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VOLUME XXI
September 14, 2023
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January 21, 2019
China’s Rail Freight Trips to Europe Mushroom, But Must Uncouple Subsidies
/SOURCE : yicai
China’s Rail Freight Trips to Europe Mushroom, But Must Uncouple Subsidies (Yicai Global) Jan. 21 — The number of runs of the China Railway Express freight trains to Europe, which started in 2011, has risen rapidly with trade between China and Europe burgeoning.
Beijing-based China Railway Express ran 6,300 cargo trips to its western continental neighbor last year, an increase of 72 percent, official data show. However, the line must now become more market-oriented and less reliant on government handouts, insiders said.
The express ran 6,300 trips to Europe last year, almost equal to the total number of those from 2011 to 2017, with 2,690 returning trips in an over twofold rise from the previous year, per data from China Railway Group
Chengdu, Chongqing, Xi’an, Zhengzhou and Wuhan ran a total of 5,437 trips last year, making up more 80 percent of the nation’s total, while the number of trains in the western cities of Chengdu, Chongqing and Xi’an all topped 1,000.
The China Railway Express has made 12,000 freight trips thus far from 56 Chinese cities to 49 cities in 15 European countries.
Train trips to Europe ballooned last year with the Belt and Road Initiative and a fillip from local governments. The frequency of freight train runs is expected to grow by geometric progression in next three to five years, Li Muyuan, executive vice president and secretary general of the Intermodal Branch of China Communications and Transportation Association told Yicai Global.
Balancing Act
The national ratio of departing and returning trips last year was 3:2, whereas the ratio in Chongqing, Zhengzhou and Wuhan was more balanced.
Though 6,300 trips ran last year, the total transit scale was only equivalent to 600,000 twenty-foot equivalent units, which is insignificant compared with the 246 million TEU of China-Europe sea transport last year, Li added. Thus, the cross-continent express trains have much room for improvement.
Huge capital investments from local governments underpins the swift growth of express trains. It is common for governments to invest to build transit channels and logistics networks via infrastructure construction subsidies, but local subsidies now usually go to defray operating costs, Li told Yicai Global.
Several city governments are committed to attracting goods and expanding the transport scale of trains to Europe. Some have cut train cargo costs to make them lower than sea freight to gain price advantages. The risk of this can be very great, however.
It has led to subsidy dependence for the major domestic and international operators of the China Railway Express, Li told Yicai Global, adding operations will be unsustainable once subsidies fall by the way.
The government should clearly manage subsidies and evaluate their effects, she said.
China Railway Express would not survive without subsidies, which help operators to do business until attaining business efficiency of a certain scale, Wang Guowen, director of the Logistics and Supply Chain Management Institute of the China Development Institute, told Yicai Global. China Railway Express is now developing in a balanced manner.
Weaning Off Handouts
Government subsidies need not be completely eliminated but can be reduced in the future like other subsidies with gradual adjustments and reductions, Wang believes.
The success of China-Europe express depends on whether it promotes regional economic industrial clusters, Wang said, adding that competition between cities is not about the number of trains. If so, this would only be a difference in financial resources, which are ultimately limited.
The key is to form a market-oriented model for China Railway Express’ operation as soon as possible to lead the next stage of the development process and the local industry transformation and upgrading, Wang added.
Editor: Ben Armour
https://yicaiglobal.com/news/china-rail-freight-trips-to-europe-mushroom-but-must-uncouple-subsidies
January 21, 2019
Foam maker investing $1.9M, adding 65 jobs for mattress production
VERONA • Specialty foam manufacturer Elite Comfort Solutions is increasing production, investing $1.9 million and adding 65 jobs over the next year.
Elite Comfort Solutions which now employs 52 workers expects to begin production of new mattresses this spring.
Elite will make mattresses that will be competitive in the “bed-in-a-box” market. The mattresses will be compressed and shipped from the company directly to its customers.
“Elite Comfort Solutions’ expansion in Verona continues into 2019 the economic growth Lee County and Northeast Mississippi have experienced in recent years,” said Gov. Phil Bryant. “I appreciate the Elite Comfort Solutions team for bringing dozens of new jobs to our state and look forward to the company’s continued success.”
