Cheap Natural Gas Won't Revive US Manufacturing

choi

Nelson D Schwartz, Manufacturing’s Mirage. New York Times, Apr 2, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/0 ... main-just-that.html

Quote:

"But glass industry veterans say cheaper natural gas, which is used to melt sand into glass [in its energy-intensive factories] and is critical to the manufacturing process, isn’t a game changer in terms of jobs, however beneficial the cost savings are. Pressure from inexpensive imports remains intense, and labor in Mexico and China is still cheaper than in the United States.

"The production lines run 24 hours a day, seven days a week at PPG’s plants, including one in Carlisle, Pa, that makes flat glass. It’s among the plants benefiting from a rebound in housing. 'Because it is automated, we won’t have to add a lot of employees with the upturn in the construction industry,' Mr Beuke said. 'You don’t touch a piece of glass in our factories.'

Note:
(a) Now headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, Libbey Inc was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1918 by William L Libbey.
http://corporate.libbey.com/History
(b) Shreveport, Louisiana
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shreveport,_Louisiana
(section 1.1 Early settlers)