Hotels bet guests will favor furnishings made in USA

March 15, 2013 by Leave a comment

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Montague Furniture

By:Barbara Delollis USA Today

When you walk into a hotel in the U.S. today, you’ll see many items – chairs, draperies, lamps – that were made in China, Vietnam, Malaysia or elsewhere overseas.

But that’s gradually changing, hotel designers and furniture makers tell Hotel Check-In.

There’s a small but growing trend among hotels to buy more items from local, regional or U.S. vendors.

Hotel owners, developers and designers are increasingly deciding it’s worth it, even if they pay a little extra for a U.S. product.

Why? There’s time and risk involved with ordering items from overseas, plus showcasing locally made goods can give the hotel a patriotic or community-minded spin.

Examples:

  • The Hyatt Regency Minneapolis recently finished a $25 million revamp that used “Made in America” as its central theme. More than three-quarters of the items purchased for the renovation came from the USA, says designer Michael Suomi of New York-based Stonehill & Taylor. The guest bathroom counter tops, for instance, feature granite quarried locally and purchased from a century-old Minnesota company.
  • The Ritz-Carlton Lodge, Reynolds Plantation, in Greensboro, Ga., is in the midst of redecorating to give guests a lighter, more modern look with many U.S.-made products, says Megan Ybarra of the Dallas-based interior design firm Duncan Miller Ullman. The hotel found wall coverings from Kentucky, guestroom carpet from Georgia, and a Texas metalwork firm was hired to custom-make the metal branches that form the base of guestroom ottomans, she says.
  • The InterContinental Chicago’s 477-room renovation emphasizes locally-sourced materials and furniture, says Dan Egan, the hotel’s sales and marketing director. Guest rooms contain drapery from Union, Ill., headboards from Jasper, Ind., wall covering from York, Penn., and room signage in hallways from McCook, Ill.
  • Montague, a 20-year-old guestroom furniture maker, last April invested in its first-ever factory – and it’s located in North Carolina, says Misty Delbridge, who runs the company’s U.S. division. It made sense, because hotel owners are increasingly seeking products made here and the factory was in danger of closing down, she says. A Hilton hotel in Texas, for instance, is having the company prepare two model rooms for a renovation – one outfitted with furnishings made in Vietnam and the other with furnishings made in the U.S., she says. Montague still has about 70% of its products produced in China and Malaysia.

No. 1 priority: Put heads in beds

Another factor driving the growth in U.S.-sourced products is hotels’ rush to renovate in as small a window as possible so that rooms can stay filled with paying customers, says Delbridge. It’s especially true in New York City, where some hotels can be sold out or almost sold out most nights of the year.

“If the cost (to purchase U.S.-made furniture) is 10% higher and the hotel can gain revenue back in six to eight weeks, they’re all about it because then they could have a ‘Made in America’ story and gain revenue,” Delbridge says. “These companies wouldn’t do it just for the story. There’s got to be an advantage in it for them.”

Hotel renovations are faster paced than building new hotels from scratch, notes Ybarra, who worked on the Ritz-Carlton Lodge project. It typically takes about 18 months to renovate a hotel, which since the recession has been the most common activity among hoteliers, vs. about three years to build a new one, she says.

“Our clients are willing to pay an extra dollar or two to not have the hassle of waiting,” Ybarra says. There’s also the risk of complications, she says, citing long waits at U.S. Customs and a time when pirates took over containers filled with items for a Turks and Caicos hotel.

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Made in America, Again

January 14, 2013 by Leave a comment

Bringing manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. is politically savvy and can make economic sense.

Offshore labor: A worker in a Foxconn factory assembles consumer electronics for U.S. markets.

At a dinner for Silicon Valley big shots in February 2011, President Obama asked Steve Jobs what it would take to manufacture the iPhone in the United States. Apple’s founder and CEO is said to have responded directly: “Those jobs aren’t coming back.”

In December, Apple reversed course, saying it planned to assemble a line of Mac computers in the U.S. With that, Apple joined a wave of companies that say manufacturing in this country makes sense again. Companies that say they’ve brought back jobs include General Electric, Michigan Ladder, and Wham-O, which in 2010 hired eight people to make Frisbees in Los Angeles instead of China. An MIT study in 2012 found that 14 percent of companies intend to move some manufacturing back home.

The idea is known as “reshoring.” Although Chinese wages are a fraction of U.S. labor costs, rising shipping rates, quality problems, and the intangible costs of being far from headquarters all add up. That’s why some companies have begun to rethink the manufacturing equation.

MIT Technology Review interviewed Harry Moser, head of the Chicago-basedReshoring Initiative, about the trend. Moser, a former industry executive whose family has been involved in American manufacturing for a century, says he grew up “experiencing the glory of U.S. manufacturing.” He created the initiative to help companies compare the real costs of manufacturing at home and abroad, and to track the experiences of those who are returning.

