Montpelier brass-rod maker ever mindful of global trade

03.09.2008 12:02 Shopping - Source: toledoblade.com

But at Chase Brass and Copper Co., one of the largest employers in this Williams County community, the faucets themselves demonstrate what trade issues can do to American manufacturing jobs.

"We still have the faucets being produced with copper and brass, but what you have seen is the number of domestic suppliers have shifted [production] over to China," said Devin Denner, president of Chase Brass.

"If you go into a Home Depot or a Lowes and you look at the plumbing fixtures, you'll see how these distribution channels are now being supplied from overseas."

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) visited Chase yesterday afternoon and spoke with about two dozen workers about trade issues and how they affect their jobs. He urged the presidential contenders to talk more about trade issues.

Mr. Denner said China's reluctance to allow its currency's value to float freely against the dollar has given the Asian nation an unfair advantage on the world market. That advantage can mean the loss of American jobs as customers who use Chase products move production of their products - like faucets - overseas.

"A decade ago, there were 1.1 billion pounds of brass rod consumed in the United States. This year, it's projected to be about 600 million pounds," Mr. Denner said.

Although Mr. Denner refused to disclose the factory's output or how it had been affected by overseas competition, the president of the union representing workers at Chase said that, for the first time in decades, his members are watching international events closely.

"We went through the 1980s and the 1990s and the recessions we had, and we never really felt it here," said Michael A. Harrington, president of United Steel Workers Local 7248, which has about 200 members at the Chase plant.

"But for the last decade, we've really felt it."

Mr. Harrington said Chase has had difficulty securing consistent supplies of scrap brass and copper in recent years, products that are important to the company's production of brass rods. The union and management at the plant have a close relationship, he said, but the marketplace in which the facility competes has been brutal.

"It's been a never-ending battle," Mr. Harrington said.

The Chase plant was built in Montpelier in 1965 and underwent a major renovation about a decade ago. Its rural site just south of the Ohio Turnpike and 15 miles east of the Indiana border was selected because it was geographically centered for its customer base at the time, Mr. Denner said.

Over the years, Chase Brass has had a variety of owners, including some large petroleum and chemical companies, but was sold in November to a private equity firm, KPS Capital Partners.

The Montpelier facility is among the most technologically advanced and efficient brass plants in the world, the company leader said, but has problems competing against Chinese brass facilities that are subsidized by that country's central government.

The added competition of overseas suppliers and migration of manufacturing to low-labor-cost countries has rattled this specialized industry, which mostly supplies manufacturers of plumbing and industrial fittings, as well as the automotive industry.

"At one time, there were four major players in the brass and copper rod industry, and now there are two," Mr. Denner said. "But we're still standing, which is a good thing."

Contact Larry P. Vellequette at:
lvellequette@theblade.com
or 419-724-6091.

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