Labor & Unions Archives - Dr. Rich Swier

American manufacturers are seeing a surge in demand as President Donald Trump’s tariffs force companies to reconsider doing business in China.

Trump’s tariffs, including a 145% levy on Chinese goods, are causing American-made products to be more competitive in the market. As a result, many small and medium manufacturers are experiencing a surge in demand and are preparing to ramp up production and hire new workers.

Jergens Inc., a midwestern toolmaker with less than 500 employees, says it’s “going like gangbusters” trying to keep up with demand, The Wall Street Journal reported. They are seeing an influx of orders from customers trying to avoid import tariffs, along with steady defense-related demand.

“We are running 24 hours a day, seven days a week” said Jergens president Jack Schron, according to the Journal. “We are swamped.”

Grand River Rubber & Plastics, a plastics and rubber manufacturer in Ohio, says customers that once offshored to China are reversing course, the Journal noted. Two buyers who left years ago returned within days of each other and two new oil filter manufacturers have already placed orders. The company’s new business could amount to $5 million annually, roughly 10% of Grand River’s revenue.

The spike in new business reported by many American manufacturers coincides with a sharp decrease in Chinese manufacturing. When Trump announced the tariffs last month, he predicted American businesses and consumers would both benefit.

“Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country, and you see it happening already. We will supercharge our domestic industrial base,” Trump has said. “We will pry open foreign markets and break down foreign trade barriers. And ultimately, more production at home will mean stronger competition and lower prices for consumers.”

Even as the president insists prices will fall, economists and politicians warn his tariffs could sharply raise costs for American consumers, CNBC reported. However, executives at SafeSource Direct, a Louisiana-based medical products manufacturer, say prices are likely to decline as domestic production ramps up, according to the Journal.

SafeSource recently increased the number of production lines from two to eight, each making over 20,000 rubber gloves an hour. As new operations become more efficient, they expect costs to decrease significantly.

“We think we can get extremely close to Asian prices,” said Steve Mott, a partner with the company, as reported by the Journal.

AUTHOR

Floyd Buford

Contributor.

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Vice President JD Vance on Thursday slammed former President Joe Biden’s administration during a speech at Nucor Steel Berkeley for deciding that products would be made overseas instead of in the United States.

Vance said that over the last few decades, political leaders forgot about the “core part of American national identity” by allowing the U.S. to rely on foreign powers for essential goods. The vice president said manufacturing facilities like Nucor immensely struggled over the last four years due to the Biden administration’s “crushing environmental regulations.”

“For a couple decades, though, our leaders forgot about that core part of American national identity. They decided that America would no longer be a manufacturing power,” Vance said. “Instead, we let the rest of the world make the necessary things that we needed for our homes and for our families. And when a nation decides to deindustrialize my friends, you know what else they stop using? The intermediate goods, the things that are essential to manufacturing, like steel that you all make right here in Nucor. So we stopped making the things that we needed.”

WATCH:

Nucor Steel’s leadership told Vance that the company’s facility in West Virginia that “sat idle” under the Biden administration due to its environmental rules. The vice president said that these types of regulations cost hard working Americans their good paying manufacturing jobs and wages.

“So when our leadership decides that Americans don’t want to make anything, you know what we do? We cost great businesses and corporations like Nuccor a lot of money, we cost great workers their wages and we cost a lot of people their jobs. And that was the policy of the last administration that came before us.”

Vance added that President Donald Trump’s administration wants American architecture to be “built with American hands and with great American steel.”

The Biden administration strived to make manufacturing eco-friendly by handing as much as $6 billion to 33 different projects in 20 states in order for them to reduce emissions generated by industrial production in March 2024. In Trump’s second term, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin has repealed dozens of environmental regulations put in place by the Biden administration to lower costs and open up new job opportunities in the country.

The Trump administration placed reciprocal tariffs on other countries, which are currently under a 90-day pause, with the intent of returning manufacturing to the United States. Many union workers in the steel and auto industry have praised the administration’s move, stating that it will bring back jobs and help their industries flourish.

AUTHOR

Nicole Silverio

Media Reporter.

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American Manufacturers Overwhelmed With Orders After Trump’s Tariff Crackdown On China

Floyd Buford