while i'm sure the issue with the costs here and there isn't labor/salary, googled out of curiosity - for welder in US it is $30-50K/year avg, in Germany - the government mandated minimum in non-East Germany is something like 14euro/hour, in the East - 11 euro/hour.

I also would be very surprised if the Germany/Switzerland were "outsourcing" the job to Chinese companies like the US does with big infrastructure projects. I mean everybody who ever dealt with outsourcing up close knows what in reality it is completely opposite to "cost savings", instead it is a way to "digest" even more money than it would be otherwise.