GE to Move Turbine Jobs to Europe, China Due to EXIM Bank Closure

Reuters

 (Reuters)

General Electric Co (GE) 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 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.

GE Vice Chairman John Rice said the company would soon announce agreements with other foreign export credit agencies to finance GE products.

“If the EXIM bank were open, it would be business as usual,” GE Vice Chairman John Rice told Reuters in a telephone interview.

 Given the bitter fight in Congress over EXIM’s future, Rice said that GE cannot afford to wait and must make other long-term financing arrangements for large industrial projects.

“If EXIM isn’t going to happen, or it’s going to be a regular fight to be reauthorized, we’ve got to make other plans,” he said.

Conservative Republicans in Congress who say that EXIM represents “corporate welfare” and “crony capitalism” successfully blocked renewal of the 81-year-old export credit agency’s charter at the end of June.

EXIM supporters have thus far been unsuccessful in attaching renewal to other legislation, but new efforts are expected to be made this autumn as Congress considers government “must-pass” agency funding, a transportation bill and an increase in the federal debt limit.

GE last year vowed to add 1,000 jobs in France to gain the blessing of the French government for the U.S. conglomerate’s acquisition of the power business of France’s Alstom. GE won European regulatory approval for the deal last week, and expects it to close by the end of the year.

GE is also seeking to wring out $3 billion in cost savings as it combines with Alstom, including by reducing overlap and consolidating manufacturing operations.

In its statement, GE said the job move “reinforces the need for Congress to promptly reauthorize the U.S. Export-Import Bank.”

Aerospace giant Boeing Co (BA) has also said it was considering moving work overseas due to uncertainty over the future of the EXIM bank.

(Additional reporting by Lewis Krauskopf in New York; Editing by Eric Walsh)

Make your vote count at the Ex-Im Bank Fly-In and America’s Small Business Summit

So, let’s recap: of all the huge, super-bloated and inefficiently run US Government agencies, which are financed with taxpayers’ money and could certainly use lots of reform, our brilliant lawmakers (you know who you are) are picking on a tiny 400 person agency – US Ex-Im Bank, which returns hundreds of millions of dollars annually to the US Treasury (in the real world we say, it is profitable) and has an 80-year track record of successful support of US exports.

Meanwhile, the amount of taxpayers’ money expended on various congressional hearings debating Ex-Im’s reauthorization and pro/con Ex-Im political campaigns has been in the tens of millions of dollars. Add to this with Congressmen’ and bank management’s wasted time, damage to our country’s image, reduced morale of the bank staff staff, as well as negative impact on our nation’s export trade, and the damage from this egregious process quickly moves into billions of dollars . All because of someone’s obtuse political agenda…

Time to put a stop to this and make our voices heard. YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO ATTEND:

You’re Invited!    Ex-Im Bank Fly-In and America’s Small Business Summit   Washington, DC June 9 -10, 2015   Will your business be hurt if the Export-Import Bank isn’t reauthorized? It’s charter expires in less than 50 days!   You are invited to participate in the U.S. Chamber’s America’s Small Business Summit and Ex-Im Bank Fly-In and Hill Day to help secure long-term reauthorization of the Ex-Im Bank.   The Small Business Summit attracts hundreds of small business owners from all over the U.S. every year. The conference will include a session on Ex-Im Bank and the state-of-play to ensure its reauthorization. As a “Main Street Ambassador” during the Summit, you will have the opportunity to meet with Members of Congress and advocate for reauthorization of the Ex-Im Bank. With the June 30 deadline fast approaching, we need your help to secure a long-term reauthorization so that businesses can continue to provide jobs and economic growth in communities across the country.   This will be a critical time for Members of Congress to hear your personal stories about the integral role the Bank plays in growing and supporting jobs in your local community.     We hope you can join us at this important event. There is no cost to attend. A hotel block is available at the Omni Shoreham Hotel. Book a room here. For further information, please contact Director of International Policy for the Chamber Stefanie Holland (sholland@uschamber.com).    Register HERE Schedule Of Events   Tuesday, June 9  America’s Small Business Summit  Time: 7:00 am – 6:00 pm Location: Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 Calvert St NW, Washington, DC   Wednesday, June 10 Main Street Ambassadors Hill Day on Ex-Im Bank 8:30 a.m. Hill Day Kickoff at U.S. Chamber Hill Office – 430 1st Street SE, Washington DC 10:00 Meetings with Members of Congress and staff on Capitol Hill

