EAST LONGMEADOW, Mass. (Reuters) - The U.S.-China trade war is creating something William Gagnon once thought impossible - a 100% American-made bathroom hand dryer.
Gagnon’s family-owned company, Excel Dryer Inc, sells about $40 million worth of dryers a year that mostly go into public bathrooms, including at airports and casinos as well as at Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O) and Walmart Inc (WMT.N) stores across the United States.
The Western Massachusetts company uses parts made in the United States at its 50-employee factory, except for the motors and electronic controllers at their core. They long sought a domestic supplier for those items, but nobody could beat China’s low prices. Until now.
One challenge for manufacturers who want to produce Made in USA products is that their supply chains, especially for things like electronics and motors, have migrated overseas in search of cheaper alternatives - something the Trump administration vowed to address with tariffs.
But pulling supply chains back to the United States is proving hard to do. Many U.S. factories, including the Apple Inc (AAPL.O) plant in Texas that President Donald Trump recently toured, have instead scrambled to obtain tariff exemptions for key imported parts. Other producers are simply shifting to buying key parts from other low-cost producers in Asia, sidestepping the tariffs.
Excel’s new motors are a rare example of a tariff success.
Within a few months, Excel will roll out its first all-American dryers, said Gagnon, with motors and controllers built by a company in Tennessee.
“We’d actually be willing to pay a little more for U.S.-made,” but due to the tariffs
