The layoffs of 80 workers last month at
Chromalloy Nevada in Carson City provide a
snapshot of the challenges facing the manufacturing
sector in northern Nevada, says Ray
Bacon of the Nevada Manufacturers
Association.
Chromalloy, a specialist in high-temperature
coating of jet aircraft engine components,
draws much of its business from airlines.
But as airlines face rising costs and
tighter costs, they are more likely to mothball
older aircraft precisely the planes that
Chromalloy helped to maintain in the past.
The story, Bacon says, is repeated from
one industry to the next across the manufacturing
sector.
Makers of building materials are
crunched by the dramatic
slowdown in the
construction industry.
Makers of gaming
equipment suffer as consumers
spend less
money in casinos. The
multitude of northern
Nevada companies that
make after-market gear
for cars and trucks suffer
with the automotive
industry.
"Basically, almost no
one is hiring," says
Bacon.
The health of the
manufacturing sector
plays an important role
in the northern Nevada
economy especially
in the Carson City area, where manufacturing
accounts for more than 9.5 percent of the
total jobs. In Reno, by comparison, the 14,800
people who worked in manufacturing jobs in
October accounted for about 6.7 of the total
workforce.
Manufacturing employment in northern
Nevada was essentially flat in the past year,
but that counts as a victory in comparison
with other states, says Tom Dubin, president
of Manufacturers Directory, a national publication
that tracks trends in the sector.
Other states, Dubin says, have been posting
losses in manufacturing throughout most
of this decade while Nevada has recorded
gains or held steady.
Statewide,Manufacturers Directory says
2,020 manufacturers call Nevada home.
Many of those companies have faced stiff
competition from offshore rivals most
notably, Chinese manufacturers
for
much of this decade.
They might be getting
a break in coming
months, says Bacon.
He notes that the
slowing world economy
has claimed more
than 3,000 Chinese
manufacturing companies
since the middle
of 2008.
A smaller number
of Chinese competitors
coupled with a
strengthening U.S. dollar
and a steady hum
of safety concerns
about Chinese-made
products could combine
to create good news for Nevada manufacturers.
One of the companies that keep close tabs
on manufacturing developments in China is
Veterinary Ventures Inc., a Reno company
that markets drinking fountains for pets as
well as other pet accessories.
The company has been booming sales
growth has been running about 50 percent a
year and President Sean Rowe says the
company has kept a steady stream of orders
headed to Chinese factories.
While he's happy with his suppliers, Rowe
also worries a bit about the direction of the
U.S. dollar a strengthening dollar makes
imports into this country more expensive
as well as the political relationship between
the United States and China.
The manufacturing sector especially
high-wage advanced manufacturing is
among the targets of economic development
organizations in northern Nevada.
Those companies account for about 8 percent
of the companies that are seriously looking
at locations in the Reno-Sparks area, says
Tina Iftiger, director of business development
for the Economic Development Authority of
Western Nevada.
Those possible new manufacturers
include firms in aviation, fabrication and
electrical components, she says.
Also scouting the area are manufacturers
of solar panels and other green-energy equipment,
Iftiger says.
In Carson City and the counties that surround
the capital region,manufacturing
companies are actively looking for locations,
says Ron Weisinger, executive director of the
Northern Nevada Development Authority.
Among the factors that draw manufacturers
to the region, he says, is affordable and
available land.
Nevada Business Connections, a nonprofit
group that works to attract jobs to the Carson
City area, says manufacturers accounted for
seven of the 12 new and expanding companies
with which it worked in the last six
months. Those companies range from makers of
skis and sails to a manufacturer of mining
equipment, says Kris Holt, executive director
of the group.
