i understand that it's not about weight but volume/footprint and by correlation time from factory to warehouse to shop/customer. having factory on the same continent cuts your supply chain response time by months which means you can allocate floor area better.
OTOH i don't sell fridges, so that's all just thinking aloud :)
Well, maybe they're actually simply competitive ;-). And don't forget that factories cost a lot, as does training personnel - so if poland happened to have a stable enough climate and rules that don't scare away investors, then than might well compensate for a higher hourly wage (and in any case, wages in china aren't exactly what they were 20 years ago!). Finally, I'm not sure what kind of tariffs and bureaucratic issues there are - some perhaps overhead; but some to ensure product safety and standardization - but that too means importing has some extra costs.
I'm totally no expert, but any or all of that sounds more plausible than shipping cost issues; I did some quick googling and rough guesstimation (40ft container fits 67 cubic meters, so say 33000$ of goods, at around 1000$ to ship from shanghai to rotterdam), and I guess it's no more than a 3% surcharge; possibly less if you consider I bet I didn't find the best deals. It's not nothing, but neither is it particularly shocking (and you might save on trucking costs because you can pick the port and that port is likely particularly well connected).
