Nikon to build $6.3m DSLR factory in Laos to lower costs

this really is a terrible thing, Laos is a very extremely primitive country , and I do not trust made in Laos quality, I'd much prefer to have made in Thailand cameras over made in Laos toys.
I think I might have to consider boycotting all Nikon products.
I do not want to have some serious camera made in primitive third world country like Laos , Burma or North Korea, it really affects on reliability and QC seriously.

by the way,do not confuse Laos with Thailand , Thailand is a great country and it is definitely much more developed nation than Laos.

I'm just wondering about quality control. The lower end and midrange DSLR cameras will be made in Laos with final assembly in Thailand. I see potential for many QC issues in new trainees, shipping of cameras from one plant to another, etc. But, Nikon is going into survival mode by keeping costs down. I know no one likes to think of iPhones replacing DSLRs, and we all know that they don't really, but people might be thinking twice about buying a D3000 generation camera when their phone takes "perfectly good shots." I'd prefer to have my camera made in Japan, but my D80 is from Thailand! I wish the new plant well. Just don't want to hear about any more oil spatters and sensor dust in new cameras.

Who cares! WHAT DOES IT MATTER? No, really! Do we keep track of where every manufacturer has manufacturing plants? With multiple plants in different countries, how does this affect anyone? I can understand there is more reassurance when it says Made in Germany, USA, Japan... but once you're out of there, who cares? It's pretty much all the same.

Great laughs....someone has a good sense of humor....happy Friday morning to all.

RE:
By alpha90290 (12 hours ago)
LOL. If they build the factory in Iraq, American will get Nikon camera that will shoot out a shoe and hit their face whenever they press the button.

Too bad we don't get it in the US. I would (if) give them the land no property taxes little or no state tax for ten years then a low tax rate (fed is another issue and my solution would apply) buiid it where needs are strong workers sign a work for hire agreement (no unions) and then pay them them a wage based on performance and company profit. Make the workers assets and happy. Nikon could pick up the costs of design etc in other areas this is only an assembly plant. More money in the hands of the people will get any economy going. Stop paying big gov and big unions have a market economy instead.

The difference between Laos and Thailand is Thailand is a multi-party democracy and Laos is a communist state where only one political party is legal.

I wish Nikon would build a factory somewhere like Eastern Europe or Brazil or Mexico or something. Or if they really have to keep it in Asia, how about India or the Philippines?

I'm tired of the products I use propping-up authoritarian regimes. Not to mention exporting industrial waste to places that have fewer restrictions on it. Until their citizens all start dying from it, of course. The Chinese are just starting to get ticked-off about that these days...

Companies are soon going to run out of low-labor-cost countries to build their factories in, however good or bad that might be.

International trade is the only thing which helps poor developing countries. Quite sad that some here seem to think otherwise or like to make fun of that. Maybe they rather like to pay twenty times the money for a worse quality German hand made camera and then travel to those picturesque countries to photograph starving peasants and feel like a pukka sahib.

6 M$ buys a lot of industrial space in Laos, meanwhile the US government spent 95 M€ just to make a 2500 m2 embassy office building more environmentally friendly here in Helsinki. And I am not kidding.

I don't know if you guys are all aware. Lao is just a new China province like Tibet.

Ah....Laos.....one of the few remaining sources of naive population that can be had for pennies a day.

Heck maybe Ashton Kutchner will get a raise from all the savings.

Perhaps not.... I'm sure Nikon's still hurting from the clean up costs/ environmental damage they were held accountable for stemming from their brilliant decision to a build a factory with numerous chemical, etc. in the flood prone areas of Thailand.

So can we expect even cheaper lenses and dslr from Nikon ??

Nikon is scouting all the low lying flood prone sites. Then they'll put all their costliest equipment on the 1st floor, having learned from the Thailand flood.

6.3 mil is not much in US but is decent sum in Laos. All they need to build is a environmental controlled building- land will be free or extremely low rent from the Laos governemt, equipment will be shipped from Japan. Good for Nikon and good for Laos economy - they truly need some high tech injection into their economy and the best part is Nikon will help training Laosian workforce.

Interesting that cheap shots cost so little.

I am sure that the Lao workers will be well trained, conscientious and hard working. They will save hard to supplement their diet with big macs and coca-cola so that they might have a true sense of belonging. I am sure that Nikon will soon enough get a payback for their investment well before they consider reducing prices to their more affluent customers.

If the laughter subsides long enough consider how much hand assembly in Germany might add to the price of an average camera.

If these cameras have a Nikon badge out front people still will bow graciously as they hand over their credit cards to buy them. No doubt re-assured that the Lao assembly process is checked by regular operatives in Thailand.

Only $6.3mil budget?
What will they make? Nikon key-chains?

LOL! Seriously that is refreshing to see. A realistic figure for a change.
They could have easily said $63Mil and nobody reading it would have thought twice about it.

I guess Laos adjusted the kickback going rate to todays low economy... They really must feel the axe of the people to do that... ;-)
j/k

They should build the factory in Iraq, for even lower costs and even cheaper oil for their sensors.

10 000 square meters of factory floor for 800 employees for 6.3 million dollars (4.9 million euros)? Clearly Laos is the way to go.

I don't care.

Yay! now we get Laos dust on our sensors as well!

I hope quality control won't lower, or else we'll have oil on the sensors or bad AF.

Oh, wait...

That cheap? Hmm, I wonder what QC will come out of such a cheap plant.

Wow. $6.3 million is all it costs to make a camera factory?! That's a normal-sized apartment in some parts of New York.

Hey guys they have to make a profit somehow! Every day I am thinking about these poor Japanese guys how much they suffer while I am a spoiled rat using their products...anyway I heard child labour is not so cheap any more...

I guess they will build anywhere the labor is cheap, the government is corrupt, and the people are repressed enough that they can make a profit. Globalism at its finest.