JOPLIN, Mo. — Not only has covid-19 changed the way we go about our lives, it’s also made it hard for manufacturers to stay in business with all the disruptions it’s caused in the supply chain.
ZAF Energy Systems in Joplin is a company that manufactures nickel zinc batteries for use by the transportation industry and by the military.
The batteries have more power than traditional lead acid batteries, they take up less space and are much better for the environment.
But the disruption in their supply chain caused by the pandemic is something the company’s leader wants to avoid in the future.
Randy Moore, ZAF Energy Systems, said, “Our batteries are made in the USA and we put a label on that says “Made in the USA” but the chemicals inside the batteries 80% of them come from China, so our view is we need to bring as much of that supply chain into the country and into our control as much as we possibly can.”
So they’re going through the expense involved in making that happen by starting another business venture.
“We’ve decided to start a sister company call it “Battery Grade Materials” and we’re going to be importing from friendly countries like Indonesia and Philippines and Canada, we’re going to be importing nickel and zinc and we’re going to processing our own nickel hydroxide and zinc oxide.”
And Dr. Mike Wang in the Plaster School of Business says there’s another reason why it may be in a companies own best interest to consider doing the same thing.
Dr. Mike Wang, Robert Plaster School of Business, said, “We need to be careful about the tariff right, for example right now China and the U.S. have a tariff war, so I don’t know if this tariff bring back the supply might be worth while, it could be.”
And moore says tariff wars lead to spikes in pricing, so why not find other more business friendly countries.
“Cause China’s cornered the market on nickel hydroxide, we estimate by buying nickle into the country ourselves, and going through the chemical process of converting it to nickel hydroxide that we’re going to be able to save about half the cost of our nickel hydroxide,” said Moore.
