Another One Bites the Dust
Recent upgrades didn't mean they'd stay
Explaining a cartoon is a poor practice, but if you are not in the Buffalo-Niagara metro region, a little background will help.
Sumitomo is the sixth-largest tire manufacturer in the world. It owns the Dunlop factory in Tonawanda, New York, the only US facility that manufactures motorcycle tires.
Just a few years ago, the plant received $140 million in upgrades. Workers, their families, local suppliers, and nearby bars and restaurants expressed optimism.
On November 7, Sumitomo abruptly closed the gates and announced that the plant was no longer viable. Over 1500 jobs are gone.
Is “domo arigato” appropriate at this time?
.
Who provided the $140 million? What happened to the jack? Did Uncle Billy lose it? (Not such a Wonderful Life.)
It MIGHT make sense for motorcycle owners to have replacement tires handy with pre-purchases now. If the tires being imported wind up with tariffs on them then their prices will soar. Ultimately, it is ALWAYS the purchaser who gets caught with higher prices from tariffs. I guess that, among myriad other things, the choice of whether to pre-purchase will depend on whether a given consumer thinks those will wind up included in a tariff list. It is a gamble. It does not make sense to impose a tariff on motorcycle tires now, since the usual use of tariffs is to raise import prices enough that existing U.S. products are bought instead. But last time some things without U.S. equivalents, like specialty steels, wound up on the tariffs lists so until removed from the list those just raised prices and stopped some downstream jobs instead of helping U.S. manufacturing.