Elite, based in Newnan, Georgia, is a provider of foam technology for the bedding, furniture, automotive, medical and packaging industries.
“The Verona facility for Elite Comfort Solutions has an excellent track record in quality and safety. Because of this and the workforce of Northeast Mississippi, Elite Comfort Solutions is proud to expand operations for the facility,” said Elite Comfort Solutions Plant Manager Craig Cook. “The increased capacity will allow Elite Comfort Solutions to meet increased customer demand for its products.”
The Mississippi Development Authority is providing a $63,000 grant for building improvements and $30,000 in MS Works funds for workforce training. Lee County is providing property tax exemptions for the project.
In 2016, Arsenal Capital Partners, a New York-based private equity firm, acquired Elite Foam, Hickory Springs Manufacturing Foam (or HSM Foam) and Pacific Urethanes. Arsenal combined the companies under the Elite Comfort Solutions brand.
Last year, Leggett & Platt announced that was buying Elite Comfort Solutions for $1.25 billion in cash. The deal is expected to be completed this month.
ECS, with 16 facilities across the U.S., reported annual sales for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2018 of $611 million.
http://www.djournal.com/news/business/foam-maker-investing-m-adding-jobs-for-mattress-production/article_11dd80ab-1a4f-5f67-9002-49a08fd0f446.html
January 21, 2019
Foam maker investing $1.9M, adding 65 jobs for mattress production
VERONA • Specialty foam manufacturer Elite Comfort Solutions is increasing production, investing $1.9 million and adding 65 jobs over the next year.
Elite Comfort Solutions which now employs 52 workers expects to begin production of new mattresses this spring.
Elite will make mattresses that will be competitive in the “bed-in-a-box” market. The mattresses will be compressed and shipped from the company directly to its customers.
“Elite Comfort Solutions’ expansion in Verona continues into 2019 the economic growth Lee County and Northeast Mississippi have experienced in recent years,” said Gov. Phil Bryant. “I appreciate the Elite Comfort Solutions team for bringing dozens of new jobs to our state and look forward to the company’s continued success.”
Elite, based in Newnan, Georgia, is a provider of foam technology for the bedding, furniture, automotive, medical and packaging industries.
“The Verona facility for Elite Comfort Solutions has an excellent track record in quality and safety. Because of this and the workforce of Northeast Mississippi, Elite Comfort Solutions is proud to expand operations for the facility,” said Elite Comfort Solutions Plant Manager Craig Cook. “The increased capacity will allow Elite Comfort Solutions to meet increased customer demand for its products.”
The Mississippi Development Authority is providing a $63,000 grant for building improvements and $30,000 in MS Works funds for workforce training. Lee County is providing property tax exemptions for the project.
In 2016, Arsenal Capital Partners, a New York-based private equity firm, acquired Elite Foam, Hickory Springs Manufacturing Foam (or HSM Foam) and Pacific Urethanes. Arsenal combined the companies under the Elite Comfort Solutions brand.
Last year, Leggett & Platt announced that was buying Elite Comfort Solutions for $1.25 billion in cash. The deal is expected to be completed this month.
ECS, with 16 facilities across the U.S., reported annual sales for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2018 of $611 million.
http://www.djournal.com/news/business/foam-maker-investing-m-adding-jobs-for-mattress-production/article_11dd80ab-1a4f-5f67-9002-49a08fd0f446.html
January 17, 2019
Bayer to close site in Robinson by 2020, cut nearly 600 local positions
Global pharmaceutical giant Bayer Corp. announced Tuesday it is closing its Robinson campus within the next two years.
It will mean the loss of 569 jobs and 96 contractors, the company said in a statement.
The news shocked Robinson officials, but the Airport Area Chamber of Commerce believed Bayer employees could be hired by other companies in the area.
The company once touted its Robinson campus as its U.S. headquarters.
The administrative functions of Bayer’s U.S. operations are now being consolidated to best support the agriculture business, headquartered in St. Louis, and its healthcare business, which is based in Whippany, N.J., the company said.
Bayer announced in November a global workforce reduction of 12,000 jobs by 2021 in an effort to improve productivity and profitability. In 2017, Bayer employed 99,800 people worldwide.
Bayer’s other operations in Pennsylvania, including Bayer HealthCare sites in Indianola, O’Hara and Saxonburg, won’t be affected by the move, the company said.
