TAP TAP TAP — a great sound for U.S. manufacturing and free trade

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Andrew Ratner

By Jerry Jasinowski

We now have a once in a lifetime opportunity to secure a Transatlantic Partnership Agreement (TAP), a free trade agreement with the European Union, that has been a dream of U.S. manufacturers for as long as I can remember. Both the White House and Congress are supportive as is the EU itself. Even the AFL-CIO which generally opposes Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), says a pact with the EU “could” be beneficial.

My former colleagues at the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) are onto the FTA in a big way, and I wish them luck. On my watch we worked hard for some 20 free trade agreements (FTAs), including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and all of them have proven to be just as beneficial as we said they would be – even more so.

But the TAP would be the mother lode of all FTAs. The European Union is the one economy in the world, taken as a whole, which is larger than our own. We already do a lot of trade with the EU of course, but an FTA would open the floodgates for a lot more mutually beneficial trade. Continue reading →

Pulverbeschichteten Oberflächen — and why it matters to Marlin Steel

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Andrew Ratner

We’d made sure some of the German journalists who have visited Marlin Steel in recent months to take the pulse of American manufacturing had seen our press release this week about the new German version of our website. We made that addition because we sell material handling solutions to industrial users in Germany and to German-owned plants in America as well.

We got a kick out of the response from correspondent Timo Fuchs. He visited from ARD German Broadcasting, the second largest public broadcaster in the world after the BBC. He reported a piece here in December on the impact of the then-looming fiscal cliff on small business and manufacturing.

“Great,” he wrote us about our new site. “Now you can finally learn words like ‘pulverbeschichteten Oberflächen!’” Continue reading →

Guten Morgen! Marlin Steel adds German translation to its website to help build export trade

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Andrew Ratner

We issued a press release this morning about the recent translation of our Marlin Steel website into German to better serve our international market. We earlier added Spanish and Japanese versions accessible at marlinsteel.com

“We wanted to be able to better accommodate our German-speaking customers abroad and in the U.S.,” said Drew Greenblatt, president of Marlin Steel. “We regularly interact with industrial and automotive companies and suppliers in Germany as well as at American plants owned by German companies.” Continue reading →

Marlin Steel president to speak at manufacturing policy conference tomorrow

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Andrew Ratner

American manufacturing must pursue growing opportunities in international trade. That will be the message from Marlin Steel President Drew Greenblatt, who will speak tomorrow at the annual policy conference of the National Association for Advanced Manufacturing (NACFAM) in Arlington, Virginia.

As he described in an article last month for Inc. magazine, there are several reasons why small to midsize manufacturers in the U.S. should sell overseas even though it might seem out of their comfort zone:

“Made in the USA” remains a coveted brand worldwide.
About 95 percent of the world’s clients live outside the U.S.
The Export-Import Bank of the United States guarantees receivables for a small insurance premium. The program can lessen anxiety about wading into exports.
The Gold Key Matching Service, offered by the U.S. Commercial Service of the Department of Commerce, provides a driver (which you’ll need in places where you can’t read the street signs), a translator and will pre-qualify prospective companies to meet with overseas. The service covers about 70 nations that constitute most export markets for American business.

Marlin Steel exports custom-engineered material handling containers made from sheet metal and steel wire to 36 countries. The company was ranked the 162nd fastest growing private manufacturer in the U.S. by Inc. magazine.

The theme for tomorrow’s conference is “What Must be Done to Revitalize and Sustain U.S. Manufacturing?”

5 good reasons for small and midsize businesses to export

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Andrew Ratner

From Drew Greenblatt’s latest column in Inc. magazine on why small to midsize U.S. businesses should export more:

Small to mid-sized business are often intimidated about the export market. It’s easier, after all, to sell to Denver than to Denmark, to Philly rather than to the Philippines. Customs, language translation, currency exchange, and uneven protection for intellectual property lead many businesses to ask, “Why bother?” Here are five reasons exporting is an opportunity you should pursue. Read more …

Marlin Steel exports stainless steel products to Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Columbia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Guinea, Hungary, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Saint Thomas, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Tiawan, United Kingdom and Uruguay.

How IP theft undercuts U.S. manufacturing

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Andrew Ratner

From the National Alliance for Jobs and Innovation (NAJI) and the movement to fight unfair competition:

Manufacturers rely on advanced IT solutions to develop innovative designs

: Marlin Steel invests in software technology that is regularly stolen in emerging markets

Marlin Steel relies on software to enable the design and execution of manufacturing steel wire and sheet metal material handling containers

: IP theft provides an unfair and often overlooked cost advantage for manufacturers in emerging markets.

State and federal support is needed to crack down on IP theft to help grow jobs and the economy.

Fond farewell to U.S. Trade Ambassador Ron Kirk

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Andrew Ratner

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk visiting Marlin Steel and CEO Drew Greenblatt, 2010 (Photo by Steve Ruark)

We wish him well but we’re sad to see Ron Kirk go. He’s leaving his post as President Obama’s trade representative.after having led U.S. negotiations to complete bilateral free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama. (He also recently played a very prolific round of golf with the President, Tiger Woods and Jim Crane, owner of the Houston Astros, but for us, the trade agreements were the big driver.)

Ambassador Kirk, a former mayor of Dallas, toured Marlin Steel two years ago. We were gratified by his words of praise for our export business at an event last year at the Third Way think tank. But his most tangible impact at Marlin Steel were those trade agreements. Continue reading →

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