hurricanemaxi
Joined: 17 Sep 2011
Posts: 83
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 Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 9:58 pm Post subject: Chinese Imports Disrupt Aussie Surfboard Makers |
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On Australia’s Gold Coast, a 22-mile- long (35-kilometer) stretch of beaches named Surfers Paradise and Rainbow Bay, Neil Rech opened a surf shop in December and unwittingly disturbed the peace.
His store, Sedition Surfboards, sells Chinese imports for A$250 ($259), one-third the cost of some Australian-made boards that competitors are offering. Rival retailers averse to discounts and upset about local job losses questioned his patriotism, and even threatened violence, he said.
“It’s quite heavy,” Rech, 34, said of the backlash. After teaching for two years in China before opening a store in Coolangatta, Queensland, “I realized how cheap you can actually get these boards so I thought it’d be a great opportunity to bring them here and sell them to the public cheaper.”
Inexpensive imports from Asia, coupled with a 54 percent jump in the local dollar since October 2008, are delivering a double dose of pain to one of Australia’s most iconic industries. The struggles at surfboard makers are playing out at manufacturers across a country where China’s demand for iron ore and fuel has spurred a mining boom while leaving non-resource businesses behind.
Manufacturers are on the wrong side of a divide in Australia’s economy, which has avoided a recession since 1991 and boasts an unemployment rate of 5.3 percent, about half the level in Europe. While the number of mining jobs (AULQMINN) soared 21 percent to 242,400 in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, manufacturing employment slumped 4.4 percent to 953,500 and retail positions sank 2.2 percent to 1.21 million.
‘Can’t Compete’
“Australia is certainly an economy in transition,” said Adam Carr, a senior economist in Sydney at ICAP Australia Ltd., a unit of the world’s biggest interdealer broker, who formerly worked at the Australian Treasury. “We can’t compete at the lower end of the chain.”
From Bells Beach to Brisbane, Australia’s board builders are facing a choice: close down, or try to preserve local designs and branding by applying them to products made abroad.
“We have to adapt,” said Michelle Blauw, co-owner of Currumbin, Queensland-based D’Arcy Surfboards and president of the Australian Surf Craft Industry Association. “You can’t always point the finger and blame everybody else for the situation that you’re in.”
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