Why are people talking about reshoring all of a sudden?

It’s actually been happening over the last few years. The obvious answer is that Chinese wages are doubling every four years. The consultants who five years ago were helping people offshore are now helping them inshore. And then you have President Obama making a big deal over how to reduce imports and start making stuff again.

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California to Vote on GMO Food Labeling

September 30, 2012 by 1 Comment

Californians are on course to vote whether genetically modified food must be labeled. A petition was signed by 971,126 Californians, 75 percent more than the minimum needed for a statewide vote concurrent with the Nov. 6 general election.

Approval from 50 percent of voters would make the proposal law.

“The right to know is as American as apple pie,” said Gary Ruskin, an Oakland-based proponent for the measure, officially known as Proposition 37.

The California movement is mobilizing consumer unease over modified ingredients, which are found in about 80 percent of processed foods in the U.S. according to the Grocery Manufacturers Association. The campaign is the best chance for biotech labeling in the U.S. after the failure of similar bills in 19 states and the rejection of a petition to the Food and Drug Administration last month, Ruskin said.

Monsanto, a multinational agriculture biotech company, opposes labeling modified ingredients because the move risks “misleading consumers into thinking products are not safe when in fact they are,” Sara E. Miller, a spokeswoman for St. Louis-based Monsanto, said in an e-mail.

Biotech labeling, which has been adopted in more than 50 countries, has never been endorsed by the FDA.

Modified foods have been in U.S. grocery stores since 1994. Ninety-three percent of Americans say genetically engineered foods should be labeled, according to an October 2010 poll conducted by Thompson Reuters Corp. and National Public Radio. Seventy-nine percent have doubts about the safety of such foods, according to the poll.

Should it be approved, Proposition 37 would require labels of foods made with biotech ingredients to state that they were “produced with genetic engineering.” Labels would be phased in over 18 months. Exemptions include restaurant food, alcohol and meat from animals fed with modified grains.

The label “would be the equivalent of a skull and crossbones” that would drive away customers and force food producers to stop using engineered ingredients, Joseph Mercola, the initiative’s leading funder with $800,000 in donations, said in a Web posting. Mercola is an osteopath who promotes natural remedies at his clinic in Hoffman Estates, Ill.

“Whether or not you believe agricultural chemicals belong in a wholesome diet is beside the point,” said Mercola. “You still ought to have the right to decide whether you want to spend your money on foods that contain genetically engineered ingredients.”

Popular New York Times food writer Mark Bittman says Proposition 37 will give consumers the basic right to know what they are eating.

“We have a right to know what’s in the food we eat and a right to know how it’s produced,” he wrote in a recent column. “This is true even if food containing or produced using GMOs (genetically modified organisms) were the greatest thing since crusty bread.”

© 2012 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Read more: Calif. to Vote on GMO Food Labeling

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China escalates U.S. trade dispute, requests WTO decision

August 24, 2012 by Leave a comment

The low cost of labour, coupled with the massive scale of production at its 14,000-person plant, have enabled China’s Suntech to become the global industry leader in solar power in just a decade

GENEVA (Reuters) – In a move that escalates a trade row with the United States, China said it would ask the World Trade Organization (WTO) to adjudicate a dispute over U.S. punitive import duties on 22 Chinese exports, including solar panels and steel products.

China first brought the complaint to the WTO in May by asking the United States for formal “consultations” to explain the duties, which Washington says are intended to offset illegal subsidies that gave Chinese goods an unfair price advantage.

WTO rules entitle China to demand adjudication after a 60 day period of consultations. China will make the demand for adjudication at a meeting of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body on Aug 31, China said in a statement circulated to WTO members this week.

The office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in May that China’s decision to bring the dispute to the WTO was “premature and not an appropriate use of dispute settlement system resources”, because the U.S. Department of Commerce was already working to address the issues raised by China.

But China’s statement said two subsequent rounds of talks, on June 25 and July 18, had failed to resolve the dispute, which includes wind towers, as well as certain types of steel pipe, wire, cylinders and wheels, aluminum extrusions, wood flooring, magnesia bricks, thermal and coated paper and citric acid.

China is by far the world’s biggest producer of steel and is also a leading maker of clean energy equipment such as solar panels and wind towers, helped by Beijing’s ambition of tackling carbon emissions without slowing China’s growth.

Foreign competitors complain that its oversupply is the result of a market that is driven by forces such as government edicts and subsidies rather than fundamental supply and demand, and China has created surpluses that distort the global market.

China decided to bring the latest WTO complaint, which it says affects exports worth $7.3 billion, after winning a previous WTO dispute last year over U.S. duties on imports of Chinese steel pipes, off-road tires and woven sacks.

