Atlas

There is a posting on TheRailwire which says Atlas is affected.

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=45118.0

This is confirmed on the Atlas website:

https://shop.atlasrr.com/b-atlas-rolling-stock-and-locomotive-factory-closure.aspx

Man, Atlas can't catch a

Man, Atlas can't catch a break.

Factory closing in China

Reportedly the factory also did work for Athearn, Intermountain, Fox Valley, Scale Trains, Walthers and others.

I think something similar

I think something similar happened to Rapido a while back which prompted them open their own factory. Looks like if you want a new loco in 2019 you better pre-order the Rapido RS-11. Or RS-18 for us north of the border.

Sounds like

a business opportunity for Rapido or Bachmann.

Hi, when you say reportedly ?

Hi @rtld614, when you say reportedly ? Do you have a link ?

winTim

I thought Atlas moved to a

I thought Atlas moved to a different factory from the others after the debacle of a few years back.

There are a number of Items

Who installs the decoder ?

 I pre-ordered a Atlas Alco Rs 32 gold in Feb. Atlas is shipping out the silver now, Will this affect gold or do they install the decoders ? I couldn't find anything on a shipping date for gold .

Chet

Walthers does not, and has

Walthers does not, and has not, used the factory in question.

Factory closing in China

This  will undoubtedly have a serious impact, regardless of what companies are affected. Returning production to the US would reduce the likelihood of such a business disruption.

Joe S.

Factories

"Reportedly the factory also did work for Athearn, Intermountain, Fox Valley, Scale Trains, Walthers and others."

The latest right from distributors.. . The factories, not singular, have "closed their doors" not gone out of business. We all knew that the trade wars were going to affect items from China, just not this fast. According to distributors, there is no way to know how long before anything is resolved. Weeks or years. Track however is supposed to be unaffected.....Until we hear right from the manufactures its all up in the air.

It might, but if production

For those who complain about prices for Locos and Rolling Stock.

...think they are too high now, just have production return to US! I wouldn't be surprised if costs go up as high as 50%!  It's not practical or the hobby manufacturer's would returned production to US years ago after the first time factories in china "closed shop" causing countless delays! 

Ken L. 

Bowser Is Doing The RS-3's Here In USA

Apparently ….

BOWSER RS3 PROJECT 

China's answer to Trump?

I find this pretty interesting since you can probably stake what ever you want that this is the government doing the closings and not the companies. Considering just how much stuff comes from China these days I suspect this is just the tip of the ice burg. Who will blink first, China or Trump?

Jack

Production won't return to

Production won't return to the US, Costs too much in labour, wages, benefits , union interference and so on. Yes there will be delays with this. Perhaps it is to do with the trade war, or the factories decided their equipment can product different more profitable items with larger production runs. Which increase productivity. Wouldn't surprise me is manufacturing starts to come out of India,  

Phil

From Atlas

Atlas has received notification from one of our locomotive and rolling stock suppliers that they have closed their factory. (Please note Atlas track and accessories are NOT affected by this delay.) Atlas is currently working with our network of suppliers to transfer the projects to others for completion. This will cause a delay in some previously ordered products. We apologize for this delay, thank you for your continued support, and will update you with more information as it becomes availably

It's the beginning and the victims are us

Don't know if this is a response of China against the US import taxes and the commercial war which is starting slowly.

But the sector of the trains will suffer a lot of this trade problems.

Far away from the trade problems, we need to know, if china production dissappear, for sure some Producer will dissappear, aviability of many models will also dissappear, the market could be reduced.

Anyway the victims are us, and in other many sectors the only victims will be everybody which need to pay a lot for simple things just because such war.

We have all good and bad reasons about china production but the best result is affordable price for everybody.

This show the limit of the internal cost of countries and show already that not everybody has the capability to pay what we call the real price in our countries.

Years ago in Europe we have begining a commercial war with asia, we have heavily taxed products from these countries and especialy Japan, beleiving this could bring back production here and made in final new jobs.

Just a political dream, because it was nearly impossible for the European to pay the price of home made manufacturing thing, this was a reality.

I remember a jeans of a medium quality cost something like 20 euros imported, the same made in Europe around 75euros as a minimum and this is just an example.

How much could cost a locomotive made here in US; look the price of a Fleischmann locomotive which is made in Europe, all are around 500euros.....are you ready to pay so much....is this price affordable for all of us, here is the debate!

The company is AFFA and the

The company is AFFA and the owner had serious health issues. But strange that no-one could either take over, offer to be bought or, a consortium of current purchasers.

American Z Lines has had a large number of locomotives and rolling stock,much quicker (and better quality) that there previous suppliers. Sucks for us bot Atlas was has their track made elsewhere so we should still get our turnouts in a few months.

"Anyway the victims are us" Seriously . . .

I love the fact that some call themselves victims when we enjoy what is practically slave labor wages in China to produce Toys and other products that US corporations make huge profits on.  Looking at you Apple and many others.

China workers, work on avg of 12 to 13 hour days for around $1.36 an hour or about $16.32 a day.  Here in the US people are calling for $15 an hour for an unskilled worker in fast food saying that is livable wage.  Americans are completely happy to exploit workers in other nations working from dorms for 12 hour days 6 days a week for $97.92 a week.  When most Americans make that in a day.  Just like in the US Chinese workers too are demanding more money and better work conditions.  Over the last few years the labor cost in china as tripled and is approaching $3.60 an hour in some labor sectors.

Now the question is, Do you support $15 an hour aka a livable wage in the US for burger flippers,  but do not think the same livable wage should be provided to highly skilled workers making precision products in other countries?   The entire trade wars is to level the playfield with US workers.  Why do you think Atlas makes products in China and not the US?  They enjoy the slave labor wages from china and are not willing to pay a livable wage in either country just like most US corporations that have products made out of the US.

But yes we are the victims for not wanting people all over the world to get a livable wage . No the debate is, should we get cheap toys off the back of people working for slave labor pay.  It is called leveling the playfield.  So maybe one day it will be the same cost to make a plastic toy in the US, Canada, China, Europe etc.  Based on skills vs slave labor pay.

watching...

Seeing where this goes. Educational...

I can see where this will

I can see where this will go......

We still can afford a number

We still can afford a number of products because they are produced in low wage countries. The playing field will level automatically but slowly as wages e.g. in China rise faster than in the USA or Europe. But this doesn't mean that production will come back.

When brass locomotives got too expensive to build in Japan the importers moved to South Korea. Now South Korea outsources subassemblies to China.

Jason Shron, Rapido, once told that one of his passenger cars would cost $400+ each built in Canada with non-union wages.

Who would be able or willing to buy at such prices? The market would shrink considerably to size not large enough for companies to survive. In the beginning outsourcing to China might have been optimizing of profit, now production in low wage countries is needed to stay in business.

Regarding Bowser: Creating molds is not as expensive as it one was when they where hand-cut. Today they are machined from 3D drawings. Injection molding is competetive in the USA too as not much labor is involved. I would assume that Bowser will send the parts for assembly to a low wage country.

I looked up a few other items. The latest Iphone would cost $2,000 made in America. Jeans and solar panel would too cost twice the current price.

I'm not sure if one should wish for the jobs coming back to the USA. On the other hand manufacturers would do everything to replace human labor by machines.

That doesn't change that our wealth in a great part is based on the poverty of others.
Regards, Volker