General Electric’s power and water division plans to quit manufacturing gas engines at its plant in Waukesha, Wisc., and open a new facility in Canada to access its export credit agency.
General Electric’s power and water division plans to quit manufacturing gas engines at its plant in Waukesha, Wisc., and open a new facility to build these engines in Canada.
A big reason for the move, the giant company said, is the lack of trade finance support from the U.S. Export-Import Bank, which Congress allowed to shudder on July 1 due to a failure to reauthorize its charter.
“We continue to urge Congress to reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank for all American companies,” said GE Vice Chairman John Rice in a statement. “However, we must prepare for the worst case and arrange export finance outside the U.S. Unfortunately, this will come at the expense of American jobs. In a slow growth and volatile world, we must go where the markets are and compete in over 170 countries.”
On Monday, GE notified its Waukesha employees and more than 400 U.S. suppliers of its plans. In Wisconsin alone, suppliers generate almost $47 million in revenue from the plant.
GE plans to build a new US$265 million factory in Canada and expects to complete the construction in 20 months. In 2014, EDC supported exports and investments valued at $100 billion Canadian.
GE is currently bidding on $11 billion in projects worldwide that require export financing, and will work with export credit agencies in more than 60 countries when necessary.
Earlier this month, GE Power & Water announced plans to move production and 500 jobs to France, Hungary and China as its customers seek export credit agency financing assistance for projects using heavy duty and aeroderivative gas turbines. GE Aviation also announced plans to create a turboprop engine development, test and production operation in Europe, and the company recently signed an agreement with U.K. Export Finance (UKEF) to access $12 billion in export credit financing for both confirmed and potential orders that could create as many as 1,000 British jobs, the company said.
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