Jones Lang LaSalle
United Wire closing Bergen plant
Tuesday, June 6, 2006
By HUGH R. MORLEY
STAFF WRITER
A Hasbrouck Heights wire hanger manufacturer has concluded that if you can't beat the Chinese, you should join them.
United Wire Hanger Corp. will close its Bergen County factory and lay off 81 people on June 30 because of competitive pressures from Chinese manufacturers.
The company will now get its plastic and wire hangers made under contract in China, said Vice President Joel Goldman. He added that the company will continue to sell its hangers in the U.S. with a staff of about 25 people.
The closing comes about three years after President Bush rejected a request by United and two other hanger makers to stem the flow of cheap Chinese hangers into the U.S. with a tariff.
"The company is remaining in business; it's just producing out of the country," Goldman said.
"We accept that this is the way it has to be regarding production in this country," he added. "It's very hard to compete with production in countries like China or India. It's a fact of life."
United informed the state Labor Department of the layoffs in an April 28 letter under a federal law that requires 60 days' notice.
The move comes about a year after United halved its workforce. At that time, the company said it would redirect its business toward supplying hangers for the uniform rental laundry market instead of dry cleaners, the company's main market at that time. The company earlier had laid off about 60 people.
In November 2002, United -- along with manufacturers in Florida and Alabama -- filed a complaint with federal trade authorities claiming that China had violated a law that came into effect when it joined the World Trade Organization.
The law banned China from exporting goods to the U.S. "in such increased quantities or under such conditions as to cause or threaten to cause market disruption to the domestic producers."
The companies urged President Bush to slap a tariff of 20 percent to 30 percent on imported Chinese hangers. The U.S. International Trade Commission agreed. A company attorney said that while Chinese manufacturers could make hangers for 2½ to 4 cents apiece, American hangers cost 2 or 3 cents more.
But Bush was unconvinced by United's argument. In April 2003, he said the manufacturers should adjust to competition, adding that a tariff would push up the price of hangers for small, family-owned dry cleaning businesses.
E-mail: morley@northjersey.com
United Wire closing Bergen plant
Tuesday, June 6, 2006
By HUGH R. MORLEY
STAFF WRITER
A Hasbrouck Heights wire hanger manufacturer has concluded that if you can't beat the Chinese, you should join them.
United Wire Hanger Corp. will close its Bergen County factory and lay off 81 people on June 30 because of competitive pressures from Chinese manufacturers.
The company will now get its plastic and wire hangers made under contract in China, said Vice President Joel Goldman. He added that the company will continue to sell its hangers in the U.S. with a staff of about 25 people.
The closing comes about three years after President Bush rejected a request by United and two other hanger makers to stem the flow of cheap Chinese hangers into the U.S. with a tariff.
"The company is remaining in business; it's just producing out of the country," Goldman said.
"We accept that this is the way it has to be regarding production in this country," he added. "It's very hard to compete with production in countries like China or India. It's a fact of life."
United informed the state Labor Department of the layoffs in an April 28 letter under a federal law that requires 60 days' notice.
The move comes about a year after United halved its workforce. At that time, the company said it would redirect its business toward supplying hangers for the uniform rental laundry market instead of dry cleaners, the company's main market at that time. The company earlier had laid off about 60 people.
In November 2002, United -- along with manufacturers in Florida and Alabama -- filed a complaint with federal trade authorities claiming that China had violated a law that came into effect when it joined the World Trade Organization.
The law banned China from exporting goods to the U.S. "in such increased quantities or under such conditions as to cause or threaten to cause market disruption to the domestic producers."
The companies urged President Bush to slap a tariff of 20 percent to 30 percent on imported Chinese hangers. The U.S. International Trade Commission agreed. A company attorney said that while Chinese manufacturers could make hangers for 2½ to 4 cents apiece, American hangers cost 2 or 3 cents more.
But Bush was unconvinced by United's argument. In April 2003, he said the manufacturers should adjust to competition, adding that a tariff would push up the price of hangers for small, family-owned dry cleaning businesses.
E-mail: morley@northjersey.com
posted by Jones Lang LaSalle NJ News Blog at 4:24 PM
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