China’s is without a shadow of a doubt one of the most exciting markets in the world (Especially for Bertel, it keeps him in Lederhosen and Japanese bar trips). Many companies are throwing their efforts into the Middle Kingdom. Buick is, to all intents and purposes, a China-only brand. Volkswagen declared China to be “Volkswagen’s second home” and Ford’s sales are rocketing there. However, while all eyes are on the fastest growing economy in the world, something fundamental in happening just across the border.
TopNews reports that Nissan is now trying to make India its global hub of production of small cars. Nissan is trialling exports of the Nissan Micra from its plant in Chennai with hopes of establishing a global supply chain. However, this isn’t a one off. Hyundai has also stated their plans of making India their small car hub. Ford announced in September 2009 to set up a plant in India to make small cars, but with a vision to make it the hub for global small car production. We can go back even further and see Suzuki as the kick starter for this “small car hub business”, focusing the production of the Suzuki Alto in India, which is exported around the world.
The future of the small car market in India is a rosy one, with the Renault Twingo likely to be the next car to come to India if the Renault-Nissan venture in India is a successful one. And with a free trade agreement with South East Asia (another growth market with an appetite for small cars) India may control the production of small cars for a long while. Maybe that’s why China hasn’t signed a free trade agreement with India?
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Not surprised. India is more business-friendly and is willing to play ball, am I wrong?
India is known for its endless reams of red tape and its inscrutable bureaucracy. Only in India would people take to the streets to stop a factory. In China, they fall over themselves to get one.
ratan tata would agree
ask him about the swell times he had with the new nano factory
But doesn’t that very same inscrutable bureaucracy in a democratic environment offer the pretence of a more transparent stability than perhaps, the whims of an all-powerful communist party. I know the issues are not black and white, but in the worst case scenario, western companies might think it easier to rescue capital from India than to try and salvage something out of China if you unwittingly upset some officials.
Maybe we could ask the opinion those Rio Tinto execs who are now rotting in jail because China decided they weren’t getting the kind of iron prices they really wanted? Sure they were using corrupt practices, but they had believed that they were the acknowledged rules of the game (in the Daimler style!). Then someone switched the rules. I’d suspect there are more counterbalances to the excesses of power in India and we can at least thank the British colonial past for the legacy of a very strong and independant judiciary there (even if they did screw up pretty much everything else!).
Like an elephant, India is slow but steady. China is like a tiger – fast but a bit unpredictable.
Forget about those two!!
The future lays down south!!
(Tongue in cheek)
And probably the best beast to describe Brazil is the sloth. Slow dim wiited but somehow manages to survive and even prosper. Humm sorry countryman but somehow it seems a fitting analogy