GE to move turbine jobs to Europe, China due to EXIM bank closure

[jpak]

Source: Reuters

General Electric Co (GE.N) said on Tuesday that it will move 500 U.S. power turbine manufacturing jobs to Europe and China because it can no longer access U.S. Export-Import Bank financing after Congress allowed the agency's charter to lapse in June.

GE said that France's COFACE (COFA.PA) export agency has agreed to support some of the industrial giant's global power project bids with a new line of credit in exchange for moving production of 50-hertz heavy duty gas turbines to Belfort, France, along with 400 jobs. GE also said in a statement that 100 additional jobs will move from the United States to Hungary and China.

The company said it is now bidding on $11 billion worth of international power projects that require export credit agency financing, including some in Indonesia.

The U.S. jobs will be moved from facilities in South Carolina, New York, Texas and Maine, but no U.S. facility will close, a GE spokeswoman said.

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Read more: http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/09/15/usa-ge-eximbank-idINKCN0RF1RQ20150915

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GOP Fail

yup

[LibertyLover]

1. Outstanding job on creating jobs GOP!

And they said that the US EXIM Bank wasn't needed.

[corkhead]

2. Harrumph! I am boycotting GE turbines

[MynameisBlarney]

3. Wasn't the GOTP CONgress

all up in arms about EXIM existing?

[GeorgeGist]

4. GE pays no taxes but they still want OUR help.

[NCjack]

9. Commercial banks love this type of business. Oops, forgot that they

are back speculating on junk. Maybe we do need the EXIM Bank.

[jmowreader]

5. Why are they building 50 hertz turbines in the US in the first place?

Nowhere in the US is 50 hertz power used. The jobs going away is bad, but so are the CO2 emissions created by transporting the turbines across the seas to Europe.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

10. Never say "never."

I'm sure there's a counter example, but I haven't found it yet. What I did find is the (or at least a) reason that the production and jobs are going to France and Hungary. The SNCF (French rail network) and Hungarian State Railways are electrified, at least in part, at 25 kV AC, 50 Hz.

This turns out to be quite popular overseas: 25 kV AC railway electrification

[jmowreader]

11. Every part of Europe I'm aware of runs on 50-hertz power

Also, houses are wired 220v throughout.

This is my point: if you are building things - especially really huge things like power-generating gas turbines - that will be used largely in Europe, why not build them IN Europe? Surely the Ex-Im Bank crap had a lot to do with their move, but on a macro level it makes a lot of sense to do it.

[lark]

6. GE totally disgusts me!!!!

They haven't paid taxes in years yet have made billions in profits. They are part of what's wrong with this country!! F them.

[OneCrazyDiamond]

7. How does noving the jobs overseas

eliminate the issue of not accessing government credit and insurance. Can they magically now bid on the jobs, or are they saying "The cost of labor in the US is so high, that moving the manufacturing changes the equation enough to justify the move". Sound like corporate squealing to me.

Publicize risk. Privatize profit.

[ancianita]

8. GE --"we bring good things to life" & "Progress is our most important product."

The energy industries don't need war to go global.

They have the GOP and Reagan's ghost.

Goodbye, GE.

[Turbineguy]

12. This might be a mistake

Turbine work is highly specialized and skilled. Yes they make great gas turbines in Europe too. But all those people are already working.