So much for buying Made In The USA, what’s next? 
Mercury Marine Inc. is opening a new factory in China in about two weeks, the Fond du Lac outboard engine company said The $30 million plant will produce four-stroke engines that are commonly used on recreational boats and small commercial boats.”We are making a lot of these engines in Fond du Lac at the moment,” company President Patrick Mackey said in an interview at the Miami International Boat Show.The six-day show is one of the world’s largest marine industry events, with more than 2,200 exhibitors. It opened Thursday and is expected to attract 150,000 spectators. Mercury currently manufactures some engine components in China and is shifting production of 40- to 60-horsepower four-strokes to the new factory near Beijing. The decision to move more manufacturing to China was driven partly by economics, Mackey said. “We wanted to make an engine at the lowest possible price, and China seemed to be a place that we should be for the future,” he said.
Better economic position Mercury has opened a new factory in Japan, in partnership with Tohatsu Corp., to build small Mercury outboards. The first engines rolled off that assembly line about three weeks ago. “Our strategy is to get the smaller engines into the best economic position we can,” Mackey said. “North America is difficult when you consider the cost of labor, health care and other things here.” Mercury is one of the Fond du Lac area’s biggest employers. But as some engine production is shifted to Asia, it won’t necessarily result in job losses in Wisconsin, according to Mackey. Some employees won’t be replaced when they retire, he said. And the work that’s headed to the new China factory from Fond du Lac is being replaced by the production of Mercury’s new Verado outboard engines, which are more expensive and have more sophisticated technology than the smaller engines.
“All of the high-tech products will stay in America,” Mackey said. “That’s where we have the edge here.” BRP Inc., which makes Johnson and Evinrude outboard engines in Sturtevant, on Thursday announced a new 115-horsepower two-stroke engine at the boat show. The E-TEC engine runs cleaner than many four-strokes and has better performance, said Roch Lambert, vice president and general manager of BRP’s outboard engine division. Mercury introduced three Verados, from 135 to 175 horsepower, at the show. The company said it will no longer make conventional two-stroke engines for the U.S. market. Production of the older two-stroke designs will end by June, Mackey said, as the company places more emphasis on four-stroke engines and direct-injection two-strokes. Cruisers Yachts of Oconto introduced a 38-foot motor yacht at the boat show. As one of three Wisconsin yacht builders, Cruisers is experiencing a labor shortage. The Oconto area has only about 30,000 residents within 30 miles of the Cruisers headquarters and plant, said Russ Davis, company special projects director.
“We have worked ourselves out of a work force in Oconto,” he said. “It sounds crazy, but we can’t find enough people.” Yacht market rebound
Palmer-Johnson Yachts, of Sturgeon Bay, introduced a new 120-foot yacht at the Yacht & Brokerage Show, held in conjunction with the Miami boat show. The yacht has the company’s first fiberglass hull since the 1970s, in a lineup of mostly steel hulls. Palmer-Johnson has been a Door County employer for almost a century. The company pulled out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy a year ago and is now at the center of a proposed expansion that would include new production facilities for it and Bay Shipbuilding Co., which has about 800 employees in Sturgeon Bay. The market for mega-size yachts has rebounded nicely from the early 1990s when the industry fell on hard times, said Mike Kelsey Jr., Palmer-Johnson president. Most of the company’s competition is from European yacht builders. “The strength of the euro makes it very favorable for Europeans to buy American products now,” Kelsey said. “And there are a lot of American buyers emerging, now that the stock market is healthier. The overall signs are good.” Accessorizing the boats
The Miami boat show is the place for companies to have their new products seen by boat dealers and enthusiasts from 80 countries. The panorama on the water and in the Miami Beach Convention Center includes some of the world’s most expensive cruisers, glorified martini barges and sport boats with more speed and power than ever. The show is also where hundreds of marine accessory manufacturers display their products, including about a dozen Wisconsin companies. Marine Travelift Inc. of Sturgeon Bay is in Miami Beach with a new boat lift that can move boats up to 120 feet in length into tight spaces. “It can travel sideways, like a crab, and it can turn on itself like a carousel,” said Stephan Chayer, Marine Travelift’s European sales director.
Johnson Outdoors Co. of Racine is at the show with a mix of new products including a kayak designed for fishing and a fish-finder for anglers using conventional fishing poles. “The fisherman wears a monitor on his wrist, or on the rod, and the lure is the sonar,” said Andy Larsen, Johnson Outdoors public relations director.
