The Wind Industry includes manufactures and services that convert wind power into electricity that can power entire cities. In Europe, Holland and Denmark are big users of wind energy, with Germany also weighing in.

The thrust of the presentation was that current and future investors in manufacturing in China need to be aware that if they are coming to China exclusively to supply the Western customers that are already in China, their days will be numbered. Chinese manufacturers – across a broad swathe of industries – are quickly catching up to Western levels of quality, while maintaining price levels that are HALF of the price at which European producers sell their wares. Western companies that believe they can compete in the China market against Chinese suppliers by merely cutting prices 10% or even 20% will soon learn the price levels are still too high to fend off the hordes of Chinese suppliers in their industry who are galloping up the quality curve.

Even large Western buyers in China are buying with greater frequency from Chinese suppliers who have internalized quality standards and processes. Western buyers are feeling the squeeze on their own sales both in the Chinese market and in international markets, where there are fewer buyers than even a year ago. The Western buyers eschew the partnerships with the Western suppliers who have followed the buyers to China in favor of dramatic cost reductions.

The conclusion to draw from all this is that if your company is planning to come to China in these more competitive times, you must have the patrons, plans, policies and processes in place to sell your product at least at half the price you sell it in the West, at the same quality or better quality levels at which you currently offer the product.

Are you ready for the challenge?