GE moving X-ray business to China. What message is sent to U.S.?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Here is more evidence of the suicide mission this country is on: General Electric announced it's moving its 115-year-old X-ray business from Waukesha, Wisconsin to Beijing, China.
The X-ray business is part of General Electric's GE Healthcare unit, and this move is just part of a broader plan by GE to invest $2 billion in China.
This will become the first GE business to be headquartered there. A handful of the unit's top executives will be transferred to China but otherwise, the company says, none of the 150 staffers in the Milwaukee-area facility will lose jobs or be transferred. However, GE plans to hire more than 65 engineers and a support staff at a new facility in China.
It's the kind of news that makes you want to reach for something sharp and jab it in your eye. General Electric's Chief Executive, Jeffrey Immelt, is one of President Obama's advisers on… ready? U.S. job creation!
In January, President Obama asked Immelt, a self-described Republican, to head up the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. Tapping Immelt was supposed to provide the Obama administration with a business world perspective on job creation - not in China - here.
The administration also hoped it would give the president a leg up negotiating with the Republican-controlled House on deficit reduction, jobs programs, and health care. And we can all see how that's worked out really well.
President Barack Obama's health care reform law is already bleeding jobs from the nation's high-tech, high-wage medical device industry,
The 2010 law imposed a crippling 10-year, $20 billion tax on revenues — not on profits — earned by companies that make medical devices,
The tax is prompting American companies to shed jobs, move factories overseas and reconsider niche-market research projects, said Paulson, whose district include medical device companies.
"The administration will dig in and protect Obamacare at all costs, even if it looks like it is going to cause the layoff of 10 percent of the medical-device workforce, or 43,000 jobs,"
"Companies are already moving jobs, they're already moving products, they're not investing in the U.S.," he told TheDC. "If we don't stop it now … it will be too late"
will create 250 new high-tech manufacturing jobs by 2016.
hurleyjd said:Move was made to remain competitive with Siemens.
Siemens R&D activities in China
Siemens is one of the world's most innovative companies. The company aims to be a trendsetter in all its business sectors, and to shape its technologies with a clear focus on delivering tangible and valuable benefits for customers and stakeholders.
For Siemens, China becomes one of the most important R&D bases. Siemens will continuously increase investment to R&D capabilities here. The emphasis is locally designing and developing the right products and solutions for the Chinese market to meet local customer needs, and also using the advantages China offers to develop technologies in China for global application.
The 2010 law imposed a crippling 10-year, $20 billion tax on revenues — not on profits — earned by companies
hurleyjd said:ELLISVILLE, Miss.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–GE Aviation, a global leader in jet engine and aircraft systems production, announced today it will open a new manufacturing facility in Ellisville, Miss., to meet accelerating global demand. GE will invest $56 million in the new facility. The company is targeting for production to begin in 2013 and will create 250 new high-tech manufacturing jobs by 2016.
The 300,000-square foot facility will manufacture advanced composite components for aircraft engines and systems for GE Aviation's growing business. The announcement follows the 2008 opening of GE Aviation's manufacturing facility in Batesville, Mississippi, which now employs 300 workers – and is growing. The two sites represent a $150 million investment by GE in aviation technology by the end of decade.
"We are excited to expand our production capability in Mississippi with the opening of a second plant that will create hundreds of new high-tech jobs this decade for the state," said David Joyce, President and CEO, GE Aviation. "GE has invested more than $12 billion in the research and development of reliable technology innovation over the past ten years and today's announcement shows that commitment is paying off."
"Within ten years, GE Aviation will have created more than 600 jobs for Mississippi workers and invested $150 million in the state," said Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour.
The expansion into Mississippi underscores the growth at GE Aviation, where deliveries of commercial engines for GE and its partner companies will grow this year and in 2012, approaching record levels. Over the next several years, GE Aviation will invest hundreds of millions of dollars across its more than 30 operations in the U.S., including at new manufacturing operations in Auburn, Alabama; and in Mississippi. GE Aviation employs approximately 17,000 workers in manufacturing in the U.S.
