Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Thursday March 01 2018, @07:14PM   Printer-friendly
from the downward-economic-spiral dept.

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.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @08:27PM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @08:27PM (#645960)

    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)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday March 01 2018, @08:57PM (#645977) Journal

    we make the best stuff!

    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.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by Sulla on Thursday March 01 2018, @09:58PM (1 child)

      by Sulla (5173) on Thursday March 01 2018, @09:58PM (#646030) Journal

      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

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @10:32PM (#646048)

        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)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @11:35PM (#646081)

      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

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @12:03AM (#646102)

        s/8080-based/8086-based

        -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @07:25PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @07:25PM (#646565)

        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

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @12:36AM (#646120)

      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.

      And not just cars either, as this old saw rather humorously points out [ambians.com]:

      Mr. Jones related an incident from "some time back" when IBM Canada
      Ltd. of Markham, Ont., ordered some parts from a new supplier in Japan. The
      company noted in its order that acceptable quality allowed for 1.5 per cent
      defects (a fairly high standard in North America at the time).
                      The Japanese sent the order, with a few parts packaged separately in
      plastic. The accompanying letter said: "We don't know why you want 1.5 per
      cent defective parts, but for your convenience, we've packed them separately."
                                      -- Excerpted from an article in The (Toronto) Globe and Mail