Posted on 06/03/2018 5:40:11 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Andy Marsh’s New York factory is trapped in the Trump trade wars.
As Mr. Trump threatens tariffs on America’s economic allies and its adversaries, many of the domestic businesses that the president says his policies are meant to protect are finding themselves victims of his aggressive approach.
Prices are rising for imported goods, other nations are erecting retaliatory trade barriers, and companies like Plug Power, the manufacturing business that Mr. Marsh runs outside Albany, are facing crippling uncertainty from Mr. Trump’s fickle approach.
It is not the first time Mr. Marsh has felt firsthand the impact of decisions made hundreds of miles away in Washington.
In February, Congress and Mr. Trump gave Plug Power an injection of optimism, by extending a tax credit that was crucial to the manufacturer’s American expansion plans. The credit allowed Plug Power to reduce the price of its fuel cells for trucks and forklifts, and to forge ahead with new hiring.
By May, Mr. Marsh had slowed his efforts to fill more than 10 open positions in Plug Power’s factory as he began worrying that the tariffs on steel and some Chinese products crucial to its business would raise the costs of the components it imports to build fuel cells. So executives had raised the price on their fuel cells, and sales were slowing as a result.
United States Customs and Border Protection had also begun delaying some of those imported components for several days after they arrived from overseas, slowing their trip to Plug Power’s factory floor, Mr. Marsh said. The reason for the delay was unclear, but Mr. Marsh suspected that it could be related to the recent trade upheaval.
Other American companies, such as Ford, have faced delays with their products in China, as customs officials subjected their exports to additional scrutiny
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Says the Never Trumper with zero proof whatever
Notice this sob story hasn’t actually felt or seen any impact. He just fears it
It's The NY Times.
What did you expect?
“What manufacturing? You free traders/open border types killed that decades ago.”
I’ll pay more to get jobs back. A person who thinks that the current status quo is ok isn’t seeing the full picture of what “free trade” costs us each year.
It’s about time we stopped trading our income statements to fund overseas balance sheets.
Plug Power used to be the darling of the coming revolution, which was going to use hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells to completely solve all our pollution and energy problems. [sic] More NeverTrumper / NY Slimes agitprop.
Or the explosion of a fork lift powered by their fuel cell dropped their stock
Key Findings of the Steel Report:
The United States is the world’s largest importer of steel. Our imports are nearly four times our exports.
Six basic oxygen furnaces and four electric furnaces have closed since 2000 and employment has dropped by 35% since 1998.
World steelmaking capacity is 2.4 billion metric tons, up 127% from 2000, while steel demand grew at a slower rate.
The recent global excess capacity is 700 million tons, almost 7 times the annual total of U.S. steel consumption. China is by far the largest producer and exporter of steel, and the largest source of excess steel capacity. Their excess capacity alone exceeds the total U.S. steel-making capacity.
On an average month, China produces nearly as much steel as the U.S. does in a year. For certain types of steel, such as for electrical transformers, only one U.S. producer remains.
As of February 15, 2018, the U.S. had 169 antidumping and countervailing duty orders in place on steel, of which 29 are against China, and there are 25 ongoing investigations.
Recommendations of the Steel Report:
Secretary Ross has recommended to the President that he consider the following alternative remedies to address the problem of steel imports:
A global tariff of at least 24% on all steel imports from all countries, or
A tariff of at least 53% on all steel imports from 12 countries (Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, India, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam) with a quota by product on steel imports from all other countries equal to 100% of their 2017 exports to the United States, or
A quota on all steel products from all countries equal to 63% of each country’s 2017 exports to the United States.
Each of these remedies is intended to increase domestic steel production from its present 73% of capacity to approximately an 80% operating rate, the minimum rate needed for the long-term viability of the industry. Each remedy applies measures to all countries and all steel products to prevent circumvention.
The real problem with all such technologies is that they are not economically competitive with say liquid fueled internal combustion engines/natural gas and gas turbine generating stations. Plug powers competitor is cheap natural gas produced by the US fracking industry.
More socialist, globalist, crony capitalist BS.
Two indicia of management weakness.
1) Locating a factory in New York
2) Importing cheap Chinese parts rather than buying American in the current international climate.
Raising steel prices through tariffs hurts American manufacturing.
Allowing your steel industry to be crushed by the Chinese isn’t such a bright idea for long-term national security.
And if the Chinese manipulate things to put our industries out of business, we need real leaders like President Trump to stand up for the American worker.
Such utter BS. Other countries need to drop there tariffs then we will increase exports and export manufactured goods. This is globalist propaganda.
The trade debacle of the last 40 years is all Trump’s fault.
Fuel cell manufacturer Plug Power (NASDAQ:PLUG) has done relatively little since going public all the way back in 1999. Then again, maybe it’s all about timing.
The global focus in recent years on alternative energy and the electrification of transportation could mean the fuel cell pioneer’s long wait to achieve market traction could soon be over. And in fact, a substantial increase in the installed base of the company’s products in 2017 could suggest just that. The problem is that the business has historically struggled to post profits, and Plug Power stock has been a downright awful investment
LET ME REPEAT THAT!
Plug Power stock has been a downright awful investment
Left over from the Obama disaster, solyndra comes to mind, how much federal funds were donated and promised by the criminals in DC moving forward. Being in NY what kind of tax breaks were given by his arrogance the governor sfachime cuomo for political support
No digging needed. The nyslimes always sloshes around the cesspool of distortion, lies and omission. They are an embarrassment to the First Amendment.
By looking at the globalist scum who oppose Trump on Fair trade it’s easy to see why he’s so right.
How long do you have to be completely wrong before you begin to question your assumptions?
Why would the free trade world do that? So doesn't this prove that the rest of the world DOES NOT practice or believe in so called FREE TRADE? LOL!
Supposition and/or conjecture.
In the opposite line of thinking...
Raising steel prices through tariffs increases American steel production.
That's not true. See the above. They have been active raking in federal subsidies (google plug power department of energy).
They are headquartered in Schumerland.
You really should do research beyond some article that provides ammunition you seek to make your case, for without it, it makes you look like a simpleton.
Their major competitor, Ballard Power Systems, is another cause for their troubles. So why is Ballard okay & they are not? Hmmm.
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