Many of China’s grievances might have been dealt with by a U.S. court decision last year, which struck down the Commerce Department’s ability to impose anti-subsidy duties on “non-market economies” like China.

But the U.S. Congress voted to restore it in March, ensuring U.S. duties on about two dozen Chinese goods stayed in place.

The case is one of several currently “live” disputes between the United States and China at the WTO.

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Beware the Amish-Made Label

July 31, 2012 by Leave a comment

(Image Credit: Richard Ellis/Getty Images)

From food to furniture to clothing, more and more goods are showing up in stores with an Amish label attached to their name. The problem: Most of these goods are not Amish and are, in reality, being created without the input or knowledge of the Amish people.

“This is certainly nothing new,” said Brad Igou, president of the Amish Experience, which provides tours of legitimately Amish-owned and -operated businesses in Bird-in-Hand, Pa.

“The word Amish implies honesty, integrity and well-made durable goods,” he added as explanation for the popularity of the term. “People who don’t do their homework might be buying things that are not Amish-made.”

The term “Amish Country” is popular among companies that are not selling the genuine article because it refers to a geographical location rather than to the people themselves, according to AmishAmerica.com.

The website quoted one Amish entrepreneur as saying, “I see this in the food industry.  There’s quite a few organizations here locally that will sell using ‘Amish.’  And what they’re trying to do is create the perception that it does come from Amish producers, when it doesn’t.  They don’t explicitly say so, they just say ‘Amish Country’ this, ‘Amish Country’ that. … ‘Amish’ is big, ‘Country’ is small.  So, the customer that buys this, his perception … is this comes from an Amish farm or an Amish producer.”

Aside from watching it being made or knowing the producer, there’s no way to know for sure. One of the best signs, however, is also the most counterintuitive.

“Most of the time,” Igou said, “Amish do not use the term Amish in the name of their business.”

source http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/07/beware-the-amish-made-label/

 

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Tariff on Chinese solar panels raises fear of trade war

June 6, 2012 by Leave a comment

By 

The Obama administration, still smarting from controversial investments in solar power firms like the now bankrupt Solyndra, has sparked fears of a trade war between the U.S. and China, as the Commerce Department signals it will likely slap a 31 percent tariff on all solar panel imports from China.

While some, frustrated by the high U.S. unemployment, want punishment doled out to China, others say protectionism only hurts the consumers who are forced to pay more.

Such a tariff has been pushed by companies that manufacture solar panels in the U.S., including Solar World, which has a plant in Hillsboro, Ore.

“It’ll basically allow us to compete on technology,” Solar World president Gordon Brinser said, “just like everybody else in any other industry.”

Solar World and others have seen their market share plummet as sales of inexpensive Chinese panels have skyrocketed. The Commerce Department found Chinese companies are guilty of dumping panels on average 31 percent below fair market value.

It’s a charge China’s Suntech, the world’s largest solar company, rejects.

“The way the costs have come down so much and become so competitive is we’ve globalized,” Suntech’s chief commercial officer, Andrew Beebe, said. “We manufacture in China, we manufacture in Japan, we manufacture in the United States.”

While still a tiny piece of America’s energy portfolio, the solar industry has seen substantial growth as the price of panels has fallen. The Interstate Renewable Energy Council’s most recent annual report says solar-generating capacity in 2010 quadrupled in the utility sector and went up 60 percent in residential in just one year.

But many U.S. solar companies that don’t make panels fear the tariff will drive prices so high, consumers will stop buying. Jigar Shah, president of the Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy, said manufacturing panels account for a mere 3 percent of the 100,000 U.S. jobs tied to the solar industry.

“The U.S. now is becoming one of the fastest-growing markets in the world, and this just puts a headwind on that,” Shah said.

The Brattle Group did a study for the coalition that predicted a 50 percent tariff would cost the U.S. 14,000 solar industry jobs. Manufacturers would initially see a small increase in employment, but as sales slowed, engineering and installation jobs would suffer.

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U.S. Imposes Anti-Dumping Duties On Chinese Solar Imports

May 17, 2012 by Leave a comment

Employees assemble photovoltaic panels at Suntech Power Holdings Co.’s factory in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China, in 2011.

The U.S. Commerce Department imposed tariffs of 31 percent to 250 percent on Chinese solar-product imports, siding with companies including SolarWorld AG (SWV) in the U.S. that said the items were sold below the cost of production.

The fees, announced today in an e-mailed statement, add to duties as high as 4.73 percent imposed earlier for getting unfair subsidies from China’s government. SolarWorld had asked for levies of more than 100 percent. Aaron Chew, a New York- based analyst at Maxim Group LLC, said before the decision that tariffs higher than 10 percent would be considered a victory for the U.S. companies.