Rumors of a move went around periodically, but the Robinson officials had no warning that the company was planning to make the cuts. Robinson Township Manager Frank L. Piccolino said the township’s first concern was for the families of affected employees. He said the Bayer positions were high-paying jobs.
“We’re shocked. We did not see this coming at all,” Piccolino said. “We feel bad for the families who worked there.”
It was too soon to project the financial impacts on the township of losing Bayer, Piccolino said.
Employees at the Robinson site performed administrative functions including information technology, human resources, accounting/finance and legal work to support Bayer’s U.S. divisions, the company said.
Airport Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Chris Heck said the announcement would be a tough pill for the airport corridor to swallow. Heck wasn’t blindsided by the announcement. It follows a trend of global companies consolidating their operations, and it comes after Bayer acquired agrochemical giant Monsanto last year.
Heck was confident that the growing business corridor would be able to offer jobs to the out-of-work Bayer employees.
“Those jobs can easily be absorbed by the companies that are out here,” Heck said.
The Monsanto acquisition doubled the size of Bayer’s business to more than $16 billion in sales, with a workforce of 20,000 at 300 locations in the U.S., the company said.
It was a partnership with Monsanto that first brought Bayer to Pittsburgh. In 1958, the companies formed Mobay, a joint venture that marketed polyurethanes in the U.S. Mobay, which originally had its headquarters in St. Louis before it relocated it to Pittsburgh, had a staff of 35 in the city and annual sales around $25 million, according to Bayer.
Before Bayer CEO Attila Molnar retired in 2008, he wrote that Pittsburgh was the “home and the hub of Bayer’s success in North America.”
“Pittsburgh also is a city that has provided our employees — the source of every Bayer achievement — with an incomparable sense of community,” Molnar wrote in 2008 in a look-back at Bayer’s 50-year history in Pittsburgh. “I am immensely proud of the inventive, dedicated people of Bayer — both past and present — whose talents have brought us to this moment in Pittsburgh, a city that has done so much to foster our company’s success.”
Molnar praised Pittsburgh’s work ethic, its universities and schools, its neighborhoods with affordable housing and its diverse recreational activities. He said Bayer has given Pittsburgh high-paying jobs that contributed millions to the local economy each year and stewardship programs to protect the environment. The company established the Bayer USA Foundation in Pittsburgh to direct grants and other donations locally and around the country.
The company will honor commitments to nonprofits and charities it supported locally through 2020, the company said.
“This is certainly a difficult decision given the impact it will have on our colleagues and their families, and the important role the site has played in our company’s history. We have an extremely talented workforce in Robinson and a proud and rich history. We thank our colleagues for their hard work and dedication over the years,” the company statement said.
The closing will take place in a “thoughtful, orderly manner” over the next two years.
Allegheny Conference on Community Development CEO Stephani Pashman said the Pittsburgh region owed a lot to Bayer.
“Bayer’s direct influence on our economy, as well as on our quality of life through its corporate social responsibility, spanned generations,” Pashman said. “Bayer helped to pin Pittsburgh on the global map.”
In spite of Bayer’s move, other companies are growing in the region, Pashman said, and the demand for the type of skilled workers employed by Bayer is high.
There were more than 19,000 clerical and administrative support positions, 25,000 finance positions and nearly 9,000 human resource positions that were posted in 2017-18 in the Pittsburgh region, according to the Allegheny Conference, which based its numbers off of data from Burning Glass Technologies, a company the specializes in labor market analysis.
Tom Davidson is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tom at 724-487-7208, tdavidson@tribweb.com or via Twitter @TribDavidson.
https://triblive.com/news/adminpage/14506552-74/bayer-to-close-site-in-robinson-by-2020-nearly-600-local-positions
January 17, 2019
Bayer to close site in Robinson by 2020, cut nearly 600 local positions
Global pharmaceutical giant Bayer Corp. announced Tuesday it is closing its Robinson campus within the next two years.
It will mean the loss of 569 jobs and 96 contractors, the company said in a statement.
The news shocked Robinson officials, but the Airport Area Chamber of Commerce believed Bayer employees could be hired by other companies in the area.
The company once touted its Robinson campus as its U.S. headquarters.
