American Manufacturers Overwhelmed With Orders After Trump’s Tariff Crackdown On China
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
American manufacturers are seeing a surge in demand as President Donald Trump’s tariffs force companies to reconsider doing business in China.
Trump’s tariffs, including a 145% levy on Chinese goods, are causing American-made products to be more competitive in the market. As a result, many small and medium manufacturers are experiencing a surge in demand and are preparing to ramp up production and hire new workers.
Jergens Inc., a midwestern toolmaker with less than 500 employees, says it’s “going like gangbusters” trying to keep up with demand, The Wall Street Journal reported. They are seeing an influx of orders from customers trying to avoid import tariffs, along with steady defense-related demand.
“We are running 24 hours a day, seven days a week” said Jergens president Jack Schron, according to the Journal. “We are swamped.”
U.S. President Donald Trump holds up a chart while speaking during a “Make America Wealthy Again” trade announcement event in the Rose Garden at the White House on April 2, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Grand River Rubber & Plastics, a plastics and rubber manufacturer in Ohio, says customers that once offshored to China are reversing course, the Journal noted. Two buyers who left years ago returned within days of each other and two new oil filter manufacturers have already placed orders. The company’s new business could amount to $5 million annually, roughly 10% of Grand River’s revenue.
The spike in new business reported by many American manufacturers coincides with a sharp decrease in Chinese manufacturing. When Trump announced the tariffs last month, he predicted American businesses and consumers would both benefit.
“Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country, and you see it happening already. We will supercharge our domestic industrial base,” Trump has said. “We will pry open foreign markets and break down foreign trade barriers. And ultimately, more production at home will mean stronger competition and lower prices for consumers.”
Even as the president insists prices will fall, economists and politicians warn his tariffs could sharply raise costs for American consumers, CNBC reported. However, executives at SafeSource Direct, a Louisiana-based medical products manufacturer, say prices are likely to decline as domestic production ramps up, according to the Journal.
SafeSource recently increased the number of production lines from two to eight, each making over 20,000 rubber gloves an hour. As new operations become more efficient, they expect costs to decrease significantly.
“We think we can get extremely close to Asian prices,” said Steve Mott, a partner with the company, as reported by the Journal.
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Oh, but wait .... Obama said we can't bring manufacturing back.
I see nothing wrong with that - more power to them. However, the price of goods manufactured in America is bound to exceed the price of the similar goods from China, notwithstanding the promises the manufacturers are making about their prices reducing. The article speaks of the prices of the American-made goods coming down, but none have said that their prices would reduce to as low as the same goods from China.
But they have much better quality than the cheap junk from China.
You are living in a fantasy world if you think China only produces "cheap junk".
That was once obviously true and is in fact how America's once great auto making companies were undermined. I'm not sure the gap between China's labor and America's is as great as it once was. China has created its own middle class and a big part of it was via trade.
"Labor costs have continued to rise in China, due primarily to rising costs of living and income levels as the economy grows and moves up the value chain.
According to data from the NBS, the per capita income from wages was RMB 20,590 (approx. US$2,993) in 2022, an increase of 4.9 percent from the previous year, which accounted for 55.8 percent of disposable income. The average monthly wage of a migrant worker was RMB 4,614 (approx. US$671), up 4.1 percent from 2021.
Minimum wages have also continued to rise across all regions of China. Monthly minimum wages range from a low of RMB 1,420 (approx. US$206) in some areas of Liaoning Province to a high of RMB 2,590 in Shanghai. 14 regions in China now have a minimum monthly wage of over RMB 2,000 (approx. US$308), including Beijing, Hebei, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, and Sichuan.
The average yearly income of urban residents in 2021, per the latest available data, was RMB 106,837 (approx. US$15,529), breaking the RMB 100,000 mark for the first time. The industry with the highest average income was information transmission, computer services, and software industries, with an average annual income of RMB 201,506 (approx. US$29,290), while the lowest was in the accommodation and catering industry, with an average annual income of RMB 53,631 (approx. US$7,795)."
China's Labor Force - Data, Trends, and Future Outlook
What we allowed with Steel was a national disgrace.
America's once great auto making companies undermined themselves. I road tested thousands of cars with customer complaints and the factory reps almost always said "commercially acceptable". Japan went through several phases as they modifed British and American cars they tied down all fuel lines and electrical wiring to eliminate noise. Then came the quality control wars where they eliminated the rusting out issues and they took the Americans on with body fit.
It took the big three 20 years to get the old generation out to where they were forced to compete with Toyota/Lexus and Nissan/Accura on their terms, not on Henry Ford's memory.
That may be, Vic, but what's missing from the equation is that living expenses are easily affordable with those wages. Traditional cultural lifestyle sees that multiple generations of families live together. Even we housed my wife's mother for her last few years. She never called me by my name, or son, but called me "loawai" which translates as "foreigner" although it's also been known to be considered "foreign devil". LOL. As well, rent, food, medicines, everyday necessities are a fraction of what they cost in the USA. Even though I'm fully retired with only my pensions we can afford to live in a very comfortable 3 bedroom well-furnished apartment iin a modern immaculately maintained apartment building in an upscale neighbourhood of a big city surrounded by 3 beautifully landscaped university campuses, and within a short walking distance of absolutelly everything we need, including subway, supermarket, farmers' market, bank branches, medical clinic, pharmacy, malls housing all manner of shops and restaurants. Over the years I've posted many photos of the area in which we live. My wife does not need a job, but what she loves as a person who grew up on a farm is to take care of her approximately 2 acre mini-farm staked out near the mountains that are close to us, and she really knows her stuff. We enjoy the best and the freshest of vegetables year round, and these days I can't wait for the delicious corn to be ready.
