Hope everyone had a great holiday and a successful year in 2007.
I was reviewing the Department of Commerce figures for electric motors. Hey, its just something I do.
A few years ago when I was hired to help a young high tech motor company in Denver understand the marketplace, we started with the Department of Commerce data for electric motors and generators. We studied the data and went into an interesting exercise in analyzing the market. At that time the US produced approximately $12B in electric motors. That includes all the industrial and high tech stuff, as well as starter motors on cars, alternators, generators and fractional horsepower fans you find around the house. Big numbers, lots of parts.
I recently had occasion to get the latest census data for the year ending 2006. The same market segments, but the US only made about $7B in electric motors. Not a good thing for America. Less jobs, less steel, copper, insulation, motor housings.
We still buy a lot of products that use electric motors, so we must be getting them from other countries. And if the electric motor is the #1 energy consuming device in the United States, we had better be looking at where and how well those motors are made. How efficient are they, how long will they last, who makes the profit on selling them here.
The business side of the problem gets to be two-fold; do the multi-national companies that were created by the American enterprise system have any responsibilities to the country they originated in? and are there any companies out there with technology and processes that will permit new motor companies to emerge? I say yes to both.
Let’s make 2008 a great year for the electric motor industry.
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