The Reshoring Institute noted that 2018 had the highest level of new reshoring and foreign direct investment (FDI) in history; up 38% from 2017. A recent article (link below) from their website reports these exciting data:
“The combined reshoring and relatted FDI announcements totaled over 145,000 jobs, the second highest annual rate in history. Including upward revisions of 36,000 jobs in prior years, the total number of manufacturing jobs brought to the United States from offshore is over 757.000 since the manufacturing employment low of 2010.
“The Reshoring Initiative largely attributes the increases to greater US competitiveness due to corporate tax and regulatory cuts. Similar to the previous few years, FDI continued to exceed reshoring in terms of total jobs added, but reshoring has closed most of the gap since 2015.”
There are other positive factors driving foreign companies locating operations in the US. These include proximity to market, available abundant and cheap energy, and a skilled work force. However, the recent news reports would suggest the US is running out of available labor, which then suggests rising labor costs here. But we’ll see.
Proficient Sourcing, which provides candidates for (mostly) domestic manufacturing of parts and assemblies, is keenly interested in reshoring. We believe we can save reshorers a great deal of time and money when supply chain candidates for manufactured parts are desired. Very quickly we can identify candidates with a history of happy customers and long service.
We are currently working on a large opportunity, which is an excellent example of how we can help a company moving into the US, whether reshoring or otherwise. This case is one where the foreign company wants to move some operations into the US. The company, HQ’ed in Europe, is a machinery manufacturer and contacted Proficient Sourcing some months ago to find candidates for heavy machining. Later they asked for fabricating sources. We have been able to offer several candidates for each requirement.
In the case of heavy machining, we had 4-5 candidates initially. After much back and forth, this list was whittled down to one company (in OH), and representatives of that company have already visited the new under construction assembly plant the company is building in a nearby state. Because the items to be machined are spec’ced in Europe, there is a translation issue. Some items are not available in the US, so by visiting the assembly plant, our candidate was able to examine the machine in detail and learn which US materials are the closest match for replacing the European parts. So far so good. If all goes well, our candidate will begin machining parts by late 2019.
In the meantime we provided 6 fabrication companies for an extensive list of sheet metal parts. 4 have left the competition; 2 remain. Both have multiple capabilities for forming and painting requirements and now we’re working on the costs to do the work.
Our role has been to first examine the nature of the items to be supplied and then identify candidates who should be good for such work. In these cases we usually need to keep track of NDA’s and surveys that are required, and to “encourage” our candidates to complete these preliminary items quickly. Then we can gradually turn over communications to our candidates, yet remaining in touch with the European company so that problems, omissions, oversights, and barriers are dealt with FAST.
Again—so far, so good. