Class supervision to ensure build compliance is standard - just see how many surveyors Lloyds, ABS, DNV etc have in China.
These QA surveillance firms in China are staffed by local Chinese inspectors. The Rosyth crane had Scotsmen crawling over it. The Fab Yard QA function was not devolved to one of these companies.
Cost per tonne fabricated steel in UK is many times that in PRC (and still much more than Korea, Singapore and Japan, not to mention Brazil). Tends to be down to labour cost (inc overhead) rather than efficiency.
Don't forget Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. Maybe we should have outsourced the carriers to the far east? That would keep me busy for a while.
Peace
