I just received the news that Sanda Kan, who manufactures products
for 80 model train companies, has terminated their contracts for 60 of
them including LGB/Marklin.
That will affect LGB Chinese
production - mostly US prototype items but also some European models
that were made in China.
A bit of this is covered here:
http://www.modelrailroadnews.com/channels/n-scale/single-article-page/interesting-times/6fa58324da.htmlThis
article doesn't mention Marklin/LGB, the termination of their contract
is the news I just received.
Piko is not affected by this - they
are the only German model train manufacturer who has their own, Piko
owned, manufacturing facility in China.
This is not necessarily
bad news. I assume Marklin will move their Chinese LGB production
elsewhere, either to another Chinese facility or maybe even back to
Hungary.
But there will probably be a break in the supply while this
all gets organized.
Knut