Cempaka Belanda: China No Match for Dutch Plants as Philips Shavers Come Home

"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

"The Timing of the Great Shift" – Mar 21, 2009 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“ … Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013.
They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader ..."

"Update on Current Events" – Jul 23, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: The Humanization of God, Gaia, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Benevolent Design, Financial Institutes (Recession, System to Change ...), Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Nuclear Power Revealed, Geothermal Power, Hydro Power, Drinking Water from Seawater, No need for Oil as Much, Middle East in Peace, Persia/Iran Uprising, Muhammad, Israel, DNA, Two Dictators to fall soon, Africa, China, (Old) Souls, Species to go, Whales to Humans, Global Unity,..... etc.)

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”

Thursday, January 19, 2012

China No Match for Dutch Plants as Philips Shavers Come Home

Bloomberg, By Maaike Noordhuis, January 19, 2012

Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Philips Electronics NV workers in the Dutch town of Drachten who expected to be fired were astonished when the site manager said the company was bringing production of its top-priced electric shavers home from China.

Rob Karsmakers, the factory manager who returned from four years working for Philips in Asia, told the baffled crowd that the consumer-electronics company would boost investment in Drachten, where it employs 2,000 staff.

“A product engineer in Shanghai now is just as expensive as in Drachten,” said Karsmakers, who has overseen the plant since 2009, in an interview. “But in China, the headcount turnover is high. That is not sustainable.” Philips, which also lights the Eiffel tower and the Olympic Stadium in Beijing, employs a total of 14,000 people in the Netherlands.

The nation, the fifth-largest economy in the euro region, has expanded its allure as a manufacturing powerhouse next to its dominant German neighbor. The Netherlands leads in areas as varied as paints and combat uniforms for the U.S. Army. Apple Inc. uses chips produced by machines from ASML Holding NV for its iPhone and iPad, and TomTom NV help drivers navigate unfamiliar roads.

The Dutch trade surplus in the first nine months of last year was the second highest in the euro area behind Germany, Eurostat data show. The Netherlands was the seventh-biggest export nation in the past five years, according to ING Groep NV and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

Keeping Triple-A

“The Netherlands in particular is a country of trade, it is how we earn our money,” said Maarten Leen, an economist at ING. Set up as gateway into Europe, with five major sea docks and the Schiphol airport near Amsterdam, the Dutch have managed to maintain a current-account surplus since 1981, Leen said.

Standard & Poor’s affirmed its AAA long-term credit rating on the Netherlands on Jan. 13, citing the “sustained and healthy current account surpluses,” averaging 6.4 percent between 2005 and 2010. That offset the view of a weaker-than- anticipated political climate in Europe, it said.

The Dutch have played a leading role in global economic trade for centuries. The Dutch East India Company came to dominate business in Asia after it was founded in 1602, in the first ever initial public offering by a company, and traded spices, metals, textiles or porcelain.

Global Dutch brands today include Heineken NV beer, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Unilever NV, the maker of Dove soap, Lipton tea and Magnum ice cream.

Chemicals, Tech

Chemical products such as Akzo Nobel NV’s Sikkens paint, and machinery such as ASML’s lithography systems make up a substantial part of export growth, on top of the traditional agriculture products such as flowers, onions and tomatoes.

The chemical and technology industries have shown the strongest growth in exports since 1996, with volume increases of 4 percent and 5.8 percent per year, respectively, data from Dutch statistical office CBS show.

“We have a superior infrastructure, with docks in Rotterdam, Delfzijl and Geleen, and the connection to the pipeline system for gas and ethylene in the surrounding countries, in Belgium, Antwerp and the Rhine-area in Germany,” said Werner Fuhrmann, vice chairman of the VNCI Association of the Dutch Chemical Industry.

For ASML, its position in the Netherlands is key, as the company relies on a network of “hundreds of high-tech suppliers” and research institutes to develop its lithography scanners, Chief Financial Officer Peter Wennink said.

Specialized work “we can do fast and effectively with partners in the south of the Netherlands,” he said.

Brainport Area

ASML, which has a 80 percent market share in the semiconductor equipment sector, is part of the Brainport area in the southern part of the Netherlands, an industrial hub that combines industries from food, to automotive to design and technology, including Philips and TomTom.

The company hopes to surpass Applied Materials Inc. this year as the largest player in its industry, Chief Executive Officer Eric Meurice said yesterday, after the company posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter numbers. ”Our secret is that we put a lot of money in R&D and we have linked our research and development to manufacturing,” he said at a press conference.

For Karsmakers, bringing manufacturing of the high-end shavers closer to the research facility in Drachten and serving the European market, offered a good ”local-for-local” opportunity, as it would also reduce transport costs, he said. Philips kept production of its cheaper shavers in China to serve the Asian market.

Emerging Challenge

The country’s corporate prowess has attracted suitors. In the past decade, Dutch companies, including ABN Amro Bank NV, previously the country’s largest bank, and Royal KLM NV, the national carrier, have fallen into the hands of foreign owners, leading to widespread controversy in the Netherlands about a national company sell-out.

Today, the Dutch have other challenges. With the lingering European debt crisis, and two thirds of exports still dependent on Western Europe, the country faces a “great challenge” to match the growth it has seen in the past 15 years,” Leen said, adding the Netherlands still hasn’t made its mark in emerging economies, specifically in Asia.

China’s economy expanded in the fourth quarter at the slowest pace in more than two years as Europe’s debt crisis curbed demand for exports and the property market was weakened by measures to rein in home prices.

With the gravity point of the world economy shifting to countries like China, India and Brazil, innovation in the Netherlands should help the country maintain its trade position, Economics Affairs Maxime Verhagen said in a speech last year at the Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

The future lies in developing innovative products that help cut CO2-emissions, tackling the fallout of aging populations, and the growing demand for food from a growing global population, Verhagen said, referring to products such as Philips home healthcare offerings and Royal DSM NV’s light material Aircargo containers.

“A big threat for industry in the Netherlands, or even Europe as a whole, is that governments erode fundamental innovation and education,” Peter Wennink, CFO of ASML, said in an interview.

--Editors: Benedikt Kammel, Fred Pals

To contact the reporter on this story: Maaike Noordhuis in Amsterdam at mnoordhuis@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Benedikt Kammel at bkammel@bloomberg.net