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The Center for American Progress reports
President Trump's decision to impose tariffs on imported solar materials is already taking its toll on U.S. jobs.
After putting plans on hold last month to expand its factories in the United States, SunPower Corp., one of the nation's largest solar panel manufacturers, now intends to lay off about 10 percent of its U.S. workforce.
SunPower attributed the job cuts to the 30-percent tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on imported solar cells and panels, The Hill reported [February 28]. Company chief executive Tom Werner estimates the new tariffs will cause the company to lose $50 million in 2018 and as much as $100 million in 2019.
Werner's comments built on information that SunPower released in a filing submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week. The news also came only two weeks after SunPower reported a 35-percent decrease in revenue in 2017 compared to 2016.
Werner told The Hill that it has already begun laying off between 150 and 250 workers from its U.S. operations. Based in San Jose, California, SunPower imports most of its components from manufacturing facilities in the Philippines and Mexico.
Trump slapped the 30-percent tariff on imported solar cells and panels in January after the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled last year that China had harmed the domestic solar manufacturing industry with policies aimed at taking over the global market. The industry gets about 80 percent of its solar panel products from imports.
The Solar Energy Industries Association, the primary lobby group for the U.S. industry, estimates Trump's decision may cost the fast-growing industry about 23,000 jobs in 2018 and cause billions of dollars in solar investments to be canceled or delayed. The industry currently employees more than 260,000 people, primarily in the installation business.
[...] In January, SunPower said it was putting a $20 million U.S. factory expansion and hundreds of new jobs on hold until its solar panels receive an exemption from Trump's solar tariffs.
(Score: 5, Informative) by jelizondo on Thursday March 01 2018, @07:40PM (11 children)
With the recent decision to impose [bloomberg.com] a tariff on steel and aluminum imports, there will be more jobs cut because foreign manufacturers will have a price advantage over U.S. factories.
Think how much steel and aluminum goes into every product from appliances to cars and how cheap finished goods will be compared to domestic products.
Make China great again!
Wait, wasn't that supposed to be America?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday March 01 2018, @08:15PM (5 children)
Personally, I'm pretty glad that the steel mill, or aluminum refinery, or solar panel factory isn't the prime employer in any city my family lives in, both so my kids don't end up working at the (more than a little unhealthy) factory, and because they tend to pollute the surrounding area pretty heavily as well.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday March 01 2018, @08:21PM (3 children)
Modern factories probably pollute less. Nobody thinks of a semiconductor fab as a heavy polluter that is giving workers semiconductor lung.
However, we do need to remove 2 regs for every new reg, so maybe your kids will need to bring their own filtration mask to work.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Thursday March 01 2018, @08:50PM
Wait. You mean I've been doing it wrong? I thought it was, for each existing reg, create 2 new regs, and continue until total number of regs < zero.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Thursday March 01 2018, @09:19PM (1 child)
Fab labs are only "clean" because a huge portion of the cost is building the air and water scrubbers to cut down on the toxins that are a by product of the plants.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @07:15AM
Fewer women have been allowed to work in them since the 1960s when it was found that birth defects at... I want to say Fairchild Semi. were having an above average number of birth defects, specifically in women working in the chip fabbing wings, where it was claimed the chemicals in use were safe, but for whatever reason obviously were not.
Maybe with the bunny suits and everything now that is no longer true, but I somehow doubt it, and it might explain why outside development/almost fully automated fabs they have all been moved to the 3rd world...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @09:49PM
You're missing the recent 30% tariffs on building products and aerospace products. Go protectionists! Go isolationists! It can only help my country in the long run as we reduce our dependency on trade with America.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday March 01 2018, @08:53PM (1 child)
With the recent decision to impose [bloomberg.com] a tariff on steel and aluminum imports, there will be more jobs cut because foreign manufacturers will have a price advantage over U.S. factories.
Trade wars are bad for business.
And, predictably, the DOW drops because of the announcement. [go.com]
It's almost like the President's words matter.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @09:21PM
Hmm, it could be because of that, but the Dow also drops every time there's rumbling about increasing interest rates. They announced we may get 4 rate increases this year, and DIJA took a dive. Very predictable.
As for why, the economy needs to crash so that the people are receptive to starting World War 3. Poor economic conditions drive the desire for war.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @09:07PM (2 children)
So you think the US being totally reliant on Chinese metals would be a long-term positive? China has massive internal problems that it has been offloading onto the rest of the world via currency devaluation for over a decade and Xi Jinping has just effectively become a dictator. The White House fabricate nothing when they say that reliance of Chinese metals is a national security issue; Once the US plants close, they'll not be relighting the furnaces.
(Score: 2) by arslan on Thursday March 01 2018, @10:05PM (1 child)
This. Can't mod this up enough. Not saying the tariffs are good or bad and a bit off-topic. However folks really need to understand that the new China under Xi seems to be going in a very different direction that the China in the last 2 decades. If you don't start peeling their fingers off your balls now...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @11:38PM
but why would I do that... I love the massages I am getting