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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: 3, Informative) by takyon on Thursday March 01 2018, @08:23PM (14 children)
From my read of the summary, I'm guessing the panel producer imports the cells from China, and then puts them together as complete systems in the U.S.
You would expect companies that just do installation of solar panels to also be hurt by tariffs, at least temporarily.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @08:27PM (7 children)
Easy fix - produce the panel 100% in the U.S. It should be better quality that way, we make the best stuff!
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday March 01 2018, @08:57PM (6 children)
Yeah, right.
I remember in 1977 when the Detroit auto makers redesigned everything on the road because of new clean air. Quality was already going downhill, and this accelerated it.
By the early 1980's the US auto quality problem was well known. US was the worst, except for the Moscovite. Executives thought it was a perception problem, so there were television ads like "Quality Is Job #1!". Yet quality remained poor.
I remember by the late 1980's a friend had a new van. The belts squeaked. And continued to do so. It wasn't a "new car" thing. He took it to the dealer. Told "oh, they just do that". Hey, buy a Toyota! Buy a Honda! They don't "just do that".
I could go on.
I was too young to understand whether it was workers, unions, management. But I was old enough to understand to not buy American cars, and I've had good luck by not doing so.
Every performance optimization is a grate wait lifted from my shoulders.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Sulla on Thursday March 01 2018, @09:58PM (1 child)
In the top 10 most reliable cars in the US two are produced in the US and the rest are Lexus/Audi/Mercedes or the 4runner. Not in that top 10 but generally regarded as reliable are the Camry and Corolla are made in the us (Corolla also in Canada).
Of the 19 cars Toyota makes 12 are made here in the US (or some are made here in the US).
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @10:32PM
So it is actually a problem with US businessmen? I'll buy that excuse, bunch of gung-ho nitwits who care more about money than the quality they produce.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @11:35PM (2 children)
Yeah. Cars of the late 1970s and the 1980s had AIR systems (Air Injector Reactor) AKA smog pumps and hoses going everywhere.
Carburetors were still common.
Remember that the computer industry were still shipping Z80-based stuff and only beginning to get into 8080-based systems.
So, even the "electronic" ignitions that existed didn't have any intelligence beyond the vacuum advance that had been industry standard for decades.
...and if that wasn't enough, cars of that era were BUTT [google.com] UGLY. [google.com]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @12:03AM
s/8080-based/8086-based
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @07:25PM
Ugly? I've always thought that 80-s era cars looked the best. Give me a caprice, a chevelle, an el dorado any day over these new smooth lines everywhere effeminate piles of shit.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @12:36AM
And not just cars either, as this old saw rather humorously points out [ambians.com]:
(Score: 1) by tftp on Thursday March 01 2018, @08:35PM (5 children)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by insanumingenium on Thursday March 01 2018, @08:46PM (4 children)
And therein lies the problem. Local manufacturing can't take over immediately, it doesn't exist at necessary scale. And who is going to build out new manufacturing capability with a tariff set to decay in just a couple of years. Building panels from foreign cells is slightly more involved than you suggest.
(Score: 1) by tftp on Thursday March 01 2018, @09:11PM (3 children)
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday March 01 2018, @09:39PM
This tariff decays in a few years, and in a few more the whole presidency of Trump will be gone and done with.
I'd just like to comment that I agree with your timeline here (you're implying that Trump will win his re-election bid and serve a full two terms). I predict the Dems are going to nominate yet another absolutely horrible candidate (either Hillary yet again, or maybe Oprah), and then will again lose the general election.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by insanumingenium on Thursday March 01 2018, @10:16PM
I would love increased domestic manufacturing. I don't love grandstanding which can only hurt the cause masquerading as helping the cause.
Unfortunately even permanent tariffs aren't a guaranteed fix. We still see loopholes to the chicken tax in place of genuine manufacturing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @12:53AM
Right now[,] the PCB technology in Taiwan and China exceeds the same in the USA
Hell, by now, even Bulgaria [google.com] might be outstripping the volume done by domestic USAian PCB fab houses.
Will he continue bringing factories home
[...]
Too little is made domestically
ISTM that Trump is closing the barn door after all the livestock has bolted.
(Economics professor Richard Wolff gave him a raspberry for his tariffs notion many, many months ago.)
...and it doesn't help that China engages in dumping. [wikipedia.org]
It started when the domestic components manufacturing went offshore.
(I remember having a hell of a time trying to get carbon-composition resistors.)
Lengthen the supply lines and you increase costs for domestically-produced finished goods.
(China doesn't have that problem because they have done the inverse, starting with building the small stuff.)
N.B. DoD is having to get special waivers in order to buy foreign-made components.
Manufacturers being left high and dry without lower-level components is a case of the chickens coming home to roost.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]