What Does the Emergence of China as #1 Window and Door Market Mean to Us?

Survey Results for 07/01/2009:

China becoming the #1 window and door market will:

 With more pressing matters before us, it seems China is no longer a hot topic.  A couple of years back there was much industry talk about more and more low-cost imports coming in and having a negative impact on the domestic window and door industry.  A few North American companies saw China as a huge opportunity for export sales as its economy continued to develop.

I got very little response to last week's Talk, as I shared Freedonia's observation that China will soon surpass the U.S. as the single largest window and door market in the world.   The votes that came in also don't present any clear signal that losing "number one" status will mean one thing or another.  The biggest group of respondents seem to think that China's window and door market growing larger than that of the U.S. will have no impact.

Personally, I'm not so sure.  I certainly don't think we'll see any huge impact, but there could be some subtle effects to no longer being the biggest fish in the pond. For one thing, as markets globalize more and more, so do codes and regulations.  As China and then perhaps India become bigger players, we may have less clout when international negotiations take place.

Perhaps that's what those who responded that losing number one status will have a negative impact were thinking.  I suspect those who see China's emergence as a positive are probably the same people who several years ago saw big opportunities there.

If Freedonia's right, those opportunities are only growing and companies that have invested in establishing sales or distribution in China will start to see more rewards. 

Contact John G. Swanson, editor & associate publisher, at john@glass.org.

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