aluminium and electricity are neither cheap nor subsidised in china. how many companies producing aluminium parts have you personally run? if 2 or more, you are ahead of me, otherwise I would suggest you know nothing.
having said that, cast aluminium components including those that are also precision machined are cheap in china. because of low labour cost, lower overheads, much lower tooling costs. I think you will find there are a lot more than the wheels made in china.
on steel, I know GM has a couple of issues on some parts. on the other hand, when VW first set up in Shanghai they introduced all the German automotive steel specs to one of the shanghai steel companies and you will find over 90% localisation on many of the VW cars made in china. there is a slight issue that some of these steels are only made available to the SAIC vehicle production although this of course includes GM.
china is one of the biggest producers of steel in the world, it may even be the biggest by now. there are a some special grades they don't have yet, but it won't take long, be it by foreign investment or by domestic companies.
having said that, cast aluminium components including those that are also precision machined are cheap in china. because of low labour cost, lower overheads, much lower tooling costs. I think you will find there are a lot more than the wheels made in china.
on steel, I know GM has a couple of issues on some parts. on the other hand, when VW first set up in Shanghai they introduced all the German automotive steel specs to one of the shanghai steel companies and you will find over 90% localisation on many of the VW cars made in china. there is a slight issue that some of these steels are only made available to the SAIC vehicle production although this of course includes GM.
china is one of the biggest producers of steel in the world, it may even be the biggest by now. there are a some special grades they don't have yet, but it won't take long, be it by foreign investment or by domestic companies.