But I do admit that workers' rights here are well behind where they should be, and I have already personally witnessed some really bad examples that have hit too close to home.
As I recall, my generation checked their pockets and said "Oh, I bet I can afford that tiny, ugly Japanese car."
I'm glad to hear that things are affordable over there. We should be wearing a sign saying, "Don't let it happen to you."
I know I'm going to be laughing a bit this mourning over the little name your mother-in-law gave you.
I needed a laugh today.
The funny thing is that I really liked my first mother-in-law, we got along really well, while the relationship with my second one was not at all rosy.
The average hourly wage for Chinese manufacturing workers is less than a tenth that of their average U.S. counterparts , according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
ttps://www.huffpost.com/entry/average-cost-factory-worker_n_1327413
That is sad.
Sad, but factual and an impediment to rapid rebuild of steel industry
I like facts. As a teacher once said to me, "I present the best factual arguments from both sides and allow the students to make decisions based on that." It is so much better than simply making pronouncements like AOC.
We both posted some facts, and our readers should base opinions on that.
Agreed
A 300% increase in hourly wage won't have an impact on China's export prices? Why would that kind of increase in labor cost be inconsequential for China's exports?
And the provided data is 15 years old. The data doesn't account for the recovery from the Great Recession or the impact of the COVID pandemic. Why would data from the George W. Bush administration be relevant today?
Even this data is 8 years old. Didn't the COVID pandemic mark a change? The pandemic forced expansion of manufacturing in the United States because of disruptions in foreign supply chains. In fact, some shortages of N95 masks were exacerbated because 3M was supplying foreign countries. The US exporting low cost manufactured goods, imagine that? In the real world, it can be done.
And NO facts are more accurate than what I say what the monthly expenses are for my wife and myself. The equivalent of about US$470 a month covers our rent, utilities, cable TV, internet and our cell phone useage. The equivalent of about US$700 a month covers our food, medicines, transportation and travel (which is minimal now), necessary services, necessary purchases of clothing and required item replacements, gifts, and whatever. All of that is covered by my pensions. That provides us with the lifestyle I described in comment 1.1.6 above. I couldn't guess what it would cost in a similar type of home in a similar type of city in a similar type of area in Canada or the USA but I know it would have to be a multiple.
So, China is experiencing America circa 1945 - 1975.
Tell them to enjoy it, for it doesn't last forever.
Have you noticed how many times I've said I wanted to be beamed back to the early 1950s? Well, then, I guess that's where I am.
I'm glad to hear it. You deserve a happy, healthy existence, and the Chinese people deserve to enjoy all that goes with an age of prosperity.
For that Xi does get some credit. Remember Trump did say that Xi loves the Chinese people.
And during Trump's first term they started to come back.
So Tucker's rag the Daily Caller cherry picks from a WSJ story titled ' Trump's Tariffs Are Lifting Some U.S. Manufacturers' and rehashes it into ' American Manufacturers Overwhelmed With Orders After Trump’s Tariff Crackdown On China'.
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Some goods can probably be produced in America at competitive prices for the consumer, and some cant.
People need to wrap their heads around the REALITY that tens of millions of Americans need (require) low prices in order to survive. Something like half the country doesnt have 500 dollars available for an emergency and they are supposed to be able to afford higher prices on goods just so they can be produced in America?
What will end up happening is more welfare, not less.
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It will take many years and many, many hundreds of billions of dollars to refurbish, remodel, remodel or replace the aging (falling down in many cases) steel mills in the U.S. - any thoughts of a quick return of U.S. manufacturing as a major factor in the world market is a pipe dream
Investment in reviving or “relining” the seven aging blast furnaces in the Great Lakes region is a multi-billion dollar bet that risks continuing job decline at these assets, weakens the ability of the US steel industry to compete in the global market, and perpetuates serious health and climate emissions harm from coal-based steel production.
Although the seven remaining coal-based blast furnaces represent only about a quarter of US steel production, these plants generate approximately 75 percent of the industry’s emissions . Continuing business-as-usual operations at these sites for the next few decades risks blowing past the domestic steel industry’s carbon budget by nearly two-fold (RMI analysis based on ORNL and MPP data).
Reline or Revitalize: The Narrowing Window to Modernize the US Steel Industry - RMI
As your sources indicate, one of the largest challenges for steel production in the United States is the increasingly restrictive regulatory environment. Why would EPA know more about the location and operation of steel operations than the Commerce Department?
Would you prefer that the United State source its steel from countries that are lax in protecting the environment and workers? Not that long ago the progressive left would be outraged by such practices and demand something be done.
Nerm
Steel production facilities have been and are lacking in protecting the environment.
Are you expecting the new mills (if they are ever built) or refurbished mills to run on solar power?
Of course not coal burning pollutants into the atmosphere
How does importing steel overcome the environmental impact? Just because the steel mills are Not In Your Back Yard doesn't mean the steel is produced cleanly.
A quick Google/Gemini search reveals that 23% of steel imports are from Canada. Mexico, Brazil, South Korea, Germany, and Japan (in that order) are the next five of the top 6 sources of steel imports. The combined imports from the EU are comparable in value to the imports from Canada.
China does occupy a higher ranking in importation of goods manufactured from steel. China adds value to its domestically produced steel through manufacturing. That way China obtains more economic benefit from its steel production than would be achieved by export of raw steel.
It increases the US contribution to the destruction of the atmosphere - that matters to some US citizens