SourceJuice.com recently posted two interesting articles about Chinese exports to the United States.

1. On October 21st, China announced that it would be raising the tax rebates on 3,486 labor intensive industries including textiles, garments, and toys. This could help companies that are importing products from China in these industries as prices are likely to drop. It may also help reverse the trend of companies moving from China to other low cost countries or regions closer to the United States to reduce shipping costs.

The VAT or Value Added Tax changes are China's attempt to boost their economy as U.S. and European importers feel the impact of the global credit crisis. This news is a reminder to many importers that China is still one of the most competitively priced locations for sourcing.

2. Dylan Blankenship wrote an article about companies manufacturing boats in China and importing them to the United States. He quotes a source who states that manufacturing boats in China is 3 to 5 times less expensive than in the United States. There are some good pictures of how the boats are loaded on to vessels using Roll on, Roll off and Flat Rack shipping methods. Very infomative article about importing that I had not known about before.

The article prompted me to do several searches in TradeIQ™ to find Bills of Lading for the companies importing yachts and boats. Most yachts actually come from Europe instead of Asia. However, over the last several years Asian nations are catching up.

Below is a graph of the shipment trend over the last 5 years.

There are many companies importing yachts and boats from different manufactures around the world. If you are in this industry, US Customs data could lead to some very interesting competitive intelligence and sourcing possiblities.