AT THE PROW
An ASM publication Editorial Director: Sam Chambers sam@asiashippingmedia.com Associate Editor: Adis Adjin adis@asiashippingmedia.com Correspondents: Athens: Ionnis Nikolaou Bogota: Richard McColl Cairo: Camelia Ewiss Cape Town: Joe Cunliffe Dubai: Yousra Shaikh Genoa: Nicola Capuzzo Hong Kong: Alfred Romann London: Paul Collins New York: Suzanne Smith Oslo: Hans Thaulow San Francisco: Donal Scully Shanghai: Colin Quek Singapore: Grant Rowles Sydney: Ross White-Chinnery Taipei: David Green Tokyo: Masanori Kikuchi Contributors: Nick Berriff, Andrew CraigBennett, Paul French, Chris Garman, Lars Jensen, Jeffrey Landsberg, Dagfinn Lunde, Mike Meade, Peter Sand, Neville Smith, Eytan Uliel Editorial material should be sent to sam@asiashippingmedia.com or mailed to 24 Route de Fuilla, Sahorre, 66360, France Commercial Director: Grant Rowles grant@asiashippingmedia.com Maritime ceo advertising agents are also based in Japan, Korea, Scandinavia and Greece — to contact a local agent email grant@asiashippingmedia.com for details MEDIA KITS ARE AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD AT: www.asiashippingmedia.com All commercial material should be sent to grant@asiashippingmedia.com or mailed to 30 Cecil Street, #19-08 Prudential Tower Singapore 049712 Design: Mixa Liu Printers: Allion Printing, Hong Kong Subscriptions: A $120 subscription is charged for 2022’s four issues of Maritime ceo magazine. Email sales@asiashippingmedia.com for subscription enquiries. Copyright © Asia Shipping Media (ASM) 2022 www.asiashippingmedia.com Although every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this review is correct, the publishers accept no liability for any inaccuracies or omissions that may occur. All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval systems or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission of the copyright owner. For reprints of specific articles contact grant@ asiashippingmedia.com Twitter: @Splash_247 LinkedIn: Maritime CEO Forum Facebook: Splash Maritime & Offshore News
ISSUE TWO 2022
Reshoring: fact or fiction
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or most of the 21st century, manufacturers have discussed China plus one strategies - a determination to not be 100% beholden to the People’s Republic for their supply chains. Latterly the term reshoring has also become common parlance too, a keenness to bring manufacturing nearer to home, to be less reliant on frayed supply chains, something that has become more paramount as the world seems to be splitting at the seams between democracies and autocracies. Moreover, China’s dogged zerocovid strategy has infuriated and frustrated foreign manufacturers spectacularly. Results from a flash survey carried by the EU Chamber of Commerce in China in early May when hundreds of millions of Chinese were in lockdown showed this frustration all too clearly. 23% of respondents said they are now considering shifting current or planned investments out of China to other markets—more than double the number that were considering doing so at the beginning of 2022, and the highest proportion in a decade. 78% of respondents said they feel that China is a less attractive investment destination as a result of its more stringent covid restrictions. Likewise, a May survey carried by the German Chamber of Commerce in China carried similar sentiment. Nearly one-third (28%) of foreign employees of the surveyed companies plan to leave China due to covid-related measures, with 10%
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We’ve left it way too late if we wanted to avoid being beholden to China
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planning to do so even before their current employment contract ends. Here’s the thing however for those that have reported on China for a long time. Once a decade or so the world debates this topic, and the media has a brief introspection about the future of globalisation. Despite the threat of leaving en masse once all the maths are done global manufacturers will, I am sure, sit on their heels. The fact is all the chips are in China’s hands - whether it’s port infrastructure, factory set-ups, raw material availability or financing, there is no other place that can offer the cheap products we have all come to rely on in the 21st century. Then there’s the NIMBY factor, which people underplay - does the west want the pollution and scarred landscapes that a wholesale industrial shift would bring? We’ve left it way too late if we wanted to avoid being beholden to China. ●
Sam Chambers Editor Maritime ceo
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