《华尔街日报》｜美国工厂零部件短缺

美国制造业正加速回血

American factoriesare running short of parts.

美国工厂缺少零件

作者：道格·卡梅伦 & 奥斯汀·霍福德

本文节选自 The Wall Street Journal.

Suppliers of everything from engines to electronic components aren’t keeping up with a boom in U.S. manufacturing thanks to strong economic growth, lifting demand in markets suchas energy, mining and construction. As a result, some manufacturers are idling production lines and digesting higher costs.

得益于强劲的经济增长，从发动机到电子元器件等各种产品的供应商都跟不上美国制造业的繁荣，提振了能源、矿业和建筑业等市场的需求。因此，一些制造商正在闲置生产线，消化更高的成本。

idling n. 游手好闲；闲置；慢速；空转

digesting n. 消化

Many industrial companies have reported strong sales and profits in recent weeks, and the pace of factory hiring has more than doubled this year compared with the first seven months of 2017. However, deliveries from suppliers have slowed for 22 consecutive months through July, according to the latest survey of U.S. manufacturers by the Institute for Supply Management. More than one-quarter of respondents said it took longer for materials to arrive in July than June. Machinery was the hardest-hit sector.

近几周来，许多工业企业公布了强劲的销售和利润，今年工厂招聘的步伐比2017年前7个月翻了一倍多。不过，根据美国供应管理协会(Institute for Supply Management)对美国制造商的最新调查，供应商的交货已连续22个月放缓。超过四分之一的受访者表示，7月份抵达的材料比6月份要花更长的时间。机械制造业是受打击最严重的部门。

hiring adj. 雇佣的；租赁的

consecutive adj. 连续的；连贯的

美国供应管理协会（the Institute for Supply Management，ISM）是全球最大、最权威的采购管理、供应管理、物流管理等领域的专业组织。该组织成立于1915年，至今已有90多年的历史，其前身是美国采购管理协会。目前，ISM在全球75个国家共有180个分会，超过45000名会员，是全球采购与供应管理领域历史最悠久、规模最大、最受尊崇的供应管理领域专业协会之一。

These bottlenecks were evident in the earnings reports manufacturersdelivered over the past few weeks.

在过去几周发布的盈利报告中，这些瓶颈显而易见。

Terex Corp. said its mobile-crane-making unit incurred a loss in the second quarter as parts shortages hurt efficiency at its plants. “The reality of it is that elements of our supply base could not keep up,” Chief Executive John Garrison said on an Aug. 1 earnings call.

特雷克斯公司表示，由于零部件短缺影响了工厂的效率，其移动起重机制造部门在第二季度出现亏损。“现实情况是，我们的供应基础无法跟上，”首席执行官约翰·加里森(John Garrison)在8月1日的财报电话会议上表示。

crane n. 鹤；起重机 v. 起吊；伸长(脖子)；犹豫

特雷克斯公司是一家全球性多元化的设备制造商，专门为建筑、基础设施、挖掘、采矿、货运、精炼以及公用事业等行业提供可靠的客户解决方案。公司总部位于美国康涅狄格州的西港。

Machinery giant Caterpillar Inc. and power-equipment maker Eaton Corp. are among those struggling to keep up with orders as supply-chain kinks join labor shortages and inflated transport costs as threats to the sector’s recovery. Eaton last week cut financial guidance for its $2.5 billion hydraulics unit as a result.

机械巨头卡特彼勒公司和电力设备制造商伊顿公司(Eaton Corp.)也在努力跟上订单的步伐，因为供应链扭结、劳动力短缺和运输成本过高都是对该行业复苏的威胁。上周，伊顿下调了其25亿美元液压装置部门的财务指引。

Kink n. 扭结；怪癖；妄想

hydraulics n. 水力学；液压装置

卡特彼勒公司（Caterpillar，CAT），成立于1925年，卡特彼勒公司总部位于美国伊利诺伊州。是世界上最大的工程机械和矿山设备生产厂家、燃气发动机和工业用燃气轮机生产厂家之一，也是世界上最大的柴油机厂家之一。2018年7月19日，《财富》世界500强排行榜发布，卡特彼勒位列238位。

伊顿公司是一家多元化的工业产品制造商。伊顿在许多工业领域都是全球领导者，包括电源质量、电力输配和控制系统及部件；工业设备和移动工程机械以及航空航天所需的液压系统和服务；安全节能的智能化卡车传动系统；以及帮助汽车工业提升性能、燃油经济性和安全性的汽车发动机空气管理系统、传动系统和特种控制系统。

Caterpillar said it is paying more for smaller or incomplete orders from suppliers that have struggled to meet demand. Interim Chief Financial Officer Joseph Creed said in an interview that castings—the metal building blocks for engines and other large vehicle parts—were in particularly short supply.

