GE moves turbine jobs to Europe, China

General Electric Co said on Tuesday it will move 500 US power turbine manufacturing jobs to Europe and China because it can no longer access US Export-Import Bank financing after Congress allowed the agency's charter to lapse in June.

The largest US industrial conglomerate said France's COFACE export agency has agreed to support some of GE's global power project bids with a new line of credit in exchange for moving production of heavy-duty gas turbines to Belfort, France, along with 400 jobs.

US facilities in Greenville, South Carolina; Schenectady, New York; and Bangor, Maine, will lose out on those jobs if GE wins the power bids, a GE spokeswoman said.