Tag Archives: electricity

Business/Economics, Fukushima

Global Economic War: Japanese industry moving to China

Since the 11 March 2011 disasters, Japanese industries moving to China has increased 65%.  That’s according to the Chinese Commerce Ministry.

There are two big factors why Japanese industries are moving to a mortal enemy’s territory: Money and Electrical Power.

Since the March disasters, including the ongoing Fukushima Daiichi meltdown, about half of Japan’s nuclear power plants are shut down.  The problem is that Japan built it’s current industries around nuclear power.  There just isn’t enough alternative electricity sources to power Japan’s factories.

Also since March, the Japanese yen has been going up in value.  This makes it more expensive to build things in Japan; Japan has no significant resources so it must import everything.

Japanese media are finally getting concerned about the growing unemployment there, mainly because so many factories have shut down and moved out of the country.

I wounder how this will affect the plans to create a TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership), especially since one of its goals is to block out China.

Business/Economics, International

What Economic Recovery? German drug giant Bayer may leave Germany, find new home in China

German drug and chemical giant, Bayer, says high utility cost in Germany could force it to move all its German operations to a new location outside of Europe.

The most likely new home for Bayer, China.

Bayer blames the German government, and in a round about way the German people, for their decision to end the use of nuclear power plants in Germany.

Bayer claims the electricity cost would skyrocket, making it almost impossible for them to do business in Germany : “It is important that we remain competitive in comparison with other countries. Otherwise, a global business such as Bayer would have to consider relocating its production to countries with lower energy costs.”-Marijn Dekkers, CEO

Dekkers hinted that China could be Bayer’s new home, because they’ve already invested big time into their China operations.  They’re also looking at Brazil and India.

It’s not like Bayer is losing money in this bad economy.  They reported a net profit of $1.1 billion for the second quarter of this year!