Prices Electronics

[scotttswan]

I keep on hearing stories that the assembly business in TDF is all a big con.

Apparently , at least according to some friends who claim to know, the majority of the factories import merchandise manufactured in Korea and neighboring countries , open the boxes and stick on a stamp saying made in TDF . The boxes are then closed and shipped up to Bs As for onward distribution.

This couldnt possible be true...

Or could it?

nah, there's a few stupid countries out there like Argentina. The Chinese/Koreans have factories putting everything together, then special factories to partially disassemble all the products and ship them out to these stupid countries where they're stuck back together and get the stamp put on them.

Important work.

 

[clooz]

Today, it clearly depends what product segment you look at. Pharmaceuticals in my corner farmacia are between 10x cheaper to 1x vs the US pharmacy for the same quality ranges of the same products. Motorola android cell phones were about 60% more expensive here in BsAs than amazon tax free in the US when i looked six months ago. Tools made in China (electronic drills for example) are the same price here as in the US - or slightly cheaper here. A Pilates hard-wood refomer made in California priced at around 3k USD can be made and bought here for 1k, of almost identical quality.

Using a hybrid of private business and centralised economic government planning to capitalize and protect local markets for new industries is how Japan then Korea and Taiwan developed their electronics, shipbuilding, steel, and car manufacturing industries from nothing. Obviously they worked hard and it took 20 years from 1950 say to 1970 to have new industries in these segments. The same then happened in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thaliand. The later in China. There is a standard growth path from lower tech low quality manufacturing to higher tech manufacturing and from small industry to heavy industry then to tool manufacturing and R&D that each country can follow, but predicting what segments will flourish based on past cultural prejudices, political rhetoric, or natural resources clearly does not work. There is no real magic to enabling industrial growth. It requires capital, work and technology experience.

The main source of the large pricing differences at the retail level in a global supply chain in my experience is the restraint on competition among the importers/distributors. The restraint usually comes from non-compete agreements among manufacturers themselves (back in Korea by cell phone manufacturers for example in their distributor contracts) or from distributors. (My experience includes work writing manufacturing and distribution contracts for outsourced electronics in NICs.)

The government by moving parts of the supply chain in country, can begin to create competition among manufacturers and distributors in an open supply chain, which in turn contributes to an open, instead of a captive market. Pharmaceuticals here for example seem to have many competing manufacturers and suppliers at all levels, who can assemble and package, which means we have very competitive JIT inventories at farmacias.

 

[mikic007]

When I bought PC 6 months ago, I calculated that it cost me around 30% more than on Amazon or somewhere else outside (of course if I would search for each part on different sites would be cheaper, but at the end I should buy from 1 or 2 places anyway..) motherboard was even cheaper and ram the same. Graphic card was the only item twice more expensive, but I didn't need it (I'm calculating with official dolar).

Now I see that prices are much higher than half a year ago. Phones and TV were always twice or more, prices are absurd even when you buy with contracts...

 

[John1017]

If I understand correctly, their false sense of grandeur causes the powers at hand, to rely on argentine industry to compete with the rest of the world. To further this belief they have tried to influence people to buy local products by having extremely high import tax on electronics. I think I've read that Argentina has the most expensive apple products of any country. They try to confuse and bewilder consumers by almost always listing the "quota" price and then in little letters saying how many payments.

It's my hope, and the hope of many, that the new government will except the fact that to get their economy moving they need reasonable import prices and comparable electronic prices.

 

[Gringoboy]

When shopping for electronics, Mercadolibre is a good yardstick.
I build computers for a living and a mid to high-end machine with a decent GPU has become very expensive indeed. The last one I built went out at around AR$17000 when I could have built the same for half the price in the UK.
I also build reconditioned machines using selected used components which fits the Argentine mantra of repair, repair, repair, of which I'm a great supporter.

 

[semigoodlookin]

Consumer electronics are vastly more expensive here. Worse is you see old products selling for more as what one would have paid for them new in another country. For example a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, which are both around the 5000 to 7000 peso mark, which is frankly insane for products that were made nearly a decade ago and would have been cheaper in the UK new a decade ago. It is the same with PCs, with models with aging hardware sold for prices higher than new models in other countries. It is exactly the same issue with TV.

I have very bad experience with this. I am a consumer electronics review writer, have been for several years for a major online outlet. Before coming down here I could get any product to review (this works by organizing a relationship with a retailers, such as AT&T, to send you products to review), but since moving to Argentina I have been able to get nothing, the company I work for is obviously unable to get the products here. The next option was then to simply try buying them instead of having them given, which is less than ideal in my line of work as we usually review products before they launch. Either way, it was a no go in Argentina because half the products come here well after launch and the rest don't come here at all.

So, from writer/reviewer to just writer I went.

 

[clooz]

When shopping for electronics, Mercadolibre is a good yardstick.
I build computers for a living and a mid to high-end machine with a decent GPU has become very expensive indeed. The last one I built went out at around AR$17000 when I could have built the same for half the price in the UK.
I also build reconditioned machines using selected used components which fits the Argentine mantra of repair, repair, repair, of which I'm a great supporter.

This is a great example to look at in more detail. There is an open supply chain in small computer components, and even slightly higher prices in computer assembly damage all economic growth. It would be useful to compare prices in countries that have comparable situations to Ar, perhaps Ireland, New Zealand, Spain and Canada vs Australia, Brazil, Sweden and Chile. As a city Buenos Aires can compare its technology use policy to Aukland, Bangalore, Singapore, Brisbane and Vancouver.

 

[thorsten]

In most of the countries you mentioned as comparison, you can buy electronics cheaper than here - plus you can actually get most products, unlike here. The "protect national industry" blabla is just the typical propaganda bullshit. In the consumer electronics markets, most countries aren't producers as they can't compete with Asia except for some smaller sub-markets, so what should actually be protected there?

 

[mikic007]

Let's face it, Argentina can't produce decent fridge (anymore), let alone gpu or any other technology of similar range. Few are, so there is no shame in that, shame is, when you don't allow your industry to grow, where it can. Using computers is pure necessity, not that company can't import even for example 100 rsa token...

In some way I understand prevention of leaking dollars for personal entertainment, but for business??

 

[gpop]

Let's face it, Argentina can't produce decent fridge (anymore), let alone gpu or any other technology of similar range. Few are, so there is no shame in that, shame is, when you don't allow your industry to grow, where it can. Using computers is pure necessity, not that company can't import even for example 100 rsa token...
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Exactly! I think it was DavidGlen who told me about a olive oil producer in Mendoza who was forced to dump thousands of litres of oil for want of a stupid little machine part that was only available in the US, but because of the Kult's import policies could not be obtained. The business (and any taxes that would have been generated from that business) went down the toilet.
People losing their livelihood, also that of employees (those that the Kult claim to represent) for the short-term thinking... I think that was the same year that she wanted to get the bullet train.