Another Maufacturing Plant in Northern Illinois Closes

[jitts3]

I picked up a BOMAG road roller in Kewaunee Illinois yesterday. The workers there told me that the plant was closing. At first (sadly) I thought of myself and the loads we get from there. But then asked the guy who told me about the news if he had plans. He had none. He said he had 17 years there. And since the plant is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, anything he could find would be far off. I found a few articles about it. They say they relocating to possibly the southern US, or overseas. The workers tell me the place will be in Germany.
BOMAG is part of the FAYAT group. A company based in France.

Either way a small Illinois town is soon to drop off of the map. And jobs to go overseas. And the Joseph Goebbles media tell us the economy is getting better.
I am a trucker. I move the economy. It is getting worse.

http://www.kwqc.com/story/23295761/kewanee-bomag-plant-closing


http://m.starcourier.com/article/20130828/News/130829278

 

[Gofirstclass]

That's really sad. Kinda makes one wonder what the REAL state of our recovery is.

 

[jitts3]

Basically non existant. The market has adjusted. People with jobs this k they have survived the worst. People without have adjusted to their new normal. But believe me freight volume (the stuff we all buy) never did return. The news just talks about the stock market. The that is over inflated by the Q.E. policies. That so called improvement doesn't help the people on Main St. at all.

 

[Jeff_380]

My wife and I own a mid size CNC Machine Shop, 34 employees. We pay our employees well, offer excellent benefits and have wonderful business that we really love. Unfortunately we are forced to compete for price against China, India and many other overseas countries and Mexico. It's not a problem being competitive among our local competition, but overseas companies don't share the same values we do here. Lots of pollution, terrible pay and working conditions don't make it a level playing field. Discouraging, but we are fighting hard to keep going. If you pray, please pray for us!

 

[MonacoMike]

Jeff, I admire you for competeing from the region you do.

As for BOMAG competing from the Peoples Commune of Illinois, it is a wonder they made it this far...

MM

 

[OldSkool]

The company I work for is bringing jobs to NA. We are expanding our plant and gaining market share in a slow economy. We are committed to building machine that fit the NA market using US plants, US workers, and providing great wages and benefits. Even though we are a Swedish company. We are building machines for NA by Americans.
It is sad that many states have taxed out business into oblivian.

The big state grab on business to make up for poor management has forced many to relocate in other more favorable states our even other countries.

 

[IanBat]

My wife and I own a mid size CNC Machine Shop, 34 employees. We pay our employees well, offer excellent benefits and have wonderful business that we really love. Unfortunately we are forced to compete for price against China, India and many other overseas countries and Mexico. It's not a problem being competitive among our local competition, but overseas companies don't share the same values we do here. Lots of pollution, terrible pay and working conditions don't make it a level playing field. Discouraging, but we are fighting hard to keep going. If you pray, please pray for us!

I spent a considerable amount of time and money, developing a product and having it tested and approved by our government for traffic control use in Australia.

And we have to compete with backyard factories out of China, using the words 'Conforms to Australian Standards' which means nothing has been tested or certified.
They sell direct to the end user.

When you import here, you are deemed the manufacturer, there is no onus back on the overseas manufacturer. And good luck to anyone here who thinks their Chinese seller is going to warrant a major failure!

So little do they realise, if they cause an accident on a road, the the buck stops with them, and I think their insurance company will not be impressed.

And to add to competing at that, we have to honour a 5 year warranty.


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