Locomotive Production Industry-Future Unclear

Hi guys,I am wondering what the industry as a whole looks like for both GE and EMD;which would be the better place to work if you were in Assembly operations?

I have heard of jobs heading to China one day.I am new to this industry and just trying to do my research on it.Manufacturing is tough on your future outlook no matter where you work anymore.

EMD is busy for now and have one plant in London ON Canada for main production I guess you could call it.I wonder if it will be around once it is eventually sold......who knows!!!

cheers guys and thankyou for your time,



DD

Some construction of new locomotives for the China market will be done in China, but for the NA markets for the forseeable future they'll be in NA. In the long run, building in China and India may pick up but over time it is not inevitable that it will replace building in the US. Look at the US car market. It is more cost effective for car companies to build cars in the US than to import them. Toyota, Honda, BMW, and Mercedes Benz are all excellent examples of that trend. Same will hold true with locomotives. Plus the cost differential between China, India, Mexico, Brazil, and Korea, and places like the US, Japan, and Europe will close. China is already in the throes of a wage price spiral that is of great worry to the government there, and the same thing is happening in India. The kind of skills and training needed to assemble toys or computer boards is one thing, but to build a locomotive or automobile is quite another. And the workers required for those latter tasks quick realize they are;
1 - highly skilled and not quickly replaced,
2 - they are building a high profit product.
That translates into wages rising to keep competitive.

So my crystal ball says, either will be fine. The choice should be made not on whether the companies will remain in the business in the US or Canada, but which company will respond better to global competition, just like the US car companies. Auto assembly jobs still abound in the US, but not with companies that invested in products that were not marketable on the global stage, and in with labor agreements that assumed we'd live in a static economy represented by the 1950's. Make your choice based on company management and product planning for the future.