ALERT!!!

I received an email from an online seller that i have used before and I thought you all should know because this changes alot of plans for some people.
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING MICRO-TRAINS AND SANDA KAN MANUFACTURING IN CHINA

Dear Micro-Trains Dealer,

As you may have heard, Sanda Kan, a large manufacturer in China, has just recently consolidated its business by announcing that they are dropping many of their customers. Micro-Trains is one of the customers that they will no longer be doing business with, however this will only affect a few of our products.


The only items temporarily affected by this change is our N scale FT Locomotives, Z scale Locomotives (GP-35, GP-9, SD40-2) and Z scale Micro-Track. All other products will be unaffected as they are produced in-house at our factory here in Oregon. We are not certain of the full impact this will have on the few items above, but it is possible that there will be some delays and that some items will have to go on back order for a period of time.


We are actively working to find alternate sources for these items so we can avoid or minimize any delays. We feel fortunate to be able to produce so much of our product here at our factory and wanted to inform you how this affects our company and the products we offer you.

Thanks for your continued support of Micro-Trains and our products.

Sincerely,

Ben Thielemann
Marketing Director
Micro-Trains Line Co
This email was from needtrains.com i want to thank them for getting out the news
so fast to its customers

Steve aka "Slugger"

This is not good news--- we need all the manufactures we can get. MT must have known of this for a while and may be taking actions to get production going in other areas-- Loren- do you have any "inside info"? I wonder if this affects the E series as well.
Fred

Shipping used tools out of China is always a drama...maybe they find still someone over there that's happy to deal with them. Rumours are also around it effects Marklin Z, what is with AZL???

Fred wrote:

This is not good news--- we need all the manufactures we can get. MT must have known of this for a while and may be taking actions to get production going in other areas-- Loren- do you have any "inside info"? I wonder if this affects the E series as well.
Fred

Fred,
I don't think MTL had much advance warning on this one. Talked with Joe this evening and he only knew what info was posted earlier. Of course I imagine he was alerted from management as soon as the news arrived from overseas.

I have no idea how this will affect Marklin, AZL or any others, but I did hear that there were about 60 companies that got shown the door.

I know MTL will be very actively pursuing other manufacturers to take up the slack.

MTL could do the entire package in house, but that would cost much more and slow down production. Any manufacturing company can only produce so much with the given work force, materials, and equipment on hand.

Only time will tell how this plays out......

In a post on another forum it was claimed that only about 5% of Marklin's product came from Sanda Kan. It was also claimed that M* will make up for the deficit by transferring production to their plant in Hungary.

I guess 5% of total Marklin product is 100% of their Z program....

This is very unfortunate news. Three of the companies listed are Z scale manufacturers. As we know, Marklin and MTL, but also Bowser. Bowser produces the Full Throttle line. I am unsure if Bowser uses SDK for their Z production and can only hope FT won't be affected.

AZL is not affected by this decision from SDK.

Rob

WHY WOULDN T MTL BUY THE METAL MOLDS FROM CHINA??? atleast then they have the tooling to send elsewhere when found. to get all new molds done costs a pretty penny,, and we ll get stuck with that bill at the end!! this will really hurt any new track designs coming out in the near future,,,i was hoping to see a few new track items soon!! canada mike:woohoo:

...I'll guess it depends also on who owns the IP (intellectual property)of the molds...hopefully that's MTL.

/Frank

When you take a project to Sanda Kan or any other manufacturer you pay for the creation of the production injection mold or molds plus the painting masks so you own all that material and you have to arrange for its transfer to a new manufacturer or bring it home. If you did not own the molds then the manufacturer is free to produce the product and sell it to anyone.

I do not see a decline in supply from MTL in the near future ie the balance of this year. However not sure where the E8 project is and what if any delays are expected for this engine.

cheerz Garth


liltoot wrote:

WHY WOULDN T MTL BUY THE METAL MOLDS FROM CHINA??? atleast then they have the tooling to send elsewhere when found. to get all new molds done costs a pretty penny,, and we ll get stuck with that bill at the end!! this will really hurt any new track designs coming out in the near future,,,i was hoping to see a few new track items soon!! canada mike:woohoo: