Originally Posted by
morgoth
Don't mix China and Japan. The wealth in Japan is as good as Europe and north america.
I'm lost on this statement.
China is massively wealthy, but the distribution of the wealth is somewhat unbalanced.
Having bought fasteners (a technical product that requires various processeses to get it right) with these countries for 20 years I'll post my observations.
Japan - Excellent quality, but slow turn around and expensive.
Taiwan - Quicker turn around and very high quality. They manufacture many fasteners for Aerospace and Automotive industries, so their technical no how is excellent.
China - The "No problem" country. Unfortunately "No problem" often leads to a problem!! Quick turn around, but shoddy quality control and high product defect quantities. Cheap prices (usually up to 20-25% cheaper than Taiwan) do not hide the fact that the Chinese are good at making plastic gnomes for your garden, but not so good on the technical front.
Getting much better than before, but the prices are rising to within a few % of the Taiwanese.
Taiwan offers the best value for money currently IMHO.