PPG loses bid for World Trade Center

[HopeHoops]

Source: The Sentinel

A local manufacturing plant won’t have its glass on the new One World Trade Center building after all.

Instead, the glass will be manufactured in China.

...

“No matter which way you slice it, it is going to be manufactured in China,” Maurer said. “We’re shocked this would be awarded to a company outside of the United States.”

He said PPG put hundreds of thousands of dollars into the project — including upgrades to the South Middleton Township plant — and had worked with the Port Authority, the architect and others to develop the glass for the project.

...



Read more: http://www.cumberlink.com/articles/2009/04/02/news/local/doc49d4c130587f0460006871.txt

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The story also ran in The Patriot-News, but I couldn't find an on-line link (read it in print this morning). The language was different and actually included a statement by the NY Port Authority spokesman that they had no control over who got the contract.

This has me wondering - are they going to build it with crappy low-bid steel from China too?

This is just so wrong.

[Sultana]

1. Oh fuck it all to hell

that's going to be some cheap ass glass

[soothsayer]

15. yes, but also loaded with toxins

[rurallib]

2. This would be a good place for some congress critter to grandstand

in favor of American jobs. Bet it won't happen.

[monmouth]

5. Chuck Schumer should be on top of this and raising hell...n/t

[spag68]

20. Schumer

is a real waste as a representative of New York, further he probably has stock in the Chinese company.

[msongs]

3. well we can't have "pork" spending now can we? nt

[Soylent Brice]

4. china? must... keep... masters... happy...

unfuckingbelievable

[acmavm]

6. Wrong is an understatement.

[Twinguard]

7. hope chinese glass is safer than chinese drywall

How long before people who come in contact with that glass start glowing from radiation or become sick from mold spores?

This is crap.

I understand that it (the WTC) is going to be an expensive project and cost cutting measures need to be taken -- but Chinese glass?
C'mon people, where is your sense of pride? This should be an instance where a "Made in the U.S.A." trumps all, regardless of the cost.

[Deja Q]

29. Pride is dead. Quality is dead. Want a cheap shot? Here's one:

Well, that's what the world wants. Cheap cheap cheap.

Maybe if China had regulations the US has and amazingly bothers to enforce when otherwise not offshoring everything to countries that have no regulations and don't give a damn about life... ironic, given the size of their populations. (Is that too cheap a shot? We all know that the economic plan makes common things cheaper. And what's cheaper than human life as a workforce?)

[Stephanie]

8. I'm sitting across the street from the WTC at the moment

And this is infuriating. NYC press needs to get this story - send to NY POST, NY DAILY NEWS, NY TIMES and VILLAGE VOICE please.

[WriteDown]

9. what could possibly go wrong?

http://www.windowwelder.net/chinese-glass-part-two

[ramapo]

10. Just another outrage

This should provoke more outrage and talk time than the AIG bonuses but it won't.

[groundloop]

11. Very high quality -

Chinese LEADED glass.

All joking aside, it's absurd to use glass from China instead of from a major employer like PPG.

[blue97keet]

12. Did I hear somewhere one of the first tenants was Chinese?

Maybe the glass contract is a payoff.

[bottomtheweaver]

25. Bingo. First and ONLY commercial tenants after 5 years of hunting. n/t

[high density]

13. China glass marked up by two different firms

At least a little bit of the money will remain in the USA.

[antimatter98]

14. That Chinese glass will be toxic and will break, fall and kill people,just wait.

We keep getting obvious examples of how trade with China is hurtful to health and
the jobs of Americans.

Do we need more evidence that our Congress has continued to harm the American worker
with trade agreements? It goes back to Reagan.

Our Congress has done more to harm the American worker than many realize.

We must drive the current crop of Congressional traitors from office.

[Historic NY]

16. Excuse me are American dollars being used to rebuild World Trade?

What a travesty....all those weeping 911 911 Republicans, its sacred ground, American attacked, must use the scared steel to build a warship rabble rouser's will let China a Communist Country make money off a Terrorist War Grave site. How Un-American, where was china when Union & Civil Service workers piled into the carnage to pull out remains.

Where's the outrage? Have we surrendered to China?

[wickerwoman]

21. Did you fly 9000 miles to personally help in Sichaun

during the recent earthquake that killed 70,000 people? Why would you expect Chinese people to be at Ground Zero? The Chinese government expressed its regrets like most other world leaders. China has more to fear from al Qaeda than we do since they have Muslim insurgents fighting in Xinjiang Province and they've been cooperating with tracking down al Qaeda in Pakistan. They offered emergency equipment during Katrina and were turned down (mostly for security and logistics reasons) just like we were turned down when we offered to send equipment into Sichuan.

I agree that the contract should have gone to an American company but your third to last sentence is really bizarre and paranoid.

[Deja Q]

31. Knee-jerked emoitonal response, perhaps?

Which is easy enough to get caught up in.

And you're right, they should fear al Quaeda. Or, rather, defend against them. Few would deny the threat they pose.

[amandabeech]

22. Yes. n/t

[Deja Q]

27. We're a "global economy" now.

Whatever that means, it doesn't mean what it should mean...

[Stephanie]

17. The Village Voice has a story up now >

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2009/04/wtc_facade_glas.php

[Stephanie]

18. includes a h/t to DU!

[maxsolomon]

19. Value Engineering

if PPG isn't the low bid, they lose. simple as that.

reduce costs to the lowest possible amount that encloses the space, maximize the profit, unload the product as quickly as possible. this is the way american development works. why do you think we have vinyl windows instead of aluminum or wood? fibre cement siding instead of wood? 4:12 pitched roofs rather than attics?

is the "Freedom Tower" WTC a cathedral? essentially it is an office building.

[Deja Q]

26. The rule is (or used to be) You get what you pay for.

Hasn't the world noticed by now that doing things quick quick quick and cheap cheap cheap proven to be DISASTROUS FOR ANYTHING LONG TERM?????

Then again, Vista was 5 years in development, is grossly overpriced, and is a real piece of **** too. Maybe there are no such things as rules anymore.

Except for the law of gravity... Newton is still proud.

[PittPoliSci]

23. disgusting.

build it with US Steel and PPG.

just awful...

[Deja Q]

24. Oh good. We won't need the Taliban for the new WTC to fail. The girders will bend over backwards.

China has built its empire by making some good things, but the number of toxic, incompetently made, or lethal products is well known, worldwide. They need to rebuild their reputation big-time. Not be rewarded with an opportunity of historic proportion.

[Deja Q]

28. Incidentally, WTC steel was sold to China in 2002. (Source: CNN)

http://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/east/01/23/china.wtcsteel/

[Haole Girl]

30. Of course

Why help out any local companies when China can reap the profits. ugh.

:-(