China Steals Aluminum Jobs
From Michigan
RealClearPolitics
By Nicholas Noecker & Terry Sheehan
China has been working to undercut American companies for years – from tech to commodities. Now it’s targeting U.S. firms including companies here in Michigan that make a product that fits in between: aluminum extrusions.
Extruded aluminum is in almost everything, from cars and appliances to patio furniture and window frames. Fourteen countries led by China are flooding the U.S. with subsidized aluminum extrusions, wreaking havoc on a $7 billion industry. Hundreds of jobs in Michigan are on the line, including at our facilities in the state. Both of our companies have invested to supply the auto industry. Indeed, Michigan extruders overall have invested more than $100 million over the last three years. But the money will be wasted because we are being priced out of the market.
Aluminum extruders in the U.S. directly employ 37,000 workers, many of them union members, and indirectly employ another 160,000 people. But those numbers have been falling steadily – including at many extrusion factories in Michigan – because of unfairly priced imports from countries including China, Mexico, Colombia, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
The U.S. extrusion industry has suffered thousands of layoffs in recent years as a result, a period when it should have been adding jobs. The federal government needs to step in.
Anemic economic growth in China partly caused by a collapse of the property market, which uses a lot of aluminum extrusions, has led to chronic overproduction that has flooded global markets. As a result, manufacturers in at least 14 countries have targeted the U.S. with artificially low-priced extrusions. Cheap imported extrusions from these countries skyrocketed in recent years and took market share from U.S. producers.
Even though extrusions demand in the U.S. has been growing, American manufacturers have been unable to boost their production. Too many Michigan workers lost their jobs and many other jobs in this important Michigan industry are under threat.
