Suspension of inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong • Hacker News Board

Re: Suspension of inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong

#141

Post by Aurornis » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 5:04 AM UTC

dtquad wrote: post #120

reaperman wrote: post #72

This is going to utterly fuck so many R&D projects at my company. We actually do large-scale manufacturing of industrial valves in the USA. But a lot of our prototyping involves working with Chinese suppliers and getting small batches of samples / prototypes / revisions sent in packages on airplanes. I literally do not know how the electrical and firmware engineers will do their jobs now if we cannot receive packages…

>I literally do not know how the electrical and firmware engineers will do their jobs now if we cannot receive packages from China As a software engineer who works closely with electrical and firmware engineers I know what you are saying is completely true. The question is how did we let it go this far? Why has there never been serious Western alternatives to JLCPCB, PCBWay, JLCCNC etc.? Has anyone asked themselves h…

> The question is how did we let it go this far? Why has there never been serious Western alternatives to JLCPCB, PCBWay, JLCCNC etc.? Has anyone asked themselves how these Chinese firms are so cheap?

It’s not really a secret. They have cheap labor. Very lax environmental standards (big deal for PCB manufacturing). They have a high density of manufacturing and production. One factory can get their materials and machines from other factories nearby. Their government manipulates exchange rates.

People are also quick to forget US companies that serve these same markets. OSH Park was doing cheap PCB panel share before JLCPCB was a common name. Boards manufactured right in the United States. They don’t have the volume of JLCPCB but they’ve been doing cheap boards for hobbyists for a long time: https://docs.oshpark.com/services/

Re: Suspension of inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong

#142

Post by JKCalhoun » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 5:05 AM UTC

reaperman wrote: post #72

This is going to utterly fuck so many R&D projects at my company. We actually do large-scale manufacturing of industrial valves in the USA. But a lot of our prototyping involves working with Chinese suppliers and getting small batches of samples / prototypes / revisions sent in packages on airplanes. I literally do not know how the electrical and firmware engineers will do their jobs now if we cannot receive packages…

Ha ha, whoops, just placed an order with AliExpress earlier today.

Re: Suspension of inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong

#143

Post by King-Aaron » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 5:05 AM UTC

reaperman wrote: post #72

This is going to utterly fuck so many R&D projects at my company. We actually do large-scale manufacturing of industrial valves in the USA. But a lot of our prototyping involves working with Chinese suppliers and getting small batches of samples / prototypes / revisions sent in packages on airplanes. I literally do not know how the electrical and firmware engineers will do their jobs now if we cannot receive packages…

Can you get things forwarded via Singapore or Australia etc?

Re: Suspension of inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong

#144

Post by ranger_danger » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 5:05 AM UTC

dahdum wrote: post #5

Wouldn’t this be due to the Lunar New Year, a massive holiday that shuts down wide swaths of the country? UPS has a bunch of Asia delays right now too. https://www.ups.com/cn/en/service-alerts.page

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/04/business/china-us-usps-de...

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/02/nx-s1-5283957/fentanyl-trump-...

It was already written in project 2025 to do this, they're just going down the line.

Re: Suspension of inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong

#145

Post by bloomingeek » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 5:06 AM UTC

999900000999 wrote: post #29

xnx wrote: post #21

Bad for consumers, but seems like a very good thing for AMZN? Amazon won't have to compete against the much cheaper Temu, Aliexpress, Shein(?) etc.

Cheaper and better. This country is so painfully stupid. Now I have to pay 2x as much for inferior products, if not the same exact stuff imported by an American company. This alone is probably going to cost me about 1000$ to 2000$ per year. We literally don't make much most of this stuff in the US. For example I just ordered a guitar bag, 15$ direct from China. The same exact bag, made in the same exact factory is go…

"This country is so painfully stupid."

Not all of the country is stupid, a lot of us didn't vote for the idiot who is causing all this lunacy. Unfortunately, not enough of us.

Re: Suspension of inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong

#146

Post by Aurornis » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 5:07 AM UTC

999900000999 wrote: post #29

xnx wrote: post #21

Bad for consumers, but seems like a very good thing for AMZN? Amazon won't have to compete against the much cheaper Temu, Aliexpress, Shein(?) etc.

Cheaper and better. This country is so painfully stupid. Now I have to pay 2x as much for inferior products, if not the same exact stuff imported by an American company. This alone is probably going to cost me about 1000$ to 2000$ per year. We literally don't make much most of this stuff in the US. For example I just ordered a guitar bag, 15$ direct from China. The same exact bag, made in the same exact factory is go…

> This alone is probably going to cost me about 1000$ to 2000$ per year.

