Behlen gets Olympic action

COLUMBUS - Behlen Mfg. Co.'s investment in a Chinese plant is paying off for the Columbus-based company, despite what it cost the company chairman.

The company has snagged a contract to produce a building for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

It will be five stories of glass and metal and be built next to the main basketball arena, said Dick Casey, Behlen senior vice president.

Inside the building will be offices for basketball officials and sales spots for tickets and basketball souvenirs, he said.

Behlen is providing some steel beams for other buildings, Casey said, and he hopes to sell more buildings for the Olympics.

Two years ago, the newly completed Behlen plant was held out as a symbol of outsourcing to China and other nations - at the expense of U.S. jobs.

The plant was finished as company chairman Tony Raimondo's name was floating around Washington and manufacturing circles as a top candidate to be assistant secretary of commerce for manufacturing.

John Kerry, the Democrats' candidate against President Bush, accused Behlen of shedding American jobs so it could grow in China.

The company had laid off Columbus staffers in 2002, when business was slow, as it planned its new Chinese plant.

Raimondo wanted no political headaches, so he dropped out of consideration by the Bush administration.

The company said then and now that business with China has meant dozens more jobs to its Columbus operation.

“We never did reimport any stuff,” Casey said. “All the buildings (built in China) are for China.

“In fact,” Casey said, “we employ people here who work with the people over there. If we didn't have the plant there, we wouldn't have some of those people here.”

About 150 people are employed in the Chinese operation, he said, and a total of about 1,100 at company plants in Columbus and in Tennessee, Oregon and Alabama.

Behlen has done business in China since the early 1980s, selling grain bins, dryers and storage silos, then other kinds of metal buildings.

Eventually competitors - Butler Manufacturing and a couple of other companies - built Chinese plants.

“We found we could not compete because of the freight,” Casey said. “For us to maintain our position, if we were going to stay in China, we had to build a plant.”

Taking advantage of Chinese business development incentives, Behlen partnered with state-owned companies building an industrial park.

“They're very similar to our economic development groups here,” he said. “They provide incentives for companies to come over.”

Behlen has its plant and partnership in an industrial park in Haidain, a district of Beijing.

“I'm such a China fan,” Raimondo said. “We see our plant continuing to grow. Someday, if we keep doing it the right way, Behlen China will probably be bigger than Behlen U.S.”