Background

The TEM sector -- comprising the manufacture of aircraft and other aerospace equipment, railroad equipment, motor vehicles and auto parts, motorcycles and bicycles, as well as the building, repairing and breaking of ships -- occupies (with some parts of mechanical and electrical engineering) a high rank in the manufacturing industries' pecking order, with high intensities of capital and skills, and relatively good salaries and overall working conditions. Motor vehicle suppliers, ship breaking and ship repairing are major exceptions, however. In motor vehicle assembly, capital/labour ratios vary significantly between the highly automated plants in Japan, Western Europe and the United States and those in Asia, Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe. Ship breaking is now carried out mostly in middle- and low-income countries with very different techniques and working conditions.