SIA Deems Ex-Im Bank ‘Critical’ to US Satellite Industry

By Caleb Henry | Feature, Government, North America, Regional, Satellite TODAY News Feed

SSL workers assemble the ABS-2 satellite at the SS/L manufacturing facility in Palo Alto, Calif. Ex-Im Bank approved $461 million of credit to finance the export of three American-made satellites to Hong Kong. Photo: SSL [[Via Satellite 08-18-2014]

In less than two months the United States Congress must make a decision on the fate of the Export-Import Bank, an independent federal agency designed to provide export financing when private banks are not able. The satellite industry around the world stands out as the quickest-growing market the bank supports, which makes this decision pivotal for satellite as a whole. In one of her last interviews as president of the Satellite Industry Association (SIA), Patricia Cooper spoke to Via Satellite about the importance of the Ex-Im bank for the industry.

“We call it an increasingly critical element in U.S. companies winning satellite business, particularly given that there is such an increase in brand new satellite operators. More than 12 new countries in the last five years have become satellite operators, so while export credit financing may be helpful for traditional or fleet-based operators, there are a lot of new entrants to the business, and it’s a high upfront and fixed cost business. Securing the credit for such a costly up front project is a significant factor,” said Cooper.
Credit financing is one of many factors satellite operators consider when making a purchase. Without the Ex-Im bank, U.S. manufacturers would have to do their best to offer comparable terms to foreign competitors that have government-supported export credit agencies. According to the SIA’s “State of the Satellite Industry Report,” approximately 68 percent of the $15.7 billion global satellite manufacturing revenues in 2013 came from U.S. companies. Without the bank, satellite operator decision-making on new purchases is likely to change.

“The concern is it would distort decision making for buyers. They would no longer be looking at an even playing field where manufacturers from all of the global providers would have comparable [financing] packages. Instead they would be looking at financing as one of the lead items rather than one of the many factors they might consider,” said Cooper.

The Ex-Im bank has supported numerous satellite projects for SSL, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Orbital Sciences and others. SpaceX too has received considerable support, including a 105.4 million loan to launch the Amos 6 satellite for Israeli satellite operator Spacecom. Without the bank, more deals may go to other foreign manufacturers and launch providers in the future.

“The bank is very important to Boeing, mostly for commercial airplane sales but also for satellite sales,report global or just within the U.S.?ext but I want to check with you that this is correct. is book.then see the headlines, I d” said Boeing spokesperson Tim Neale. “It is a significant competitive issue for us. Some 60 countries have export credit agencies, including all of the countries with aerospace industries. Airbus has the support of three export credit agencies (in France, Germany and the United Kingdom). Customers have been telling us for months that they are concerned about the future of the U.S. Export-Import Bank.”

Neale described the Ex-Im bank as a “critical competitive need.” Russia’s Export Insurance Agency of Russia (EXIAR) and France’s French Insurance Company for Foreign Trade (COFACE for its name in French) both support satellite projects in their respective economies. The decision to reauthorize the bank, should Congress do so, is seen as a move that would maintain a more level playing field for U.S. companies.

“The concern is that international buyers, particularly [with] private financing on their own, would either not be able to buy satellites or they’d be directed by the absence of credit financing in the U.S. to buy non-U.S. spacecraft,” said Cooper.

On July 15, governors from 31 states sent a signed letter to John Boehner, R-Ohio, Harry Reid, D-Nev., Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., urging them to prevent the bank’s charter from expiring this year. Congress is currently on summer recess, pushing the decision even closer to the edge. Without authorization, the 80-year old bank’s charter will expire on Sept. 30.