“Commerce today put importers and purchasers on notice about the consequences of importing illegally subsidized and dumped products from China,” Gordon Brinser, the SolarWorld unit’s president, said in a statement.

The Commerce Department said a final determination on the tariffs would be made in early October. U.S. customs agents will collect a deposit or bond on solar cells made in China in the 90 days before today’s decision.

SolarWorld said its Hillsboro, Oregon-based U.S. unit can’t compete with Chinese exporters, including Suntech Power Holdings Co. (STP), the world’s largest solar-panel maker, and Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL) unless tariffs are imposed. Suntech was told to pay 31.22 percent, Trina’s levies were set at 31.14 percent and others were told to pay duties ranging from 31.18 percent to 249.96 percent.

Shares Rise

U.S.-based solar-product companies rose in New York trading after the announcement. First Solar Inc. (FSLR) climbed 94 cents, or 6.7 percent, to $14.92, and SunPower Corp. (SPWR)added 51 cents, or 10 percent, to $5.59.

Opponents of the punitive tariffs, such as the Washington- based Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy, which includes Westinghouse Solar Inc. (WEST) and more than 100 other companies, claim the levies would cost U.S. jobs.

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american MADE CHIC summer bus tour

March 1, 2012 by Leave a comment

Summer Bus Tour

american MADE CHIC

“What we are doing isn’t political but it’s consciousness raising at a time when many people are either feeling pretty down about our nations stature — and dare I say soul”.

This summer five incredibly talented, smart, chic American women, will travel across the country in a decked out Red, White and Blue travel bus creating high impact events and awareness for jobs, manufacturing and products Made in America.

“American Made Chic” will set out to change the views of Americans and shed light on all things American. Each event will be packed with fashion, food and drink while providing a platform for sharing knowledge and information about jobs, manufacturing and American made products throughout the country. We will provide a fresh, hip, modern twist on what it means to support our country while creating loyal fans and followers.

Our tour will kick off at the Kentucky Derby on May 4th, 2012. It is important that this summer tour begin this year, as it is an election year. Our travels will include the Country Music Festival in Nashville Tennessee for the three day action packed event, Daytona NASCAR event and the grand finale in Detroit, Michigan (Motor City). We will visit manufacturing plants, tour some of our sponsor’s facilities and discover all things American.

I have attached the bios of each team member for your review. Collectively we have over 25,000 Facebook fans and the experience and knowledge to create an explosive American campaign. If you would like us to attend your event, please contact Michelle Thelen at ichooseamerican@gmail.com.

“American Made Chic” offers several ways that you can be involved.

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What Does the Future Hold for American Manufacturing?

February 27, 2012 by 1 Comment

The state of US manufacturing is likely to become a major campaign issue - Getty Images

The state of US manufacturing is likely to become a major campaign issue - Getty Images

Written by: BBC North America editor, Mark Mardell 

Drew Greenblatt is an enthusiast: proud of his company, Marlin Steel, and proud of the factory floor packed with state-of-the-art equipment.

I watch, fascinated, as a little white robot squeezes out a wire, putting kinks and bends in it as it emerges.

Then it hands it over to a slightly larger yellow robot, which holds it steady for a twist in the end before turning it over for another twist at the other end.

Oddly, I find this cutting-edge equipment rather cute and cartoonish.

The question is whether this endearing duo are merely the remnants of America’s industrial past or the sort of equipment that will make the USA world-beaters once again.

The factory floor space at Marlin Steel is being doubled and there is no doubt the company is doing well, prospering even, during the bad years. Read more of this post

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FDA Says Brazil’s Orange Juice Is Safe, But Still Illegal

February 23, 2012 by Leave a comment

 

Antonio Scorza/AFP/Getty Images Oranges for sale at a market in Rio de Janeiro.

Antonio Scorza/AFP/Getty Images Oranges for sale at a market in Rio de Janeiro.

NPR      by DAN CHARLES  February 22, 2012

If you happen to notice sometime later this year that you’re suddenly paying a lot more for orange juice, you can blame America’s food safety authorities. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, after several weeks of deliberation, has blocked imports of frozen, concentrated orange juice from Brazil, probably for the next 18 months or so, even though the agency says the juice is perfectly safe.

The FDA’s explanation is that its hands are legally tied. Its tests show that practically all concentrated juice from Brazil currently contains traces of the fungicide carbendazim, first detected in December by Coca-Cola, maker of Minute Maid juices. The amounts are small — so small that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says no consumers should be concerned.

The problem is, carbendazim has not been used on oranges in the U.S. in recent years, and the legal permission to use it on that crop has lapsed. As a result, there’s not a legal “tolerance” for residues of this pesticide in orange products. Read more of this post

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