🥟 Dim sum with old friend back in town for meetings. Her family makes car parts in China and Malaysia. They looked into building a factory in the U.S. some years ago but it would take too long and cost too much. I asked if it would help now with advances in automation, political support for reshoring and co-investors from the U.S. who want to do a JV. Even with all that it would be difficult because her car parts rely on other components from around the world. The cost of producing her parts in USA and needing to import all the components would still price her out of the market and clients want the cheapest price. They were thinking of setting up in Mexico like her competitors did but opted for Malaysia since it’s more cost effective to source the little parts from China. Now her competitors who set up in Mexico are a bit screwed because the Trump tariffs are going to make it too expensive which defeated the purpose of setting up in Mexico and the clients are calling her in Malaysia. This is a reminder of how interconnected the global supply chain is and why tariff wars complicate things further.