Element Electronics, a TV maker based in South Carolina, US, has announced it will lay off the majority of its staff and close its Winnsboro plant, due to the ongoing US trade war with China and the impact it has had on the company’s ability to source vital components.
The company will operate on a skeleton staff of eight people while it negotiates the removal of these components from the list of goods subject to the US administration’s newly introduced tariffs. A company spokesperson said in a Twitter post that it hopes to avoid permanent closure and reopen the plant in three to six months, following successful negotiations.
Element isn’t the first casualty of the trade war between the US and China. Earlier this month, ZTE estimated it will record net losses of over a billion dollars in the first half of 2018.
Analyst Comment
Element was one of the few remaining facilities still making TVs in the US. We suspect this was the ‘last straw’ as it must be incredibly difficult to sustain a business with manufacture in the US. (BR)