In 2011, deliveries of commercial engines produced by GE Aviation, CFM International (50/50 joint company of GE and Snecma), and the Engine Alliance (50/50 joint company of GE and Pratt & Whitney) will grow approximately 10 percent over 2010 deliveries of 2000 engines.
Combined with GE's military engines, total engine deliveries in 2011 for GE Aviation and its partner companies are expected to reach 3,200 engines.
During the Paris Air Show in June, GE Aviation and its joint venture companies accumulated engine and services orders valued at more than $27 billion. GE engines are now on more than 25,000 planes around the world.
GE develops and produces the world's most advanced composite components for jet engines and systems. Composite components being produced by GE Aviation in Mississippi provide greater durability and engine weight savings, which translate into better aircraft fuel efficiency and reduced maintenance and replacement costs.
GE Aviation introduced composite fan blades to jet travel in 1995 with its GE90 engine on the Boeing 777. Since then, composite components have continued to be incorporated into both GE commercial and military engines, as well as into aircraft systems.
Members of Mississippi Delegation reacts to GE Aviation announcement:
*Senator Thad Cochran: "GE Aviation will find South Mississippi to be a good home. I am grateful for the efforts made by Governor Barbour, the Mississippi Development Authority and others who made this excellent news possible."
*Senator Roger Wicker: "I applaud GE Aviation's commitment to locate and invest in Mississippi."
*Congressman Gregg Harper: "During this time of economic uncertainty, Mississippians welcome with open arms the 250 GE jobs this venture will create."
*Congressman Steven Palazzo: "The location of the new GE Aviation facility in Ellisville will be a welcome addition to the aviation and manufacturing industry in Mississippi."
GE Aviation, an operating unit of GE (NYSE: GE), is a world-leading provider of jet and turboprop engines, components and integrated systems for commercial, military, business and general aviation aircraft. GE Aviation has a global service network to support these offerings. For more information, visit us at www.ge.com/aviation. Follow GE Aviation on Twitter at http://twitter.com/GEAviation and YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/GEAviation.
About GE
GE (NYSE: GE) is a diversified infrastructure and finance company taking on the world's toughest challenges. From aviation and power generation to financial services, healthcare solutions, oil and gas and rail, GE operates in more than 100 countries and employs about 300,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit the company's website at www.ge.com.
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Steve said:hurleyjd said:Move was made to remain competitive with Siemens.
Siemens R&D activities in China
Siemens is one of the world's most innovative companies. The company aims to be a trendsetter in all its business sectors, and to shape its technologies with a clear focus on delivering tangible and valuable benefits for customers and stakeholders.
For Siemens, China becomes one of the most important R&D bases. Siemens will continuously increase investment to R&D capabilities here. The emphasis is locally designing and developing the right products and solutions for the Chinese market to meet local customer needs, and also using the advantages China offers to develop technologies in China for global application.
you really don't get it do you?
The 2010 law imposed a crippling 10-year, $20 billion tax on revenues — not on profits — earned by companies
if you dump a crippling tax on the industry.. it is going to relocate..
and it is going to do so to remain competitive... with the other US industries that re-located..
hurleyjd said:Steve said:hurleyjd said:Move was made to remain competitive with Siemens.
Siemens R&D activities in China
Siemens is one of the world's most innovative companies. The company aims to be a trendsetter in all its business sectors, and to shape its technologies with a clear focus on delivering tangible and valuable benefits for customers and stakeholders.
For Siemens, China becomes one of the most important R&D bases. Siemens will continuously increase investment to R&D capabilities here. The emphasis is locally designing and developing the right products and solutions for the Chinese market to meet local customer needs, and also using the advantages China offers to develop technologies in China for global application.
you really don't get it do you?
