Marlin Steel President Drew Greenblatt preparing to testify before House Energy and Commerce subcommittees on impact of natural gas boom on manufacturingDrew Greenblatt, president of Marlin Steel Wire Products and an executive board member of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), testified today in Washington before members of the Energy and Commerce Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives about the competitive edge that increased domestic natural gas supplies has generated for U.S. manufacturing.
“Lower energy prices have made many of our U.S.-based customers more competitive in the global economy,” he told members of the Subcommittee on Energy and Power and the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade in a joint hearing titled “U.S. Energy Abundance: Manufacturing Competitiveness and America’s Energy Advantage.”
“Manufacturers across the country are expanding production and winning contracts that even a few years ago they had little chance of competing for as foreign companies were producing goods at lower costs. Now, it is U.S. manufacturers who find themselves able to produce more for less, and it is our competitors who are scrambling to keep up,” said Greenblatt, who was also speaking as a board member of the nation’s largest manufacturing trade association. NAM represents 12,000 member companies that employ 12 million people in every industrial sector and state.
“The energy boost is contributing to our own purchases of steel from Indiana and Pennsylvania; to our need to add overtime for our workers in Baltimore, and our ability to invest in automation from robot makers in Illinois and Connecticut to bend wire and cut and shape sheet metal,” Greenblatt said.
He cited projections from the research firm IHS CERA that production of unconventional oil and natural gas resources will generate $5 trillion in new capital investment and support 3.5 million jobs by 2035.
Chairman: Um our next witness is Mr Drew Greenblatt who's the president of marlin steel wire products and we appreciate you being with us and you'll recognize for five minutes.
Drew Greenblatt: Thank you the good morning the USA's hit the lottery this energy blessing will create a lot of jobs this is not controversial this should be a unifying thing for our country to get behind. My name is Drew Greenblatt I'm the president of marlin steel we're based in Baltimore Maryland Marlon steel is a leading manufacturer of custom-made wire baskets wire forms and precision sheet metal Fabrications we make 100 percent in the USA in Baltimore city where fast growing company we've grown seven years in a row despite the recession matter of fact we are number 162 of all manufacturers according to Inc magazine we used entirely recycled Steel and we export and this is pretty cool to China. We make it all in Baltimore we use steel made in Illinois made in Pennsylvania and the thing I'm most proud about is that we've gone 1650 days without a safety incident 20% of my employees are mechanical engineers and we succeed through Innovation investment we have a wonderful team. I'm representing today the National Association of Manufacturers one in six private sector jobs are in manufacturing these are great jobs seventy seven thousand dollars a year on average including benefits and this is much better than most than the average American employee makes. I bought Marlon Steel in 1998 we had eight hundred thousand dollars in sales and 18 workers last year was our most successful year ever we had five over five million in sales and now we employ over 29 people. One of the primary reasons for this growth is because of domestic energy production and these lower energy prices there's been a lot of talk about economic growth out in the Shell boom in North Dakota Ohio Pennsylvania Texas but this is starting to impact and trickle down to places that are not generating oil and and uh petroleum places like mine. Manufacturers across the country are benefiting from these lower energy prices and this increased industrial activity we fulfill many orders that ship to the gas industry. How has the boom helped us specifically? Two ways: Lower costs: We are paying less money for the energy to heat the factory for example we're paying less money for uh powder coating so we're more competitive when we compete head-to-head against China when we compete head-to-head against Japan and Germany and Canada. Increased our Revenue: Higher Revenue higher Revenue means more jobs we're selling Material Handling solutions from steel wire baskets and Sheet Metal Products to Schlumberger Halliburton timkin caterpillar these uh this is what's propelled our growth. We're also aware of recently President Obama visited one of our colleagues a mile away Ellicott dredges they are doing great because of the boom as well they're making dredges for the Canadian oil sands think about it there's a new steel pipe plant being built in Youngstown Ohio when was the last time a steel mill has been built in Youngstown Ohio something is going on and it's great and we should be embracing this. For us what happens is we hire unemployed local Steel Workers we buy more robots one of our robot makers is in Chicago a second one is in Connecticut we buy our steel from Illinois from Indiana we buy our steel from Pennsylvania so it's it's we're all in it together and we're all growing together because of this wonderful Fortune our nation is blessed with. In conclusion abundant low-cost energy is changing the landscape of the global Marketplace it's well positioning us U.S manufacturers for years to come we're increasing production we're expanding our employees we're hiring more people and these workers are buying things and this is having a positive ripple effect throughout the economy with continued production and the right policies in place U.S manufacturers will continue to be the drivers of economic growth and prosperity thank you.
Chairman: Thank you very much Mr Greenblatt and our final
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