FTZ 138: How Ohio Keeps Manufacturing Competitive

FTZ News: On a Wednesday in late August, the Foreign-Trade Zones Board dropped a short notice into the Federal Register. Fluid Quip KS, LLC, a manufacturer in Springfield, Ohio, wants to expand production of separation and grinding equipment inside its approved subzone of FTZ 138. The entry, numbered 91 FR 55078, is the kind of bureaucratic paperwork that rarely makes headlines. Yet in a city of about 58,000 people, where the median household income in some neighborhoods sits near $35,000—roughly half the Ohio average—it lands differently.

The Company Behind the Notice

Fluid Quip has been in Springfield since 1987. It started as a repair shop fixing equipment for corn wet mills and pulp-and-paper plants. Over time it grew into a designer and builder of disc mills, centrifuges, germ separators, and pressure screens used in ethanol plants and wet-milling operations around the world. After its acquisition by Komline-Sanderson in late 2021, the operation now sits under the Komline-FluidQuip name, still based at 1940 South Yellow Springs Street. Estimates put the workforce somewhere between 38 and a little over 50 people. In a place where manufacturing jobs have thinned out over the decades, those numbers are not abstract.

What FTZ 138 Actually Does

Foreign-Trade Zone 138, run by the Columbus Regional Airport Authority since 1987, covers more than 25 counties in Central Ohio, including Clark County where Springfield sits. Older economic studies from 2017 credited the zone with supporting nearly 10,000 jobs, $480 million in payroll, and more than $5.17 billion in business revenue for the state. More recent tallies put the value of goods moving through the zone between $10 billion and $25 billion a year. Nationally, the 2024 FTZ Board report counted roughly 543,000 American jobs across 381 active production sites, with $963.8 billion in merchandise received and $133.5 billion in exports. Fluid Quip’s Subzone 00L is one small piece of that larger system.

Why the Zone Still Matters

The practical advantage is simple. Companies can bring in foreign components, store them, and process them without paying customs duties right away. Duties come due only when finished goods enter the U.S. market. Anything re-exported leaves duty-free. In a period when effective tariff rates have climbed toward 17 percent in some analyses, and when trade relations with Canada and Mexico remain unsettled, the ability to defer payments and reduce Merchandise Processing Fees can keep a specialized manufacturer competitive. For ethanol producers and corn processors already dealing with volatile commodity prices and shifting energy policy, those savings are tangible.

A Larger Pattern, Quietly Continuing

Subzones like this one were designed for operations that do not fit neatly into general-purpose warehouse parks. Critics have argued that some of the old inverted-tariff benefits have been narrowed under recent trade rules. Yet companies keep filing the notices. Springfield’s plant sits in the same zone that also hosts higher-profile operations, including Intel’s. Together they form part of a quiet, ongoing effort to keep certain kinds of manufacturing inside the country rather than watching it leave.

The August 26 notice will not transform Springfield overnight. It is one more data point in a longer story: American manufacturers still turning to tools created in the 1930s to navigate a more complicated trade environment. Inside the factory, workers continue rebuilding mill discs and engineers keep refining designs meant to squeeze a few more percentage points of yield from a bushel of corn. The numbers suggest the work still adds up—jobs held, equipment shipped, local supply chains kept intact. Whether those realities fully register in the next round of trade talks in Washington is a separate question. For now, the notice is filed, the subzone remains active, and the machines in Springfield keep turning./.