The administrative functions of Bayer’s U.S. operations are now being consolidated to best support the agriculture business, headquartered in St. Louis, and its healthcare business, which is based in Whippany, N.J., the company said.
Bayer announced in November a global workforce reduction of 12,000 jobs by 2021 in an effort to improve productivity and profitability. In 2017, Bayer employed 99,800 people worldwide.
Bayer’s other operations in Pennsylvania, including Bayer HealthCare sites in Indianola, O’Hara and Saxonburg, won’t be affected by the move, the company said.
Rumors of a move went around periodically, but the Robinson officials had no warning that the company was planning to make the cuts. Robinson Township Manager Frank L. Piccolino said the township’s first concern was for the families of affected employees. He said the Bayer positions were high-paying jobs.
“We’re shocked. We did not see this coming at all,” Piccolino said. “We feel bad for the families who worked there.”
It was too soon to project the financial impacts on the township of losing Bayer, Piccolino said.
Employees at the Robinson site performed administrative functions including information technology, human resources, accounting/finance and legal work to support Bayer’s U.S. divisions, the company said.
Airport Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Chris Heck said the announcement would be a tough pill for the airport corridor to swallow. Heck wasn’t blindsided by the announcement. It follows a trend of global companies consolidating their operations, and it comes after Bayer acquired agrochemical giant Monsanto last year.
Heck was confident that the growing business corridor would be able to offer jobs to the out-of-work Bayer employees.
“Those jobs can easily be absorbed by the companies that are out here,” Heck said.
The Monsanto acquisition doubled the size of Bayer’s business to more than $16 billion in sales, with a workforce of 20,000 at 300 locations in the U.S., the company said.
It was a partnership with Monsanto that first brought Bayer to Pittsburgh. In 1958, the companies formed Mobay, a joint venture that marketed polyurethanes in the U.S. Mobay, which originally had its headquarters in St. Louis before it relocated it to Pittsburgh, had a staff of 35 in the city and annual sales around $25 million, according to Bayer.
Before Bayer CEO Attila Molnar retired in 2008, he wrote that Pittsburgh was the “home and the hub of Bayer’s success in North America.”
“Pittsburgh also is a city that has provided our employees — the source of every Bayer achievement — with an incomparable sense of community,” Molnar wrote in 2008 in a look-back at Bayer’s 50-year history in Pittsburgh. “I am immensely proud of the inventive, dedicated people of Bayer — both past and present — whose talents have brought us to this moment in Pittsburgh, a city that has done so much to foster our company’s success.”
Molnar praised Pittsburgh’s work ethic, its universities and schools, its neighborhoods with affordable housing and its diverse recreational activities. He said Bayer has given Pittsburgh high-paying jobs that contributed millions to the local economy each year and stewardship programs to protect the environment. The company established the Bayer USA Foundation in Pittsburgh to direct grants and other donations locally and around the country.
The company will honor commitments to nonprofits and charities it supported locally through 2020, the company said.
“This is certainly a difficult decision given the impact it will have on our colleagues and their families, and the important role the site has played in our company’s history. We have an extremely talented workforce in Robinson and a proud and rich history. We thank our colleagues for their hard work and dedication over the years,” the company statement said.
The closing will take place in a “thoughtful, orderly manner” over the next two years.
Allegheny Conference on Community Development CEO Stephani Pashman said the Pittsburgh region owed a lot to Bayer.
“Bayer’s direct influence on our economy, as well as on our quality of life through its corporate social responsibility, spanned generations,” Pashman said. “Bayer helped to pin Pittsburgh on the global map.”
In spite of Bayer’s move, other companies are growing in the region, Pashman said, and the demand for the type of skilled workers employed by Bayer is high.
There were more than 19,000 clerical and administrative support positions, 25,000 finance positions and nearly 9,000 human resource positions that were posted in 2017-18 in the Pittsburgh region, according to the Allegheny Conference, which based its numbers off of data from Burning Glass Technologies, a company the specializes in labor market analysis.
Tom Davidson is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tom at 724-487-7208, tdavidson@tribweb.com or via Twitter @TribDavidson.
https://triblive.com/news/adminpage/14506552-74/bayer-to-close-site-in-robinson-by-2020-nearly-600-local-positions
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