In between tourist excursions on our family vacation this week, I had the chance to interview Lisa Reisman, my wife and partner in global sourcing crime, about her views on the latest in low cost country sourcing, especially in China. I shared a few of the findings with her from the latest Industry Week article and Grant Thornton study that I covered earlier in this mini-series on the latest in trends and savings percentages in global sourcing, and here’s what she had to share in return based on both a supply and demand perspective in the metals industry (for those who don’t know Lisa and MetalMiner, she has a rather unique view on the China market in particular given her sourcing, export, trading, market research and journalism experience looking at the region). Lisa believes that how hungry suppliers are for business often says a lot about the macro environment. In this regard, she notes that “we’re seeing an influx of Chinese factories that are very hungry for more business, more so than in the past.”Not only is demand still down from an export perspective in the key markets that MetalMiner tracks, Chinese suppliers also sense an impending crisis on their hands if the RMB approaches a more reasonable parity with the market. Lisa notes that “companies are really seriously evaluating other supply options from an export perspective because of the impending currency adjustment, which will happen, at some point in time.” Organizations are also getting better at segmenting their China sourcing strategy based. To wit, “US companies are looking at China Sourcing more strategically, and if they have manufacturing operations in China, that’s one thing. But if they’re just sourcing for export, we see them taking a close look at both the current and future cost equations on a much more regular basis.”
