Gordon McNeill, a shop supervisor at UTRS Advanced Manufacturing in Marlton, and coworker James Stanger, a project manager there, didn’t have to think hard about whether President Donald Trump’s tariffs were hurting the company.
“It’s probably been our worst year in about 10 years,” McNeill said.
But, what McNeill said next might surprise you.
“Right now, we can see it turning around,” he said. “I think it’s people getting used to the tariffs. Right now, they don’t want to spend the extra money. I think they’re a little scared about what’s going on.”
Stanger agreed.
“You can see it picking up right now,” he said. “The fourth quarter is looking really promising. You see the turn.”
Both McNeill and Stanger both said the biggest win came simply because the president is talking about the industry.
“Overall, this is a really good thing,” Stanger said.
They weren’t the only manufacturers at Made in New Jersey Manufacturing Day to feel that way. In fact, the handful of manufacturers we spoke with at the New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program event felt that way.
Miles Bodnar, a general manager at Trenton-based Tektite, said Trump’s tariffs are a step in the right direction.
Bodnar warned, however, that he felt they are just one step in a long journey.
“Over the long term, the tariffs can be a big plus to the U.S. manufacturing base,” he said. “But the time that it will take to get to that point is a question of financial support and manpower.
“You can’t simply just create jobs. You have to have people willing to do the work, and they have to be trained to do so. The number of people available for that has shrunk over the years, so finding qualified people to fill these manufacturing jobs will be difficult.”
Bodnar said it may take three years — about the time Trump has left in office — to see an impact.
“And it could take longer,” he said.
The impact of tariffs is felt in many ways.
Jeff Ratkowski, the chief financial officer at USA Warehousing, which has locations in Piscataway and Hillsborough, offered another bad-to-good scenario.
“In the wholesale distributor and liquid packaging, we’ve seen a negative impact from tariffs,” he said. “Companies that produce seed oils, glycerin, things of that nature that come from Malaysia and overseas, are shrinking capacity of what’s coming domestically to be packaged and forcing customers to look elsewhere, whether they’re buying in bulk rather than having it packaged in smaller quantities, or vice versa.”
The biggest issue is the inability to plan.
“The uncertainty of the cost has brought a 40-50% decrease in our volume on that side of our business,” he said.
Ratkowski, however, also is confident business will turn.
Why? He’s seen this show before, he said.
“What we had during the pandemic was very similar,” he said “You had constraints in getting things from overseas to here due to labor restrictions, but eventually people found another way.
“That’ll happen again, but, so far, everybody’s been very hesitant to go down that path yet again. So right now, it’s stagnant.”
