Welcome to the jobless economic “recovery.” We’re glad to have you. There is conflicting data regarding the supposed economic recovery. Regardless of where we are at, it appears that many people just don’t see new jobs being created. They are partially right.
So, with all this focus on job creation, last week’s BusinessWeek cover story was titled “How to Make an American Job.” One of the companies highlighted in the article? Dow Kokam, a join venture between Dow Chemical and another U.S. partner that appears to be licensing Korean technology for lithium ion batteries.
As the U.S. economy unraveled in October 2008, Andrew Liveris, chief executive officer of Dow Chemical (DOW), asked his director of business development, Ravi Shanker, how they could create jobs near Dow’s Midland (Mich.) headquarters, 130 miles northwest of Detroit. Shanker suggested that Dow make lithium ion batteries, the key component of electric-car engines. The Li-ion industry is expected to grow from $200 million to more than $25 billion by 2015, according to Needham & Co. In 2008, Asian companies had 98 percent of the market.
On June 21, Liveris broke ground on an 800,000-square-foot plant in Midland that will employ 800 people making 60,000 Li-ion batteries a year. It’s owned by Dow Kokam, a joint venture created in 2009 with a U.S. partner that licenses technology from South Korean battery maker Kokam. Liveris is hoping Michigan’s skilled workforce will be able to help it win business from companies such as Honda (HMC), Ford (F), and Tesla Motors (TSLA), the electric-car maker that went public on June 28.
Apparently, VP Joe Biden was present for the plant’s groundbreaking ceremony.
Not to be undone by the VP, it seems as if President Obama will be attending the groundbreaking ceremonies for another battery manufacturer in Michigan, this time LG Chem’s plant in Holland, Michigan. Interesting Detroit Free Press article on the matter here. It’s garnered almost 240 comments. Here’s a little local Michigan commentary that has a few interesting points also.
{ 48 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post. WK! One of the challenges facing American declinists is how to explain why so many foreign companies do so well when they set up shop in the U.S. There’s a strange, self-described libertarian element that likes to blame the decline of American manufacturing solely on unions. That may be one factor. But it may also be that a good number of foreign managers (often former engineer types) are also better at actually managing than their MBA-addled American counterparts.
Anyway, the more manufacturing FDI into the States, the better. I always preferred LG to Samsung anyway!
DLB
i’m glad to see the creation of jobs at a time when so many working class americans are looking for work.
I worked through four pages of the comment thread and couldn’t find a single one addressing the topic. Michiganians were too busy arguing with each other over Obama to care about new factories providing jobs in a state where people have long joked, “Last one out of Michigan, turn out the lights.”
After having gone through this thread, is it any surprise that people somehow have a hard time staying on topic on the Interwebz?
@3 the correct term is Michigander, and not Michiganian.
Parts companies have been trying to vie to make batteries for a while actually. There is another company around Detroit called “Energy Conversion,” devices that tried to make battery technology for the new Chevy Volt, but I think that LG chemical actually got the contract for that. They also build thin film solar panels, and helped to supply a few things for the solar power plant over in Jeollado. (I think I read that somewhere but I could be wrong.)
More stuff has been going on on the West side of the state, though in the biomedical sector with Pfizer and Stryker. Also there have been a lot of movies that have been filmed in Michigan due to tax breaks that the government has given to movie producers.
Having lived in the great Wolverine State for the majority of my life, I can attest to the fact that both demonyms are correct. Michigan does not have an official term to describe its residents. Also, great to see the Free Press getting a shout out on the Hole.
America should stop buying Chinese made goods and that will help win back all these lost jobs to China.
That’s a good idea KS, that Americans should “buy American,” unfortunately most stuff is made in China these days. On the other hand American retailers are starting to find that in some cases, after the cost of shipping, many goods are cheaper to produce in the U.S. Personally, even living in Korea, I like to try to buy American made clothing just to help out. (Well, most of the time I try to buy Korean, or just not Chinese with clothes, but on some rare occasions you can find American made clothes.)
I’m a Michigander, but I’d be careful calling Sonagi that or —-goose. Let’s leave it at Michiganian. “Gary Owen”!
If Korea will just let in more US cars into their market, just as America has done, that will create more jobs. Americans should stop buying korean cars.
In all honesty, I’m a Michigander too, but I have always somewhat hated the term. I suppose, being from the wolverine state is a pretty cool description. Personally my favorite description of where I’m from is in one of the contested meanings of the name of my home town, Kalamazoo, and that is: “the area where animals wounded by Indians crawl to die.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_Kalamazoo
As I was reading the comments posted on the businesweek.com site, the only one I could find that hit the nail on the head was this one:
Every other comment posted on the businessweek.com site, without exception, suggested either one of the following: 1) The commenter didn’t read the article in question; 2) The commenter “read” the article in question, but their comprehension level was so low they couldn’t intelligently comment on it; 3) The commenter only partially read the article, grew impatient and/or frustrated, and decided to vent their frustration thusly; 4) The commenter not only didn’t understand the article, but didn’t understand any of the general issues at hand, and therefore made comments that had nothing to do with anything except their own imagination.
