The Washington Post-Ford halts work on 35 billion plant amid strike forced labor probe
September 26, 2023 4 min 733 words
这则报道涉及到福特汽车公司暂停在密歇根州兴建一座价值35亿美元的电动汽车电池工厂的计划，原因是公司受到了罢工汽车工人的财务压力以及要求与一家与该工厂合作的中国公司切断关系的政治压力。 这一决定似乎是在中国公司现代电池科技有限公司（CATL）被指控与中国新疆地区的采矿公司合作开展业务，而新疆地区存在严重的强迫劳动问题之际做出的。福特计划使用CATL的技术来制造新的电动汽车电池，但随着国会调查委员会的调查，该计划引起了关注。尽管CATL声称已在今年早些时候出售了其在新疆的所有股份，但委员会调查人员声称该公司仍与那里的采矿业务有业务联系。福特官员表示，他们并未购买CATL的任何材料，仅仅使用其技术，并将与这家中国公司合作解决其供应链中的人权问题。 这一决定引发了有关电动汽车制造商使用中国供应商可能涉及强迫劳动问题的担忧，这也让美国政府对哪些使用中国零部件或技术制造的汽车应该有资格获得最近颁布的通胀减少法案提供的7500美元税收抵免产生了激烈的辩论。 福特此前表示，与CATL的合作是其计划在全球大规模扩大电动汽车生产的关键。然而，与这家中国公司的关系现在成为了担心的对象，因为拜登政府正在考虑哪些车辆将有资格获得新颁布的通胀减少法案提供的7500美元税收抵免。这项法律旨在促进美国境内电动汽车的生产，关于哪些使用中国零部件或技术制造的车辆应该有资格获得补贴存在激烈的辩论。 这个报道反映了复杂的政治和商业关系，以及美国汽车产业面临的挑战。在关注强迫劳动和人权问题的同时，美国政府需要平衡推动电动汽车生产的目标，以确保经济增长和就业机会。这是一个需要谨慎权衡的重大问题，需要深思熟虑的决策。
2023-09-26T14:54:31.321Z
Ford Motor Co. is pausing plans to build a $3.5 billion electric vehicle battery plant in Michigan as the company faces financial pressure from striking autoworkers and political pressure from lawmakers demanding it sever its ties to a Chinese firm collaborating on the plant.
The automaker unveiled plans to build the plant in February, promising it would employ about 2,500 workers to make batteries for new and existing electric vehicles. Ford announced at the time that it would use technology from the Chinese firm Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., or CATL, the largest battery maker in the world.
But since unveiling those blueprints, Ford has become a focus of congressional investigators, who accuse CATL of doing business with mining firms in the Xinjiang region of China. Rampant forced labor in Xinjiang moved the U.S. to enact a law last year prohibiting import of any materials from there unless it can be proven they were not made with forced labor.
EV makers’ use of Chinese suppliers raises concerns about forced labor
While CATL says it sold all its holdings in Xinjiang earlier this year, committee investigators allege the company still has business ties to mining operations there. Ford officials say they are not buying any materials from CATL, merely using its technology, and that they will be working with the Chinese firm to address human rights issues in its supply chain.
Ford spokesman T.R. Reid said in an email that the company is “pausing work and limiting spending on construction on the Marshall project until we’re confident that we’ll be able to competitively operate the plant.”
“There are a number of considerations,” the email said. “We haven’t made any final decision about the planned investment there.”
The chair of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc.), welcomed the news and said Ford should pull the plug on the Marshall plant altogether.
“After months of investigation by the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, we’re encouraged to see Ford take a crucial first step to reevaluate its deal with the Chinese Communist Party-aligned EV battery firm, CATL,” Gallagher said in a statement. “CATL’s deep ties to CCP forced labor have no place in the American market and make the company exceptionally unfit to receive American taxpayer dollars.”
CATL did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A Senate Finance Committee investigation into forced labor in the auto industry is also scrutinizing Ford and other automaker relationships with Chinese firms.
But some lawmakers criticized the committee investigation as misguided, warning they could derail a facility that would help the United States catch up to China in electric vehicle production and bring badly needed manufacturing jobs to Michigan. The UAW is picketing a Ford plant in Michigan that makes trucks and SUVs. President Biden planned to visit striking autoworkers in the state on Tuesday.
Shawn Fain, the president of the United Auto Workers union, accused Ford of using the plant as leverage as it tries to push auto workers striking against the “Big Three” major American car manufacturers to abandon demands at the bargaining table.
“This is a shameful, barely-veiled threat by Ford to cut jobs,” Fain said in a statement. “Closing 65 plants over the last 20 years wasn’t enough for the Big Three, now they want to threaten us with closing plants that aren’t even open yet. We are simply asking for a just transition to electric vehicles and Ford is instead doubling down on their race to the bottom.”
Ford had previously said the arrangement with CATL was a linchpin of its plans to vastly expand EV production worldwide. But its relationship with the Chinese firm has become a target as the Biden administration mulls which vehicles will be eligible for $7,500 in tax credits provided by the recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act.
The law is designed to promote production of EVs in the United States, and there is heated debate over what vehicles made with Chinese parts or technology should be eligible for subsidies.