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Wire & Cable ASIA – July/August 2010
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“We’re on the same page,” Kevin Surace, CEO of Serious
Materials Inc
(Sunnyvale) a fast-growing energy efficiency
company, told Mr Ross. “The United States must bring
manufacturing and exports back, or we don’t pay our debts.
We need to make things again.”
Mr Ross would like to see that initiative commence
immediately, while the US is still the world’s largest
manufacturer. He noted that the nation’s 21% share of
the industrial sector represents half of what it was at the
end of World War II, and accounts for only 11% of gross
domestic product. China, with 17% of global manufacturing
(representing 40% of GDP) is closing the gap. If the US is
serious about an export-led rebalancing of its economy, the
Chronicle
columnist wrote, “We may need to rely less on
financial services, which account for 20% of GDP, and more
on actual goods we can sell.”
“The Bottom Line” marshalled some dispiriting statistics
❖
about California. Over the nine years through 2009 the
state lost 634,000 manufacturing jobs (for a 34% decline),
more than half of these in the past five years. Figures from
the state’s Employment Development Department (EDD)
indicate that, between 2001 and 2007, the Bay Area lost
31% of its 492,000 manufacturing jobs.
In terms of new or expanded plants, the real estate and
economic development magazine
Site Selection
ranked
California last among the nation’s most populous states
in the period 2007-2009, accounting for just 1.5% of such
facilities nationwide. A statistic that may inspire change
is this: according to the EDD manufacturing jobs pay up
to $65,000 a year, at least one-third higher than service-
sector jobs.
“The [Nummi] site should remain a manufacturing
❖
facility if we want good-paying jobs,” said Rep Pete
Stark, of Fremont, who was instrumental in obtaining a
$330,000 federal grant for the city to explore the options.
“There’s a skilled workforce in place, and I’m hoping
the site becomes a hub for green jobs and innovative
companies.” Mr Ross
observed that
the Nummi property
might be attractive to companies on the other side of
the Pacific. In fact, he wrote on 18
th
April, “A delegation
of Bay Area officials is in China [now], meeting with
manufacturers – primarily car makers, I’m told – to gauge
their interest in the site.”
Automotive
64% of Americans who currently own a Toyota say they
❖
are at least somewhat likely to buy their next car from
the troubled Japanese auto maker, including 40% who
say they are very likely to do so. These results, published
12
th
April by the public-opinion pollster Rasmussen
Reports, found slightly less loyalty among those who