That said, with our educational system churning out folks like these who can’t even read — let alone comment on a simple article that affects the future of everyone in this country — truly suggests that Americans are better off making potato chips than microchips.
I can totally see tk creating some 50 or more different user IDs so he could personally ensure that I consistently received -39/40 ratings for each of my comments. Come out from the darkness you little draft-dodging Korean coward and act like a man instead of chicken@!
America should stop buying Japanese cars too considering they dominates American car market. I want to see 1970s America again.
Hyundai plant in Alabama. KIA plant in Georgia, Samsung plant in Texas, now LG Chemical plant in Michigan. Look at all the Korean jobs being exported to cheap labor America. Americans should wake up and smell the coffee, and stop being so arrogant. They’re becoming the cheap labor country taking away jobs, rather then the other way around.
America has a great future as the Ireland of Asia
I’m genuinely confused, gyopo-man. How did I hurt your feelings this time?
and I’m one of the first of the Mic’s over here.
@15
There was a daily show sketch that kind of illustrated your point. There was a “Nerf,” manufacturing factory that closed in China and went up in America.
When the interviewer asked a Chinese trade specialist what he thought about that, the Chinese guy said that China would rather take the high tech jobs from Americans, and that low cost manufacturing jobs aren’t that important to the Chinese.
That said, I’m sure that you would find that getting job at the Samsung, L.G. Chem plant, or even the Hyundai plant, would be extremely difficult if you aren’t an engineer, or don’t have any prior warehouse of factory experience. Besides the article mentioned Michigan’s “skilled workforce,” which means that folks would probably get screaned by a temp agency, and the temp agency probably wouldn’t even take anyone who doesn’t have some kind of certification like a forklift drivers licence or something like that.
TK,
I’m sure you often day dreamed of humping the hills along the DMZ with a full ruck sack and being hazed by your ROK staff sergeant during your Korean junior high school days. However, since you left Korea while you were still a minor, I fail to see how the moniker “draft dodger” would fit you.
cmm,
You’re an American? For some strange reason I thought you’d be from another English speaking country (not India or the Philippines either).
WK-
Yessir, born and bred. A product of the Midwest. You should have picked up on this in the last month by my many poignant “soccer sucks” posts
Interesting to me that I come off, at least to you, as otherwise.
Yeah… I can see a bit of Minnesota nice in you. I originally thought you were Canadian. Why? You didn’t seem too interested in U.S. domestic politics.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=minnesota+nice
C’mon wk936, where have you been? As tk’s name is invariably still registered on his family’s 호적/family registry, he’s still eligible and legally liable for his 24 mos. of 군대/military service that he still owes the motherland until the age of 35 — despite the fact that he may be a bonafide U.S. citizen at the moment, which brings up the question, why did his parents wait so long to emigrate?
You and I know that it’s somewhat rare for Korean families to emigrate to the U.S. after their kids have started middle school in Korea — as tk apparently did. But if they do emigrate at such a late stage, it’s usually b/c the family is either in deep kimchi debt and running away from 건달/조폭 moneylenders, or they’re simply trying to avoid the military from getting their hands on their precious pooch. (As we both know, your typical 1.5 generation KA usually emigrated with their parents before they finish Korean grade school or even before starting kindergarten, and most 1.0 generation KAs emigrate after having completed their military service and college, so tk is definitely a weird sort of animal — who as he himself admitted — functioned for all intents and purposes as an autistic during the first couple years of his adolescence — and currently, imo, behaves as an annoying high-functioning Asperger’s Syndrome adult.
It’s either that, or he’s more like an obstinate and immature yuhaksaeng who never fully matured into a respectable Korean adult, mostly b/c he never did his 군대 and missed out on other important socializing influences of Korean society like going through exam hell in high school and getting into a Korean university, as he was apparently too busy messing around with English flashcards, listening to Hooked on Phonics™ a 100x per day while watching endless episodes of “Sesame Street” and “The Electric Co.” as a teenager, when he should’ve been outside participating in typical high school summer activities like playing sports, going to camp, going to the beach, socializing with other kids, getting in trouble with the cops, raising hell, etc.
Having said that, I kinda pity tk b/c while you and I are free to go back forth between the motherland for business or pleasure with nary a concern, tk won’t be able to go back as a tourist, or even apply for an F-4 until after his 35th birthday — i.e., unless he has a change of heart, mans up and decides to turn himself in at 병무청/MMA before his 35th birthday for induction. C’mon tk — I know you can do it — Nonsan is not a bad place at all, from what I’ve heard, and who knows, the army just might make a man out of you, ya’ lil’ yellow-bellied coward.
cmm,
Sorry, but this is probably a better description and more akin to what I mean:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_nice
8675309 (who got totally schooled on that thread earlier this week) and TK. You two measure your cocks outside, or maybe over to AAK this minute! Or better yet, TK, just ignore his dumb bait.
haha no worries cmm, I was planning to.
