Looking out for Ohio manufacturing

For more than 100 years, Ohio's Huffy Bicycle Company has been a nationally recognized brand that Americans have associated with recreation and the outdoors. Launched in Dayton back in 1892, Huffy has more recently become known for laying off workers in three states - including Ohio -and moving operations to China.

With Huffy bikes now made in China, the company is majority owned by the Sinosure Group, a Chinese government entity. Several Sinosure representatives sit on Huffy's board of directors.

Since the China takeover of Huffy, American consumers of Huffy products have been rewarded with a series of recalls for both children and adult bikes, the most recent taking place this October. The Huffy story is part of an unfortunate and continuing trend of U.S. manufacturing moving offshore. It's an especially disappointing story for Ohioans because the Buckeye State is an ideal location for manufacturing. With the nation's 10th largest highway network, and water transport links through the Great Lakes and the Ohio River, goods can be shipped from Ohio to half of North America within a day.

Ohio's manufacturers produce many consumer goods and are prominent in producing capital goods such as tools and chemicals used in the manufacture of other products. And Ohio's highly skilled workforce constitutes a political "swing state" that gives it a prominent voice on the national stage.

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