China makes tracks to state for rail supplies

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Harsco Corp. said its Track Technologies division will send 11 machines to China after well more than a year of trade talks in the biggest sale of its maintenance equipment ever.

Kenneth Julian, spokesman for Harrisburg, Pa.-based Harsco, said he wasn't sure how much of the work would be done in South Carolina, although the bulk of the company's engineering and assembly operations is done at its West Columbia facility.

The deal was agreed upon during Gov. Mark Sanford's trade mission in China last week, supported by U.S. Rep. Jim DeMint, R-Greenville, and sealed in China this week by U.S. Commerce Secretary Don Evans, who is firmly pushing for more equal trade.

DeMint said the Harsco contract is a sign of why the U.S. must embrace open trade with China while pressuring the country to play fair.

"China will be a large customer of the U.S., but we've got to really get on them about playing by the rules," he said. "We've got to trade smarter."

State Commerce Secretary Bob Faith alluded to the pending contract in a recent conference call from China, in which he said he was bringing in his "big gun," the governor, to close some deals, and his "really, really big gun" Evans could seal the Harsco deal.

Sanford spokesman Will Folks said Tuesday, "It's something we certainly hope to see more of moving forward — whether it's an announcement like this or a general shifting of the balance in the trade relationship."

Sanford said from China last week that one of his three strategies for fighting the loss of state manufacturing jobs to the country is to pressure Chinese officials to invest in South Carolina by buying local goods and building new local plants.

He also said some communist government officials are "in denial" of the need to invest in the U.S. before lawmakers here respond to constituents angry over job losses by passing anti-China trade legislation.

Last week, more than 1,300 new layoffs were announced at manufacturers General Electric Co. and Alice Manufacturing in the Upstate and Georgetown Steel on the coast.

Still, Faith said, "they're not going to turn around and turn on the faucet tomorrow because we were here."

DeMint said the long-term results of applying free-trade pressure on the Chinese will be more high-tech manufacturing jobs locally and more Chinese purchases of local goods.

Included in the Tuesday deal are railroad track grinders and Harsco's Stoneblower machine that can re-align track to within one millimeter without disturbing the existing stone foundation. The company says the machine will be the first of its kind in China.