Another example of cheap Chinese junk. Lead acid batteries.

reply to post by Mr Tranny


reviving old thread for factual claims:
that link to exide's joint venture with dongbei occurred in 2001. In the intervening DECADE, the large battery manufacturers of the united states have all invested in significant manufacturing facilities in china. The point of confusion in this thread is that these holdings do not show up in the company's 10ks or other SEC filings and so it looks like exide has all of its manufacturing outside of China. For many reasons having to do partially with investor risk in the united states, and predominantly with company incorporation requirements in China, its common to have use joint-ventures as a way to conduct business more freely in china, and indeed exide has multiple and significant invested agreements with chinese-owned companies. for instance, in 2008 exide became, and possibly still is, the majority equity holder in Leoch battery (Exide Technology MoU as Majority Equity Holder in Leoch Battery) and yet, this does not show up on exide's 10k, nor will you find it on Leoch's company profile (Leoch Battery Website Company Profile).
That said, there are large US battery manufacturers that take a more direct presence in China, for instance East Penn, which is notably a privately held company, runs a WFOE or Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise in Jiangsu province. While having a WFOE allows a US company to manufacture in china, it doesn't necessarily allow them to sell products in China, and it seems that East Penn is actually exporting 'nearly finished' products to china from the US and then finishing them in China (East Penn in China Business Review). But as a WFOE its probably that any primary manufacturing at the Jaingsu facility is actually then exported from China. Its also possible that the East Penn facility is more accurately a type of WFOE called a Foreign Invested Commercial Enterprise, which would grant that facility broader domestic (chinese) retail allowance.
Feel free to execute searches for all of the major battery manufacturers, and you will quickly see that they all have significant partnerships and limited liability corporations in china, and that due to the recent crackdown and re-regulation of battery manufacturing that occurred in August 2011, they are all putting up some serious stink b/c "their" plants are now predominantly shut down, despite the significant quality control measures the US battery process will use over their fully chinese competitors.

w/r/t this tread, you both made very adequate points, quality control and pollution control on newly established capitalist systems are both very hard to do, and the feeback mechanisms of consumer choice would take decades of highly coordinated consumer outrage to eliminate this type of profit seeking egress. And, it is also very true that the remaining US based technology manufacturers have significant Chinese holdings, and that some will maintain the mature capitalism respect for quality and environmental control they have learned in our US system, aaand others may see the Chinese manufacturing market as a place to increase profit margins, under the protection of being equity partners with a Chinese operation (note: there is absolutely no evidence that Exide's joint-venture agreements have any such problems).

Bar Stool Talk: The bizarre upside is that China is centrally governed, and their government is very heavy handed and image based. so the type of regulatory and public health science 'debating' that would have taken decades of suffering and infighting in the United States, has occurred overnight in China, and given the actions of the past month, it looks like battery manufacturing in China is entering a completely different chapter. So while in US capitalist history we see big tobacco or lead smelters, lobbying and fighting and spending massive amounts of money to prolong the scientific uncertainty of the public, in China, # just gets bad, and then it gets changed.

China shuts down over 1000
Chinese battery scandal opens up room for multinationals

Originally posted by yoesse
Don't knock the "Chinese" I assure you it is the manufacturing owners and their bottom line that is the originator of this crud. Geographically China yea. But who buys it and keeps buying it? Really, who is SOLD this stuff. It is a whole system. It is a system. All of the parts work together and it is a system. The Internet kinda threw a monkey wrench in the mix because now common complainers can find each other and concertedly cause big changes.

edit on 19-2-2011 by yoesse because: correct misspell

Yea right!
Just like empty oil filters, lead in tooth paste, poison in dog food, contaminates in baby food.....
China has already started the war!