Posted on 11/07/2015 9:14:44 AM PST by rktman
As a result of China’s flooding the world market with cheap, state-subsidized aluminum and our president’s irrational aversion to fossil fuels, a 127-year-old American industry is in danger of disappearing. This week, the two largest primary aluminum producers in the United States announced curtailment of aluminum production at key smelters across the country. Alcoa announced that it was halting smelting operations at its Intalco Works (583 employees) and Wenatchee plants (428 employees) in Washington state, its Massena West plant in New York (500 employees) and that it was curtailing alumina refining capacity at its Point Comfort facility in Texas. Century Aluminum announced that it was cutting its aluminum production by one-third at its Sebree, Kentucky plant resulting in a loss of 150 jobs.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
yup, this is the true culprit, when you need a product, are you going to shop around for the least expensive for your own business?
these sob stories we always here...can someone breakdown the built in costs of all this, showing the american product vs the foreign product??
i bet that would be an eye opener for most folks.
Doesn’t bode well for strategic readiness, either. A happy byproduct for Obama.
Hmmmm. New Ford F-150’s made with Chinese Al? Or are they already?
Isn’t cheap aluminum what we ALL want? After all, we got cheap TVs, cheap wallboard, even some cheap gasoline-powered scooters and leaf blowers.
Of course, if China ever gets greatly peeved with us, we probably lose about half or more of our war material feedstock....
But hey, our air is clean, right? (OK, ffolkes, there was a VAST amount of sarcasm buried in there, but this note is necessary to just let a few get a peek behind the curtain.)
It looks to me as the US aluminum industry is all but gone already.
Mostly over regulation has killed it.
My industry struggles to survive with crushing and meaningless regulations as does that of my brother in law. We both see the end of our own way of making a living disappearing in the United States. It will soon be just too hard to continue here.
Dumpster divers and chinese political prisoners who work in bauxite mines hardest hit.
There's no other way to describe it.
PS: Make it simple.
A LOT OF INDUSTRY HAS NOT LEFT THE UNITED STATES.
IT HAS BEEN PUSHED OUT BY REGULATIONS!
Back when I lived in WA 12 years ago, Alcoa was having difficulties with EPA regs - now it seems, coupled with cheap overseas prices, they are getting ready to throw in the towel ...
However, it has been a long time modus operandi of the Chinese to force an American company to the point it is no longer profitable, then swoop in and either buy the assets or the company.
You can forget about WA state Gov. Jay Inslee lifting a finger to halt this.......he is a Deacon desiring to become an Archbishop in the Globalwarming religious order.
Aluminum production is a very energy intensive process. Obama’s war on the coal industry and China’s embrace of coal-fired power plants give China a great competitive edge.
I recall that GWB tried to protect the domestic steel industry, with the result that manufacturers who relied on steel were suffering due to increased costs. I also recall that ultimately he was forced to remove the tariffs.
Don’t worry ... no matter how many people are laid-off or forced from the workplace, “Obama’s Unemployment Rate” is gonna stay near 5% ...
Here, let me name the FOUR branches of gov’t;
Executive
Legislative
Judicial
Regulatory
Not all the above are coequal. Not all beholden to the public.
Ever wonder how much influence the Chinese have in D.C. to make those regs and rules come about? They’re not stupid, you know.
Coal. Check!
Lead. Check!
What's next?
Hmmmm. I was just pondering the continued push to build coal fired plants in China and the push to shut them down here in the states. Could there be some devious plot going on here? Kinda makes us a little more dependent on offshore sources. Yeah, that’s a real smart move. Depend on someone or something that you have no control over. DOH! But then, isn’t control oppressive?
these sob stories we always here...can someone breakdown the built in costs of all this, showing the american product vs the foreign product??
i bet that would be an eye opener for most folks.
Your points are COMPLETELY accurate, but there's another issue here:
National Security.
I would submit that the American government has a DUTY to maintain a viable domestic aluminum industry.
On a related note, the American government also has a DUTY to maintain a viable steel industry. You won't win any possible wars by sending in McDonald's counterjockeys armed with Korean-made cash registers.
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