The 2010 law imposed a crippling 10-year, $20 billion tax on revenues — not on profits — earned by companies
if you dump a crippling tax on the industry.. it is going to relocate..
and it is going to do so to remain competitive... with the other US industries that re-located..
To generate 2 billion with a 2.3% tax on revenue they would have to have revenue of 87 billion a year for one year to have a 20 billion tax for the ten years for a total of 870 billion. Is this correct. That is a lot of expense for the devices. Do you really think this is crippling.
Medical device makers fighting health tax plan
Washington - The makers of artificial hips, heart valves and X-ray machines are ramping up their lobbying efforts against a $4-billion-a-year tax on the industry proposed in health care reform legislation moving through Congress.
The tax would hit GE Healthcare in Waukesha particularly hard, given the company's large share of the medical device market. GE makes MRI machines, CT scanners and other imaging equipment. The tax also would affect at least 20 other companies that manufacture medical devices in the state.
Mark Vachon, president of GE Healthcare Americas, traveled to Washington for a series of meetings Wednesday to discuss the tax issue. The company is one of the largest medical device manufacturers in the U.S., second only to New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson. Vachon said the new tax would further erode his company's revenue following earlier reductions to Medicare reimbursement rates that have already hurt firms that make imaging devices.
"A tax of this size would clearly have a dramatic impact on innovation and a dramatic impact on jobs," said Vachon, who estimates that his company would have to pay an additional $200 million a year in taxes under the proposal.
GE Healthcare employs about 5,500 people in Wisconsin and 22,000 nationwide. The tax could force the company to cut as many as 3,300 jobs nationwide, Vachon said.
"It's going to be absolutely devastating," . "It's either going to raise (health care) costs or cut jobs."
The regulations pertaining to implementation of the device tax are still being hammered out, but the law expressly seeks to generate revenue for the government from big companies like General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE), Siemens, and Phillips as well as smaller original equipment manufacturers.
Indeed, a broad range of products could be levied -- everything from magnetic resonance imaging machines, ultrasound systems, and radiology equipment to patient monitoring devices like glucose and blood pressure meters. These devices are composed of parts supplied by electronics companies and include integrated circuits, microprocessors, sensors, flash memory, and other components.
The medical device tax, the government says, is to help pay for healthcare reforms, and part of those reforms have to do with the cost of bringing America's healthcare system into the modern technological age.
The basic problem with the tax is one of math. Many small to midsize medical device companies will owe more to the federal government in taxes than they make in profits, according to Mark Leahy, head of the Medical Device Manufacturers Association. "We're talking about a 2.3 percent tax on total sales, irrespective of whether a company is making a profit." The device tax will hamper innovation, since the amount of money available for a company to reinvest in its business development will be reduced. Some companies are already contemplating moving jobs overseas to avoid losing their competitive edge. Outsourcing is just one of many adverse unintended consequences of the new law.
Steve said:a large part of the move is the obamacare tax on medical devices..
a close friend who works for medtronics was recently laid off and they reason was simple.. market outlook..
with a higher tax looming businesses see a more lucrative overseas market and outsourcing avoids the manufacturing portion of the tax and reduces labor costs..
President Barack Obama's health care reform law is already bleeding jobs from the nation's high-tech, high-wage medical device industry,
The 2010 law imposed a crippling 10-year, $20 billion tax on revenues — not on profits — earned by companies that make medical devices,
The tax is prompting American companies to shed jobs, move factories overseas and reconsider niche-market research projects, said Paulson, whose district include medical device companies.
"The administration will dig in and protect Obamacare at all costs, even if it looks like it is going to cause the layoff of 10 percent of the medical-device workforce, or 43,000 jobs,"
"Companies are already moving jobs, they're already moving products, they're not investing in the U.S.," he told TheDC. "If we don't stop it now … it will be too late"
well I guess we could move the 43000 to MT and re-educate them to raise cattle and drive trains.. re-education worked so well in the other communist countries
