Hasbeen said- How the hell can their brass be so much cheaper than ours?

Answer- A combination of cheaper labour and higher volume and perhaps lower standards and perhaps government subsidies.

They also have leaner flatter operations similar to startups- which could be more of a factor.

Transport costs on high value items I guess are a smaller fraction of the per unit cost especially when they are being sent by ship.

They probably even get their raw materials for a better price than you could get them.

3D printing was seen as a way of addressing some issues- such as those to do with short runs.

But Hasbeen- I'm sure you have a much greater experience of these things than myself.

In the end you have to balance your trade to survive- Sometimes that means that your nation can't afford certain products. This contradicts the principle of free trade and tariff free trading principles.

I agree that individual companies are constrained by the competition.

Their are some strategies that can be used to create value without increasing costs too much. For example in hard times the purchase of durable goods increases. Durable goods last much longer than standard goods so despite the increased cost it's better value over the longer term. Another way in which value can be increased is by reducing the number of unused product features.

Anyway I'm sure you did everything you could think of to keep the manufacturing in Australia. And I'm sure you were well experienced and qualified to do the job.

The supplying companies probably screwed you to the wall for the raw materials. Perhaps your company could have started a small copper or zinc metal recycling company so you could be a price setter rather than a price taker.

I hope that I haven't offended you in my suggestions Hasbeen.

Immigration is Nature's way of preventing in-breeding !
The Gene pool is so contaminated that only immigration can save us.

To Hasbeen- Copper does fluctuate in price though. Some companies manage this risk using futures or long term contracts.

From the Australian Population Research Institute:

"The TAPRI national survey of 2029 Australian voters was run in October/November 2018.

It found that half or more of Australian voters reject the progressive agenda of continual population growth and ever-growing diversity. This is the agenda embraced by Australia’s cultural and political elites and by most graduates.

The survey shows that 50% of voters want immigration to be reduced, 72% say Australia does not need more people, 63% want Australia’s manufacturing industry protected by tariffs, 60% favour turning back all boats carrying asylum seekers, 56% think Australia is in danger of losing its culture and identity, and 47% support a partial ban on Muslim immigration.

A much greater share of non-graduates reject the progressive agenda than do graduates.

This pattern is also found among Brexit voters in the UK and Trump voters in the US.

Some theorists argue that this is because non-graduates are more likely to have been ‘left behind’ in an economic sense. A few others, such as Eric Kaufmann in White Shift, argue that this is not the main cause. Rather, most dissenters feel threatened by huge recent increases in migrants from non-western cultural backgrounds.

They also resent the way in which the graduate class denigrates their concerns. The TAPRI results affirm the cultural thesis."

http://tapri.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Tapri-survey-2018-final-report-April.pdf

You won't hear a thing about immigration from Liberal and Labor during the tedious election campaign that has started.

Bozec good to see you are still around
Population growth is the reason for so much we see as problems
Yet both sides,the current version of capitalism, needs it?
Weird
Surely we are rushing towards that lemming leap, we can not avoid the truth growth can never go on forever
Capitalism is the only system that works but in time we must modify it or it too will fail
Population growth most end