Manufacturing in the country seems to have bottomed out a few years ago. Since 2008 several big manufacturers have been bringing jobs back from overseas.
The plain truth is that outsourcing was probably done too fast, by too many companies. There are a lot of reasons for the new in-sourcing:
1. Chinese wages climb every year.
2. American wages especially in unionized workforces have declined as unions allow for lower starting pay.
3. Oil has gotten more expensive -- ships use oil.
4. American natural gas has gotten much cheaper -- many factories use natural gas energy.
5. Companies have better QC and time to market when producing locally.
Not all jobs will come back. Nor should they. But it's definitely happening.
There are also IP theft issues, and (while this doesn't apply to Apple) the burden of having to set up join ventures in China in partnership with a local firm where the foreign company has less than 50% ownership of said joint venture.
In such a "partnership" (if you can really call it that), there is a constant struggle between the Chinese and the non-Chinese owners of the venture where the Chinese counterpart is trying to absorb knowhow as fast as possible while the foreign firm tries to maintain their technological leadership over their partner so that they don't get marginalized. Perhaps the benefit of such a contentious relationship has been eroded enough from higher wages and other costs that firms have started to migrate their operations back home.
I'd also like to point out that 100 million is a pittance of an investment for such a dramatic move for such a large company. It's really a no-brainier at that price.
Manufacturing in the country seems to have bottomed out a few years ago. Since 2008 several big manufacturers have been bringing jobs back from overseas.
The plain truth is that outsourcing was probably done too fast, by too many companies. There are a lot of reasons for the new in-sourcing:
1. Chinese wages climb every year. 2. American wages especially in unionized workforces have declined as unions allow for lower starting pay. 3. Oil has gotten more expensive -- ships use oil. 4. American natural gas has gotten much cheaper -- many factories use natural gas energy. 5. Companies have better QC and time to market when producing locally.
Not all jobs will come back. Nor should they. But it's definitely happening.