This is a temporary hold while they figure out what’s going on.

They’re not announcing that shipments from China are over for the year.

Re: Suspension of inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong

#147

Post by anonylizard » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 5:07 AM UTC

JohnBooty wrote: post #122

reaperman wrote: post #72

This is going to utterly fuck so many R&D projects at my company. We actually do large-scale manufacturing of industrial valves in the USA. But a lot of our prototyping involves working with Chinese suppliers and getting small batches of samples / prototypes / revisions sent in packages on airplanes. I literally do not know how the electrical and firmware engineers will do their jobs now if we cannot receive packages…

Can you ship via non-USPS couriers? FedEx, etc?

Indeed you can. This only affects the heavily subsidized usps shipping process. If your r&d cannot afford fedex you shouldn’t be doing r&d.

For all the supposed panic and importance of this process, the poster didn’t do even a google search of this issue

Re: Suspension of inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong

#148

Post by stingrae » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 5:08 AM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #141

dtquad wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I literally do not know how the electrical and firmware engineers will do their jobs now if we cannot receive packages from China As a software engineer who works closely with electrical and firmware engineers I know what you are saying is completely true. The question is how did we let it go this far? Why has there never been serious Western alternatives to JLCPCB, PCBWay, JLCCNC etc.? Has anyone asked themselves h…

> The question is how did we let it go this far? Why has there never been serious Western alternatives to JLCPCB, PCBWay, JLCCNC etc.? Has anyone asked themselves how these Chinese firms are so cheap? It’s not really a secret. They have cheap labor. Very lax environmental standards (big deal for PCB manufacturing). They have a high density of manufacturing and production. One factory can get their materials and machi…

In China, they compete with each other to get be the cheapest. Here (Bay Area) it feels like the PCB fab and assembly houses have decided to be higher priced because the defense contracts (and FAANG Quick turns) are willing to pay it.

Re: Suspension of inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong

#149

Post by Veliladon » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 5:10 AM UTC

dtquad wrote: post #120

reaperman wrote: post #72

This is going to utterly fuck so many R&D projects at my company. We actually do large-scale manufacturing of industrial valves in the USA. But a lot of our prototyping involves working with Chinese suppliers and getting small batches of samples / prototypes / revisions sent in packages on airplanes. I literally do not know how the electrical and firmware engineers will do their jobs now if we cannot receive packages…

>I literally do not know how the electrical and firmware engineers will do their jobs now if we cannot receive packages from China As a software engineer who works closely with electrical and firmware engineers I know what you are saying is completely true. The question is how did we let it go this far? Why has there never been serious Western alternatives to JLCPCB, PCBWay, JLCCNC etc.? Has anyone asked themselves h…

Because there's nowhere in the US like Shenzhen, Guangdong or Hong Kong.

Remember how Apple couldn't just pick up and move the production of iPhones to India or Vietnam? You need all the ancillary industries around the production to be there, along with being competitive and commoditized as well.

When a supplier has something go wrong a line of manufacturing doesn't go down. You go down the street to the same guy selling the same thing and have them pick up the slack. If you want a 1uF ceramic cap come hell or high water there's going to be a dozen people selling them all quoting a price a little above cost. When Apple moved production to India and Vietnam? When you hear Apple talking about a few billion in investment in Indonesia? This is what they're helping set up and what takes a decade to do.

Anyone can buy automation equipment but there's nowhere in the US you can do what JLCPCB/PCBWay do with PCB and electronics assembling because we literally don't manufacture all the ancillary stuff required in the US, little alone manufacture it all in the same place. If the SMT components are manufactured domestically say for military purposes it's going to be spread out all over the US because politicians pork barrel contracts for their districts and states.

You could setup next to a Mouser distribution hub but Mouser is a middleman and they have you over a barrel. What do middlemen do in that situation? They raise prices just enough to the point where it's uneconomical to leave.

You metaphorically need to invent the universe to make it work in the US.

Re: Suspension of inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong

#150

Post by Aurornis » Wed, Feb 05, 2025, 5:10 AM UTC

persedes wrote: post #65

I'm unclear on this, but to my understanding if I order of Temu, Aliexpress etc I forfeit any consumer rights that I might have in the country I reside in? E.g. if the cheap stuff burns down my house / takes out my eye [1], there's no one to blame about gross defects / QC oversight? [1] https://www.geekwire.com/2019/lawsuit-ruling-dog-leash-purch...

You’re not forfeiting any rights by buying something on Aliexpress.

US law doesn’t apply in China. Nobody is going to take your case because some Aliexpress seller has no reason to even respond to your threats to take them to court.