Archinect - News

Design & the trade war: American architecture firms on the challenges of doing business in China

2019-07-10T08:30:00-04:00

Trade often gets shorthanded to its most tangible form, the flow of goods from one country to another. But the exchange of services is also part of the equation, with building design offering a high-demand example in China amid an extended economic boom there.

Dallas News correspondent Tom Benning highlights the business setbacks two major U.S.-based architecture firms — HKS and CallisonRTKL — experienced while operating in China: from breach of contract, to intellectually property theft, all the way to corporate imposture, these all-too-common challenges are also part of the ongoing trade tensions between the United States and China, which, as HKS chairman emeritus Ralph Hawkins calls it, "such a growing economy, I don't think any firm can ignore it."

Construction equipment manufacturers 'extremely disappointed' with Trump's tariffs

2018-06-18T14:33:00-04:00

The American Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) has criticised the Trump Administration over the introduction of 25% tariffs on $50bn of Chinese imports. Chinese goods affected include types of construction and agricultural equipment. [...] Since Trump’s trade announcement on Friday, China has said it will impose a similar 25% tariff, also worth $50bn.

"We’re extremely disappointed with the Trump administration’s decision to move forward with these harmful tariffs," said Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) President Dennis Slater in a statement last Friday. "This move jeopardizes many of the 1.3 million good-paying manufacturing jobs our industry supports. The expected retaliatory actions by China also raise costs for equipment manufacturers that rely on a vast supply chain around the world, further eroding the benefits of the recent tax reform. We will continue to fight to end these tariffs immediately."

The latest round of tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on a variety of goods imported from China comes on the heels of steel and aluminum tariffs that went into effect on March 23, 2018.

Need an explainer on how the 25% steel tariff could affect the construction cost of your architectural project? Nick Butcher, Cost/Risk Group Managing Director at MGAC, put it into context for us.

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The Steel Tariff and Construction Cost: Putting It Into Context

2018-04-06T19:28:00-04:00

On March 8, 2018, President Trump signed an order to place a 25% and 10% tariff on steel and aluminum imports, respectively, effective March 23, 2018. The new tariff granted a temporary exemption to certain countries including Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, South Korea, and the European Union until May 1, 2018, as discussions continue.

Now that the steel tariffs are in place, the question everyone is asking is “What does this mean to the cost of my construction project?” While this is a straightforward question, the answer may not be as simple.

US Steel Import Volume

The United States is the world’s largest importer of steel, importing approximately 35 million metric tons in 2017, which accounted for 33% of the total steel used in the country.

Nearly 60% of steel imported into the US originates from only 5 countries

Nearly 60% of this total imported volume originates from five countries, including Canada and Mexico which alone accounted for 25% of the total imported v...

While Trump confirms steel & aluminum tariffs, new report predicts loss of 28,000 construction jobs

2018-03-08T19:48:00-05:00

The US construction industry may lose more than 28,000 jobs if Donald Trump’s plan to raise tariffs on imported steel and aluminium goes ahead, a pro-free trade think tank has warned. [...] While Trump claims tariffs would create jobs in America’s steel and aluminium sectors, a Washington, DC, thinktank, Trade Partnership, warned that such a policy would “reverberate throughout” the economy, costing more jobs than it would gain as it pushed up the cost of the metals.

Unswayed by warnings from top economists, industry groups, and members of his own party, Donald Trump today signed two tariff proclamations at the White House that will erect 25% and 10% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports respectively.

While the administration claims that the import tariffs will protect the domestic iron and steel sectors and create thousands of jobs, a new report calculates that this move would actually destroy 179,334 jobs in other sectors—including 28,313 in construction—resulting in a net job loss of nearly 146,000 (not taking into account any potential trade retaliation against U.S. exports; only of the tariffs themselves). "More than five jobs would be lost for every one gained," the report estimates.

Google acquires LinkedIn's HQ in huge, unexpected property swap

2016-07-13T18:13:00-04:00

[Google and LinkedIn] announced a large, surprising property swap encompassing over three million square feet of existing and future real estate... From Google, LinkedIn is picking up seven buildings...In return, Google is getting LinkedIn’s Mountain View headquarters office and...four different surrounding properties that enable Google to follow through on its ambitious plan for a new, green, crazy-futurist campus.

Following an unsuccessful bid last year, this is good news for Google as they continue to push toward making their dream campus a reality. Unleash the “crabots”.

Previously on Archinect:

The Panama Canal Gets "Supersized"

2015-03-25T11:10:00-04:00

Over a hundred years ago, the first ships passed from the Atlantic to the Pacific through the Panama Canal. One of the greatest engineering feats ever, the Panama Canal is entering a new stage in its history in order to stave off the threat of obsolescence presented by “post-Panamax” ships, or vessels larger than the size constraints of the Canal. An engaging episode of the History Channel’s Modern Marvels series, “Panama Canal Supersized” documents the herculean efforts of engineers and thousands of workers to construct a new passage through the Americas that will radically change the global economy.

Considered one of the seven wonders of the modern world by the American Society of Civil Engineers, the original Panama Canal took over a decade to complete. Since the early 16th century, there were several attempts to cut through the American continent in order to facilitate faster trade, eventually leading to a failed effort by the French in the late 19th century. The United States p...