As you’re probably aware, the Obama administration’s stimulus bill includes a “Buy American” provision for the use of stimulus funds. Industrial Market Trends points out that it can be very difficult to determine what constitutes an “American Made” product in our borderless economy by looking at the automobile industry.
“Once you put down the flags and shut off all the television ads with their Heartland, apple-pie America imagery, the truth of the car business is that it transcends national boundaries,” the Wall Street Journal recently noted. “A car or truck sold by a ‘Detroit’ automaker such as General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. or Chrysler Group could be less American — as defined by the government’s standards for ‘domestic content’ — than a car sold by Toyota, Honda or Nissan — all of which have substantial assembly and components operations in the U.S.”
The auto industry is just one of the many industries that have taken a global approach to sourcing parts. With the pressures we all face to drive down costs, sometimes it is hard to ignore lower prices from overseas suppliers. That results in a mixture of nationalities in almost everything we build.
At QC Conveyors, we can proudly say that all our conveyors are “American Made.” More than 85% of the parts across all our conveyor lines are sourced domestically. In fact — as part of our efforts to keep our carbon footprint as small as possible — more than 60% of the parts are sourced within 100 miles of our headquarters. All of the final assembly is completed at our Cincinnati headquarters.
