[TheForge] Second Rate USA?

[ries]

Cat has had a joint venture factory in Japan since 1962.
Cat has had a joint venture with mitsubishi to make forklifts together  
since 1972.
Cat has a dozen factories in China, as well as factories all over the  
world.
So the globalisation of CAT is far from a new thing.

But I wasnt saying that american companies were not global- Lincoln  
Welder, for example, has many more factories in China, Europe, and  
overseas than they do here-

What I was saying was that CAT still does make a lot of machines here  
in the USA, and exports them to other countries.
We were discussing whether ALL american manufacturing jobs were gone-  
and I was simply saying, no, companies like CAT still do make things  
here, big, heavy expensive things, and export them.

However, by CAT standards, your backhoe is probably pretty small  
potatoes- the bigger items the make here, the small stuff they ship in  
from overseas.
They exported $12.6 Billion dollars worth of machines in 2007. Thats  
just CAT.
Many of them were things like D-11's, Off Road Dump Trucks, and  
Scrapers, which can easily cost more than a million bucks each, are  
the things they try to make and sell here.

Similarly, there are a pair of John Deere 9030 500hp tracked (not  
wheeled) tractors in the field across from me today. Those puppies, I  
am pretty sure, are still made in Waterloo- but all the small John  
Deere 25 hp tractors are actually rebadged Yanmars from Japan. This  
has been going on for at least 20 years or so.

Sad, but true, economic facts of life.

Ries





On Jun 12, 2008, at 8:39 AM, Ekaterina Harrison wrote:

I disagree.
In recent years I have personally seen Caterpillar go down the road of  
having much of their equipment components manufacture overseas.
Some years back I was working at a sawmill and and realized the  
Caterpillar forklifts had started using Mitsubishi engines.
We currently own a Caterpillar backhoe and I must say Caterpillar's  
service has gone way down hill. It used to be that no matter how old a  
machine you could get parts in the next day because because they were  
manufactured and stocked here, in the States ( out of superior  
steel),- not so now days. The mechanics were exceptional (even  
legendary), not often the case now. Some of the Caterpillar mechanics  
we encountered could best be described as sloppy backyard mechanics!   
Sad!
Our recent backhoe, needed to have a cylinder replaced. We were told  
it would be several months out because it had to be manufactured in  
Germany! How many business can afford to be down for months!

Ekaterina

On Jun 9, 2008, at 10:18 AM, theforge-request at mailman.qth.net wrote:

>
> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2008 08:56:08 -0700
> From: ries <ries at riesniemi.com>
> Subject: Re: [TheForge] Second Rate USA?
> To: Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
> Message-ID: <76B4163A-CEE5-4CAD-9B03-4B8A4186F4D4 at riesniemi.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
>
>
> On Jun 9, 2008, at 8:09 AM, craig.schaefer at verizon.net wrote:
>
> "....that we would become a second-rate industrial player? "
>
>
> I disagree.  We are on par or better than anyone in the world,
> technologically.  It's costwise where we have trouble competing.
>
>
>
> Craig
>
>
> I would say that in a lot of ways, we compete just fine.
> A few examples-
> Caterpillar and John Deere both export hundreds of millions of dollars
> worth, if not billions, every year.
> Not cheap, but miners, roadbuilders, and construction companies
> worldwide gladly pay for the best.
> Ditto for Kenworth and Peterbilt, Terex, and other construction
> equipment.
>
> Boeing, of course, sells airplanes by the bushel. Less of them are
> made here than used to be, but in my little area, there are still
> plenty of subs to Boeing- machine and fab shops, including Janicki,
> which, from a standing start less than 10 years ago, now employs over
> 500 people, has the largest milling machines in the world, and is
> selling tooling to Airbus, among others.
>
> The US auto industry exported Billions of dollars worth of cars and
> trucks last year- not enough to overcome structural problems in the
> big 3's business plan, but they units were still made and sold. We
> send Honda's to Japan, BMW's and Mercedes to Germany, and so on.
>
> Haas is the largest manufacturer of machine tools in the world- based
> in Ventura Ca.
> They sell more than 100 CNC machines a month to the chinese.
> We have probably 50 more machine tool manufacturers here, making
> oddball, expensive machines, that they ship worldwide. Giddings and
> Lewis, for instance, sends metal to china as well.
>
> Everybody in the world knows the difference between a real designed in
> the USA I-Pod, and a cheap chinese knockoff, and they all want the
> real thing.
>
>
> If you subtract the oil imports from our balance of trade, it isnt
> half bad. Not as good as it could be, but nowhere near as bad as
> people say it is.
>
> Where we dont compete is on low priced commodities that are mass
> produced by unskilled labor.
> But we do very well, especially considering how small our population
> is, on things that require brains.
>
>
> Ries Niemi
> Industrial Artist
> http://www.riesniemi.com/
>
>

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Ries Niemi
Industrial Artist
http://www.riesniemi.com/