Comment by skrbjc
1 year ago
"Bring manufacturing back to America". Is it possible to build a cell phone in the US?
I think we should start more basic and work our way up. For example, there isn't a real reason we can't produce all of our domestic iron and steel needs in the USA, but we end up importing a lot right now. Same with aluminum, etc. But this isn't something YC is really going to help with unless they are funding manufacturing and industrial tech that makes it easier/cheaper to set-up and run these types of facilities.
The US currently imports only 17% of its steel, mostly from Canada and Mexico. The US also exports steel, but imports are about 4x exports. So the US steel industry is doing OK.
60% of US steel consumption is now from recycled steel. Nucor became the largest US steel manufacturer by making that work.
It takes (up to) 456.23% import tariffs[0] to achieve that 17%.
So you pay china $1 million for some amount of steel (via vietnam) and then pay the us gov $4.56 million for a total cost of $5.56 million.
It’s amazing that so many steel companies are still underperforming in the USA seemingly in spite the intense protectionism.
0: https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-us-vietnam-steel-trad....
So, essentially, we can all become factory workers if we're willing to accept a drastic decrease in our standard of living.
Is the percentage of steel imports relevant, when most of the metal consumer products are coming from abroad?
Simple stuff like pots and pans, cutlery, potato mashers. Then industrial parts. Farm equipment. Eventually, cell phone frames and more sophisticated stuff. I think this is what the parent comment is alluding to.
Ywes, but if we have cheap materials here, it makes it more enticing to manufacture here as well.
US Steel is now Japanese, btw
Depending on the specific concern, I assume what mostly matters is where the facilities are, not who owns the company. (At least so long as it's an ally.)
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Not yet. The federal government could still block it or the acquisition could fall through for other reasons.
You can do advanced electronics manufacturing in North America, it just has tradeoffs - primarily cost and process availability. I work for a company that builds high-end electronics over in Canada; Opinions are my own.
Advanced electronics manufacturing never left the US. The problem is that all the consumer-grade stuff left, and what's left is all really high-end military stuff, and is stupidly expensive. It's great if you're a defense contractor building some state-of-the-art weapons system that really needs the performance offered by those process technologies, but if you want to build a simple prototype for your small business, or you want to build some not-so-cutting-edge electronics in high volume for consumers, it just isn't feasible.
We’re not military, but I hear what you’re saying. Generally when I look at the costs of doing stuff onshore vs offshore it’s typically ~2x more expensive to do it here. That blows out any ambitions of competing purely on price pretty quickly for most types of product.
We import a lot but we make a lot. I made a living supervising the manufacturing of the rolls used to roll steel in mill. We weren't exporting even the majority of the product.
Cost. I don't think America should focus on mining raw materials that can be sent elsewhere so cellphones can be made which America will import back at high costs.