But manufacturing at low cost in ambient conditions is not so easy.

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"The manufacturing industry is running out of low-cost sourcing destinations, and it's time to invest in making factories safer and better, rather than searching for cheaper labor, " says Auret van Heerden, chief executive of the Fair Labor Association, a monitoring group funded partly by Western companies.

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This is driven in part by low manufacturing cost of razors and blades sold.

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Nick Reilly, who heads GM's international operations, says that part of the answer is to adopt low-cost manufacturing techniques and not to load cheap cars with unnecessary technology.

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But while it has so far relied on a low-cost manufacturing strategy for its success, it is shifting gears as a restless work force and the results of its one-child policy threaten its manufacturing advantage.

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China is the manufacturing juggernaut that supplies the majority of low-cost solar cells to the rest of the planet.

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Low-cost energy is leading to revival in manufacturing and chemicals industries, with multinationals choosing to invest in the U.S. rather than other countries with lower labour costs.

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Manufacturing is starting to return to the United States because of that low cost natural gas to fuel factories that make chemicals, fertilizer and such.

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An inevitable increase in freight costs is not going to wipe out the benefits of manufacturing in low-cost countries abroad.

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