卡特彼勒表示，它正为难以满足需求的供应商的较小或不完整的订单承担更多费用。临时首席财务官约瑟夫·克里德(Joseph Creed)在接受采访时表示，铸件（发动机和其他大型汽车零部件的金属构件）供应特别短缺。

castings n. 铸造物；铸件

Delays are forcing some manufacturers to curb output. Oshkosh Corp. idled production of its mobile cranes because of parts shortages several times in the past quarter. “We think we’ll probably continue to see some of that in the fourth quarter, although we do expect some progression,” Oshkosh CEO Wilson Jones said on a July 31 investor call.

拖延迫使一些制造商限制产量。奥什科什公司(Oshkosh Corp.)在过去一季度曾数次因零部件短缺导致其移动起重机停产。奥什科什首席执行官威尔逊·琼斯(Wilson Jones)在7月31日的一次投资者电话会议上表示：“我们认为，在第四季度，我们可能会继续看到其中的一些情况，尽管我们确实预计会有所进展。”

奥什科什公司（Oshkosh Corporation）前身为奥什科什卡车公司，它是美国一家设计和建造专业卡车，卡车车身，机场消防器材和进出口设备的工业公司。公司还拥有一家消防设备制造商Pierce Manufacturing，同时也是美国陆军战术车辆的提供商。公司总部位于美国威斯康辛州奥什科什。

Like their customers, many suppliers to companies that make products including trucks and tractors shed workers after the financial crisis. Now some suppliers say they are struggling to find skilled staff and remain hesitant to ramp up production because they worry a machinery-sector recovery that began in late 2016 is now drawing to a close.

就像他们的客户一样，金融危机过后，许多生产卡车和拖拉机等产品的公司的供应商都解雇了工人。如今，一些供应商表示，他们很难找到技术熟练的员工，并对提高产量仍犹豫不决，因为他们担心2016年末开始的机械行业复苏即将结束。

tractors n. 【C】拖拉机；牵引车

Leggett & Platt Inc., a maker of the part that moves the pronged metal lifts at the front of forklifts, acknowledged it is struggling to meet “very, very strong” demand for parts from its recently acquired Precision Hydraulic Cylinders business. Leggett, based in Carthage, Mo., is paying its workers more in overtime to expand production hours and is considering more permanent measures to increase capacity.

莱格特和普拉特公司(Leggett & Platt Inc.)（叉车前部移动叉状金属升降机部件的制造商）承认，它很难满足最近收购的精密液压缸业务对零部件的“非常、非常强劲”的需求。总部位于密苏里州迦太基的莱格特公司(Leggett)正向员工支付更多加班费，以延长生产时间，并正在考虑采取更多永久性措施来提高产能。

pronged adj. 尖端分叉的

forklifts n. 铲车；叉车

Cylinder n. 圆筒；汽缸；圆柱体

Aerospace and car companies are also compiling big order books and experiencing supplier delays. Boeing Co. recently had more than two dozen partly finished 737 airliners parked outside its Renton, Wash.,assembly plant and an adjoining airport awaiting engines and other components.

航空航天和汽车公司也在汇集大量订单，并遭遇供应商延误。波音公司(BoeingCo.)最近有20多架部分完工的737架客机停在华盛顿州的伦顿(Renton)组装厂和毗邻的机场外，等待发动机和其他部件。

adjoining adj. 毗邻的

A shortage of specialized workers including welders and truck drivers is exacerbating the crunch.The number of job openings in manufacturing climbed to 482,000 in June, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis said Tuesday, the highest level in 17years. A month long crunch in supplies of some basic electronic components is also cascading through the manufacturing sector as more industrial equipment is linked to the web to provide data that can be used to predict maintenance and replacement needs.

