It's not all about manufacturing costs and being economical. Germany has increased its manufacturing exports and is competing well against low cost Asian and Chinese businesses. Germany is a highly regulated, high-wage country with a strong currency but an increasing share of the global market. But they're mostly niche businesses that avoid mass markets. They're rarely the cheapest manufacturer and yet over 1000 German manufacturers hold the number one or two spots in their world markets or number one position in the European market. Its based on superior quality product offerings.
Germany doesn't have the same strong currency that it did have when it had the Mark - the Euro is kept a bit low by the less well performing economies, and as such Germany gets a bit of an easier ride resulting from it, so from the point of view of exports to the UK, USA, and other non-Euro countries they're doing pretty well on the back of it.
Add in the strength of the STEM education and apprentice schemes, and that goes a long way to building a strong national economy.
And the last one is how many manufacturing companies based there are German owned... Yes, Ford and GMH made things here, but they were American owned....
This article expands a bit on what the services sector is, and the demise of manufacturing, I think the narrative that it is ALL dead is overblown but I think he is mainly referring to the low-tech aspect of manufacturing. There are high-tech manufacturers like Cochlear Limited, for example, who make the bionic ear and Thales Australia who manufactures amongst other things the Bushmaster troop carrier that are doing well and I think that is where our manufacturing future is.
Have a read of
Dutch Disease - the mining and resources boom was probably the worst thing that happened to the Australian economy, especially when you look at how bad the rate has been for the
LNG royalties...
Dutch Disease refers to when currencies go up based on exports of natural resources, which makes imports cheaper, and therefore kills off the manufacturing industry...
Now, what were we talking about?
