Taiwan trouble for chrome parts?

[b5blue]

  Seems the cost of our AMD chrome bumpers may go up and be delayed. Apparently they have been dumping toxic waste through hidden pipes into the local watershed areas polluting.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2013/12/12/2003578857
  I've pointed out in the past that just as America had severe polluting issues now it's China, Taiwan and others starting to realize the hidden extra costs from industrial manufacturing waste. Years ago I started checking labels at the grocery store, no sea food from "over there" comes to my table. (Even my "Chinese Food" is American made!) Now I'm glad I quit buying "Previously Frozen Farm Raised Shrimp" as soon as I noticed the label said "From Taiwan". Yummy wild caught Gulf shrimp with just a hint of BP crude for me!       

[Ghoste]

The difference is that they are still a communist autocracy so the first chance they get to "make it go away", my bet is that they will.

[Patronus]

Ya, I saw this too. There was a big disclaimer at Mr Moparts about the bumpers and how the cost is expected to rise 2-3 times.

[Dino]

They're not worth the current asking price and they want to triple it?  Okay...

[JB400]

It should make it an easier decision on whether to chrome the originals or buy reproduction then.

[Chad L. Magee]

  Seems the cost of our AMD chrome bumpers may go up and be delayed. Apparently they have been dumping toxic waste through hidden pipes into the local watershed areas polluting.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2013/12/12/2003578857
  I've pointed out in the past that just as America had severe polluting issues now it's China, Taiwan and others starting to realize the hidden extra costs from industrial manufacturing waste. Years ago I started checking labels at the grocery store, no sea food from "over there" comes to my table. (Even my "Chinese Food" is American made!) Now I'm glad I quit buying "Previously Frozen Farm Raised Shrimp" as soon as I noticed the label said "From Taiwan". Yummy wild caught Gulf shrimp with just a hint of BP crude for me!       

Heavy metal contamination is not just a foreign problem, we just are more open about trying to police it using a federal agency.  One of the local towns (Colby) is a superfund site due to chromium dumping from a plating company that made farm implements.  The EPA has been working on cleaning it up for twenty years (and has more to go in cleaning/monitoring the site).  Chromium metal (and Chromium III compounds) are not considered hazardous to humans.  However, chromium can be oxidized into the +6 state (which is water soluble) and then can get into the water table underground.  In this oxidized state, it is both a toxin and a carcinogen to humans.  That is why all waste materials containing chromium (and other heavy metals) must be properly disposed of to prevent issues like the above and are regulated as they should be.  The process to properly treat the waste per federal regulations costs $$$, which is why buyers pay more for chrome bumpers to be produced here in the USA vs. other parts of the world.  China is starting to see the ramifications of improper dumping issues, so they may develop their own version of an EPA in the future.  Will that greatly impact our trades in foods/other things?  We will have to wait and see....

Side note for those who have not been on this site very long:  My PhD research was in developing chemical sensor systems that could detect heavy metal (specifically Cd2+, Hg2+ and Pb2+) contamination of water supplies.  My main goal was to make a test strip (much like pH paper strips) that could be used to quickly determine how contaminated a water sample is out in environmental settings.  I got the mercury-seeking sensor to work selectively (thanks to the covalent Hg-S bond), but the other two were problematic during the testing phase of the project.  Not everything you plan out will work in scientific research....

[Mike DC]

Side note for those who have not been on this site very long:  My PhD research was in developing chemical sensor systems that could detect heavy metal (specifically Cd2+, Hg2+ and Pb2+) contamination of water supplies.  My main goal was to make a test strip (much like pH paper strips) that could be used to quickly determine how contaminated a water sample is out in environmental settings.  I got the mercury-seeking sensor to work selectively (thanks to the covalent Hg-S bond), but the other two were problematic during the testing phase of the project.  Not everything you plan out will work in scientific research....

Wow, that's potentially a VERY useful idea.  Too bad it didn't pan out.  

They're not worth the current asking price and they want to triple it?  Okay...

My thoughts too.  

This isn't the 1980s.  People don't want cheap-ass repro sheetmetal just to patch up daily drivers anymore.  The market wants original quality now.

Hopefully they were just talking about tripling the bill for the chroming process, not the entire tab for repro bumpers.  For 2-3x the price of the entire repro bumpers we could be buying & replating the 45yo stuff.  That makes no sense.  A worker has to manually straighten & refinish each original one before it can be replated.  

[b5blue]

  After holding off buying a rear bumper for my 70 (Paying off bills.) for nearly 2 years I went to buy one last April. They were out of stock @ AMD back then with a 90 day back-order delay. Last week I ordered one from Jegs and it came up on back-order for 2 days. After 2 days it came up back-order for 2 more weeks and that started me looking into availability ASAP. I verified Tamaraz (SP?) had in stock ready to ship even though the eBay site said 8 in stock. Good thing I didn't wait, I got the last one in stock after calling in to double check shipping before canceling with Jegs.
  For me it was about timing and wanting the back of my car done now for daily use. That situation uncovered the deeper issue I'd not heard about so I posted here about it. The same thing happened with my 70 bucket seat back covers, I got the very last molded Blue set before Metro Mopar went belly up. I think the landscape for restoring Mopars is changing from the heydays just a few years back. While values have rebounded nicely for cars, with our fewer numbers as a total parts are going to cost more and be less available more and more. The US/global economy "tanking out" really put the squeeze on our vendors and their suppliers and things may never be the same. 

[6spd68]

The US/global economy "tanking out" really put the squeeze on our vendors and their suppliers and things may never be the same. 

Seeing the way things are going, I'd have to agree...  I'm hoping the collector car world will still exist in 10 years.  The doom & gloom in me almost thinks it wont though