包括焊工和卡车司机在内的专业工人的短缺加剧了危机。圣路易斯联邦储备银行(Federal ReserveBank of St.Louis)周二表示，6月份制造业职位空缺数量攀升至48.2万人，为17年来的最高水平。一些基本电子元件供应长达一个月的紧缺也在制造业层层蔓延，因为更多的工业设备与网络相连，以提供可用于预测维修和更换需求的数据。

welder n. 焊接工

exacerbating vt. 加重(使 ... 恶化；激怒)

crunch v. 发出碎裂声； n. 嘎吱声；艰难局面；关键时刻

cascading n. 级串联；阶级渗透

Most of those components are manufactured in Asia, where producers are already working flat out to supply the consumer-electronics sector.“The electronics supply-chain environment remains challenging and we continue to see constraints across several component categories,” said Mike McNamara, CEO of Flex Ltd., a maker of so-called smart-technology products. “The lead times have significantly lightened and we see increasing shortages,”he said on the company’s earnings call last month.

大部分零部件都是在亚洲制造的，那里的生产商已经在加速为消费电子行业提供产品。“电子供应链环境仍然充满挑战，我们依旧看到几个部件类别的限制，”所谓智能技术产品制造商伟创力国际（FlexLtd.）的首席执行官迈克·麦克纳马拉(Mike McNamara)说。他在上个月的公司财报电话会议上表示：“交货期已明显减轻，但我们可以看到短缺现象日益严重。”

伟创力（Flex Ltd.）是全球著名的电子专业制造服务供应商（Electronic Manufacturing Service，EMS），总部设在新加坡，成为美国第一家走出国门在海外设厂的制造商。

“The good news is that demand is really strong,” said Tom Derry, chief executive of the Institute for Supply Management, which publishes a closely watched monthly survey on U.S. industrial conditions.“The irony is we reached the limits of our ability, in the current configuration we have, to keep up with demand,” he added.

“好消息是需求确实强劲，”供应管理协会(InstituteforSupplyManagement)首席执行官汤姆·德里(Tom Derry)表示，该协会发布了一份备受关注的美国工业状况月度调查报告。他补充说：“具有讽刺意味的是，在目前的结构中，我们已经达到了满足需求的极限。”

configuration n. 结构；布局；形态；[计算机] 配置

Years spent making supply chains as lean and efficient as possible are hurting big customers now as demand climbs,industry consultants said.“Suppliers have not been willing to jump on adding capacity because they’ve been burned badly before,” said Shiv Shivaraman, a managing director at consultant AlixPartners LLC, who advises auto and machinery makers on supply chains and production processes. “You will see many people limping for a while.”Some companies are stockpiling parts to head off future challenges, potentially exacerbating the supply pressures.

行业咨询公司表示，多年来随着需求的攀升，使得供应链变得尽可能精简和高效，而这可能正在损害大客户的利益。艾睿铂咨询有限责任公司(AlixPartners LLC)总经理希夫·希瓦拉曼(ShivShivaraman)正在为汽车和机械制造商提供供应链和生产流程方面的咨询，他表示：“供应商不愿意仓促增加产能，因为他们以前损失惨重。”“你会看到许多人一瘸一拐地走了一段时间。”一些公司正在囤积零部件，以抵御未来的挑战，这可能加剧供应压力。

limping n. 跛行；蹒跚

“We built some inventory last quarter because we had seen the lead times extend and we are trying to protect our customers,” said Andrew Silvernail, CEO of Idex Corp., a maker of pumps, valves and meters that is based in Lake Forest, Ill. Still, executives expressed confidence that booming order books will encourage suppliers to boost output, either by increasing wages to attract staff or investing in more capacity.“We are getting better. Our suppliers are getting better. We’re doing a much better job of shortening lead times,”said Craig Arnold, Eaton’s CEO.

艺达思集团（Idex Corp.）（一个水泵，阀门和仪表制造商，总部设在美国伊利诺伊州森林湖市）首席执行官安德鲁·西尔维内尔(Andrew Silvinail)说：“我们上个季度建立了一些库存，因为我们看到了提前期的延长，我们正在努力保护我们的客户。”不过，高管们表示相信，订单激增将鼓励供应商增加产出，要么提高工资以吸引员工，要么投资于更大的产能。“我们越来越好了，我们的供应商越来越好了，我们在缩短周转时间方面做得更好。”伊顿首席执行官克雷格·阿诺德(Craig Arnold)说道。

inventory n. 详细目录；存货(清单) ，库存，藏量 vt. 编制(详细目录)

艺达思集团是世界著名的流体设备制造商。其在容积泵、流量计、泵送设备和系统、配色设备及其他工业产品制造方面处于世界领先地位。

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