Precision manufacturing in Argentina

[Agribotics]

I'm a US citizen with a small business in Japan which designs and produces products primarily for the agriculture and food production industries but also produces some OEM medical and sports products. I manufacture everything in Taiwan. We have long term plans to migrate solely into agricultural robotics. It's become increasingly difficult for a US citizen to do business in Japan though and, as we all know, Taiwan's days are numbered.

I do injection molding, machining, PCB design, metal working, welding, assembly, metal coating etc.

Does anyone here have experience doing precision manufacturing in Argentina as well as export/international shipping? I'm trying to decide if it's viable to move everything to Argentina while there's still time.

 

[sts7049]

if you think Japan is complicated, you ain't seen nothing yet if you want to own a business here

 

[jblaze5779]

I wish you luck

 

[FrankPintor]

This sounds like a very interesting project, with a lot of opportunities for application in Argentina. You would need to come here to scope out the possibilities I think, and find contacts in the areas you're interested in... I know nothing about precision manufacturing, and almost nothing about shipping, but in my field at least, the engineering talent here is excellent. As others in the forum have said, Argentina retains significant, if small scale (think "Mittelstand") design and manufacturing capability, quite unlike other LatAm countries.

 

[Ronnie Hotdogs]

There are lots of machine shops/fabricators supporting different industries. I would imagine that many lack the latest technologies due to the excessive costs of importing equipment from abroad.

 

[Ries]

There is some of that kind of capacity here, but I would imagine you would need to be here and go and talk to people in person, to gauge abilities and fit.
You might contact these guys- they represent machinery manufacturers, but that means they are tied to the people who know exactly what capacities and equipment is out there in working job shops. http://www.aafmha.org.ar/
I visited them (the association) a few years ago, and found them pretty helpful.
Argentina still works on the old networking model, much like the USA in the 70s- many of the shops you would want to work with may not even have websites- they deal direct B2B, and use WhatsApp to communicate.
Its old fashioned, mostly family owned, and based on longstanding relationships.
There are certainly cnc mills, laser cutters, powdercoating shops, and things like that here, but its absolutely true that equipment is going to be less modern and expensive than you may be used to. I doubt there is a lot DMG/Mori machines on the floors here, but they do manufacture quite a bit of stuff.

Here is a video of my friend Lucy Patane performing in her Uncle's aluminum die casting factory in Quilmes.

 

[Agribotics]

Thanks everyone. I visited Argentina in 1996 for a couple of weeks when considering a move there. It seemed too backwards technically and politically then and I chose Taiwan, which turned out to be an excellent choice for manufacturing and doing business in general.

 

[jblaze5779]

Thanks everyone. I visited Argentina in 1996 for a couple of weeks when considering a move there. It seemed too backwards technically and politically then and I chose Taiwan, which turned out to be an excellent choice for manufacturing and doing business in general.

Argentina has definitely learned its lesson since then and is now completely different. Night and day some might say.

 

[Agribotics]

Argentina has definitely learned its lesson since then and is now completely different. Night and day some might say.

If the government of Argentina had any foresight it would put out the welcome mat for Taiwanese tech companies looking for a place to land before China takes over.

 

[jblaze5779]

If the government of Argentina had any foresight it would put out the welcome mat for Taiwanese tech companies looking for a place to land before China takes over.

I doubt Arg will step out of line on the the Taiwan issue. China is just about the only country that will still deal with them financially. Daddy would be angry...