Frankfurt-based forklift company Kion Group reportedly plans to expand its manufacturing in the United States to avoid tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on imports from China, where Kion operates two factories.
Kion sells more than a billion dollars' worth of products and services a year in North America, including about 3,000 forklifts in the United States, half of them imported from China.
“It is worth exploring ways to expand our production in the U.S. to avoid tariffs,” she said.
The tariffs cost the company a few million last year and that amount is expected to grow in 2019, Groth said.
Like many Western companies, Kion has robustly invested in China while trying to overcome the barriers the country’s communist regime imposes on those trying to enter its market.
Irked by China’s skewing the market to its advantage, Trump imposed the $50 billion tariffs by August and 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion more in September.
Kion has been operating a production plant in Summerville, South Carolina, since 1985. Formerly called Linde, the company still sells forklifts under that brand in addition to the Still-branded forklifts, trucks, and tractors as well as budget forklifts under the Chinese brand, Baoli, which Kion acquired in 2009.
Kion employs some 3,000 people in the United States, not just in Summerville, but also in Grand Rapids and Holland, Michigan; Monterey, California; and Salt Lake City.