WK, that is probably not too far off, though Minnesota is a bit far off from Indiana. Re the Indiana thing–I grew up in the North, not the South. Since you probably don’t know the difference, let me clarify:
North – Plains. Lakes. People speak neutral American English. Think Michigan.
South – Hilly. Former headquarters of the Klan. Hillbillies. Yee-haw. Think Kentucky.
Sorry, tk — you don’t get off that easy. For those who may not know, contrary to popular belief, even the sons of the rich and the politically connected in Korea still must do their mandatory military service, i.e., unless they have some disqualifying handicap like being legally blind, paraplegic, mentally retarded, autistic, Asperger’s Syndrome, etc.
Probably tk could’ve gotten off for being autistic or having Asperger’s, but then again, he deserves to answer for himself why he’s chosen to avoid his duty. (For Korean-born males over the age of 20, one’s military service or lack thereof is huge sticking point, both legally, socially and from a point of personal pride. One either takes pride in having done their duty, or one has to admit they hid behind their mother’s skirts to avoid it.) So c’mon tk, you’ve been challenged numerous times to absolve yourself of being a draft dodger — why not just come clean now and tell us why you are either justified, or if you simply are not? (Cmm won’t be able to help you out on this one.)
Northern IN huh? I had a cousin who went to Purdue. Is West Lafayette still considered northern IN? I thought about going to Krannert for the MBA… they have an 11 month program which I thought was interesting.
West Lafayette is def in the North.
Note that my descriptions of the halves are rules of thumb.
Yeah Krannert is a decent program I recall, usually ranked around 20th back when I paid attention to that stuff. But if you go to Indiana for an MBA, f Purdue with a quickness. Get your ass down to Bloomington to IU. The girls are 10 times hawter, the campus is gorgeous, and the Kelley (sp?) Business school is usually ranked right with Krannert.
Here’s some more Indiana knowledge for yous. The state specialized the two biggest state schools:
Purdue – science, engineering, vet-med (more technical related), nerds
IU – law, medicine, music, other liberal arts, girls
I went to neither, but spent a lot of time at IU for good reasons.
All those blonde, corn-fed farmer’s daughters, huh?
Looks like Ford will ditch Sanyo’s nickel cadmium batteries for LG’s lithium batteries.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i-bdwnL4nSaQlhnFZYxAIwa765uwD9GUBGL80
Post pics, and I’ll judge. Yuna, Gillian, and any other MH ladies can join me on a panel.
Can’t vouch for the girls or the academics, but concur that the campus is lovely like the hilly, forested surrounding area. If one were exiled to Indiana, the Bloomington area would be a bearable location to serve out one’s sentence.
Below the bridge, people speak neutral American English. In the UP, inbred descendants of Finns speak some weird dialect with vowels that sound suspiciously Canadian.
Yes, and I used to hold a theory that all the competition to be hottest bitch created a kind of synergy, where all the girls tried a little harder to outdo the next, and on and on. I think that was probably right.
Indeed. Had they had an engineering program, I had decided that I would have chosen there for grad school even if the program was ranked 183rd in the nation.
I had a friend who went to Carnegie Mellon, a math, science and engineering heavy school. There was a shitty man/woman ratio at that school as you can surely imagine. Even the ugly girls had a chip on their shoulder. When it comes to hot coeds, there is no such thing as an embarrassment of riches…
My buddy from CM showed me a picture of his former gf at said school and proclaimed she was “the hottest” girl there. Upon looking at the picture, I thought she was a USC “6″ (out of 10)… at the most.
I went to undergrad in a similar environment. It was depressing. So-so girls quickly got a goddess complex (kinda like female analog to the Charisma-man phenomenon for foreign men in Asia?). I went out of my way to ignore them. By “went out of my way” I mean “visited IU.”
I’m afraid I have a court order against that.
Engineering school jokes. Wasn’t Cindy Crawford a freshman in the College of Engineering at Iowa before she got her first big modeling break?
Iowa or somewhere, yeah. Chemical engineering if I recall. There’s always an exception or two.
As a born and raised Michiganian, as yes I use that term instead of Michigander, I have to implore you all to realize our “unique” situation. We are a proud peninsula divided and have had long oppression from Hoosiers to the south of us. Also cyborg policemen roam the streets of are largest city, which also happens to look like Pyongyang at night since Detroit it is virtually deserted by now. Please realize our difficult situation. Thank you.
that should have read “our” largest city.
Acropolis7,
Baaaah… you guys never got invaded by Mongol hordes from the north or Japanese Samurai from the south. Just Japanese cars made in Ohio and Kentucky and German Teutonic hordes made in Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee.
More manufacturing jobs from Korea to the US, this time LG Housis in Georgia. Korean Housis workers get 70 million won plus bonuses, Georgia workers get paid 40 million won. How can Korea compete with cheap labor?
http://biz.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/07/13/2010071301902.html?Dep1=news&Dep2=headline2&Dep3=h2_01
cm,
Reporter 김현진 is kinda cute.
@Acropolis:
Whenever I need to get my Michi-han on, I pop Roger and Me into the DVD player.
^ so full of WIN.
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