have worked for one of the largest global / upmarket ballpoint pen company since 1993, stopping about 5 years ago
the reason ink and ball was difficult to localise in china for the world was simply one of economics, that it made no sense for china steel producers to focus on the ball, and (less so, but logic still applied) same for the ink producers, as the vast majority of the market accepted what was on offer, and the little balls could not compete against rebars demand
everything has its own time, and after so many years or so few years, depending on one's point of view, the take-down of the penultimate moats happening, them be ink and balls
ultimately, name brands shall either fall or be taken
3D printing, robotic manufacturing, etc etc shall aid in the process
i suppose the key is accessible market size, that which requires ... enhanced globalisation, surrounding the centre by developing the periphery, etc etc, whether it be either / or / combination of reformulated-TPP or as-is-OBOR
in my view, so far all is going about as expected, macro-wise, and we are still on inflation of the east and deflation of the west, etc etc
only difference being that america has seen fit to elect in a very wealthy person as president, one who seemingly prefer to blame everyone for everything, and is borderline bi-polar, not-dependable, volatile, and habitual tweeter
let us see how currency-manipulators germany / eu, and japan / s.korea, and india each deals w/ the family-business oligarch, and let us watch how the russian-usa my-missile-is-bigger-than-your-missile go.
interesting thing about missiles is that a stockpile of 200, especially if mobile, and on land, has as much deterrent value as 20,000 based all different ways, only a lot more economic, w/ money not-wasted available for more useful deployments |
