John de Bueger warns about the danger of buying on price alone.
Last month saw a picket line at Port Tauranga - a demonstration of trade union muscle that for those of us who can recall the pitched battles and brouhahas of yesteryear, is now thankfully rare.
Furthermore, the calm diplomatic demeanour of the union rep when interviewed on the radio exuded such sweet reasonableness that I fleetingly thought the news clip must be a spoof.
The lads were showing solidarity with some of their less fortunate brothers at the Hillside railway workshops in Dunedin who had - in a masterstroke of crass KiwiRail managerial ineptness - been declared redundant on the very same day that the first consignment of Chinese-made wagons arrived in this country.
On radio, head honcho of KiwiRail declared, that the corporation is saving 25% by buying Chinese rolling stock.
One wonders how this guy got to be CEO of KiwiRail. Has he not actually bought anything Chinese recently, and learned the simple truth that in this world you get what you pay for? If these wagons are of a similar quality to everything else Chinese one is forced to buy these days, it will not be long before the naive bean-counters at KiwiRail end up paying a great deal more than 25% extra fixing up the mess - and belatedly realise that locally made items were a snip.
Let me recount some of my recent experiences with Chinese machines. A power drill bought from a reputable national hardware chain lasted precisely 6 months before the battery packed a sad and would not hold its charge longer than 10 minutes - a great bargain if you do not mind spending 1 hour recharging after every hole. (In fairness, this item was on special during an annual sale, and I did not really expect it to see out the year. I got what I paid for).
I am a bit deaf, and my inability to hear the phone ringing infuriated one of my friends to such an extent that he bought an extension phone and installed it in my kitchen. The first phone lasted a month and was replaced under warranty. The replacement worked OK for a year before developing an irritating fuzzy noise - to finally collapse into total silence a year later.
It came from that well known emporium whose key advertising slogan stresses that everything in store is a bargain. It was a bargain all right. Anyway, help is at hand. A member of the bridge club has most kindly given me a 20-year-old New Zealand-made Telecom model that I expect to be still working perfectly when I depart this mortal coil.
It also works during power cuts - something modern Chinese phones cannot manage.
Then there are laptops. I am utterly dependent on one at work, and over the last 20 years the company has replaced my machine, on average, about every 5 to 6 years. The only reason these old machines were replaced was because Bill Gates kept on issuing bloated software upgrades that exceeded machine memory.
Not one failed mechanically. In fact, my old 286 got handed down to my daughter and was still working happily after a further six years of school and university - never having required service once. I have had similar experiences with a succession of US-made machines, and would happily have stuck with the manufacturer for life. But no; HP bought them out and switched manufacture to guess where?
I do not know if you have experienced hard-drive failure, but it is akin to a cat being strangled. Shortly before the crash, an unfamiliar "blue screen" arrives and curtly tells you that it's all over rover - before blacking out.
Hard-drives cannot be fixed, and neither can files be recovered except at great expense by outside specialists. How does $3000 to $5000 grab you? I have now experienced the dreaded "blue screen" twice - and surprise, surprise, this has been in the last six months on Chinese-made junk.
You may say, what possibly have railway wagons and computer hardware got in common, so let us talk about Chinese-made steel pressure vessels.
Like railway wagons, these are welded steel fabrications. I doubt there are any oil companies in New Plymouth unfamiliar with the pitfalls associated with Chinese pressure vessels.
Unless you flood their factory with expat inspectors, and watch them all the way, you can expect bogus material certificates, crap welding and highly questionable radiographic documentation. It is no use putting local Chinese inspectors on their tails - they just get bribed.
A client recently asked me to estimate the true comparative cost between East Asian and New Zealand-made pressure vessels.
I found after running through the numbers, that if you allow for enough inspection to ensure that you do not have to cut out and re-weld them when they get here, and fully allow the transport cost of essentially shipping empty boxes of air, New Zealand-made pressure vessels compare very favourably indeed.
The San Lu milk adulteration scandal was no isolated case, and it is not surprising that Chinese tour groups strip supermarket shelves bare of baby formula - and take it home as hand baggage. Only the other week international athletes were warned off Chinese pork anywhere, if they wish to avoid positive drug tests.
The attention to detail that produced those exquisite Ming vases still exists in China, and you can get quality if you pay for it, but such is the endemic commercial immorality, they will palm you off with junk unless you really understand expediting and inspection.
Let us hope KiwiRail does, because if it has stupidly bought on bottom-line price alone, it will not be long before the only destination for these wagons will be to Hillside for a complete rebuild. When KiwiRail has paid for that, the initial 25% premium will seem cheap indeed.
• John de Bueger is a New Plymouth writer and engineer.
