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German products were higher class than US out side of rifle sights, rifles, pistols and so on.

At first they weren't. German industry would copy british goods and flood the market with cheap and low grade products. Like China does these days. That's why the British had them branded "Made in Germany". After a while though the German copies got better quality than the originals. Since then the former mark of shame "Made in Germany" became synonymous for highest quality.

 

We don't have to worry about something like that with China....we have no industry...out side of cars no one else in the world wants. Rest of rant deleted.

Germany has still powerful industries aside from car production. Everyone knows in case of high end machinery you first take a look at Germany, plus Austria and Switzerland. And there is more.

 

I've seen Chinese machinery and tried to work with it. Emphasizing on tried. Those things destroy themselves while running. Soft metal, failing copy-parts, bursting tubes, ripping cables, unfitting parts forced into position, hilariously lousy safty guards. You may extend the list by just filling in bad things that come into your mind. They are real out there.

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1870 and before -1914 Germany was the Japan/China of Europe....and sold cheaper than Britain or France. German products were higher class than US out side of rifle sights, rifles, pistols and so on.

We made good saddles, and US Domestic textiles were third class, in spite of growing Vermont silk (for a while), having great sheep. German Textiles were first class, but had national instituted lower prices. British were running on their reputation in textiles by 1880, the French better, the Germans better and priced lower than any.

 

 

After WW2, both Germany and Japan, who had taken over making cheap junk from the Germans by the first world war......maintained an advantage of keeping the currency at artificial low prices DM (4-1) and Yen (360); until Nixon went off silver and let the US dollar float.

 

Congress bribes easy....so China doesn't have to worry. Japan bribed Congress so they could price dump....sell Sony TV's cheaper in NY than in Tokyo. Congress allowed Japan to destroy the US TV and electronics industries, for a billion a year in lobby costs.

 

We don't have to worry about something like that with China....we have no industry...out side of cars no one else in the world wants. Rest of rant deleted.

 

To add, the US (mainly banks and big corps) made China a deal they could not refuse.

We (Americans) will invest money in your country (China) and you will open up your market and use low wage (slave) labour, so we (Americans) can buy your cheap stuff and print as many dollars as we like while you (China) will buy American Treasury paper, so the dollars are kept outside (the US). That's how they did it.

The Chinese make all the stuff now and the quality is improving. They make high tech stuff now.

What will happen next? Not difficult to understand......

Edited by Trom
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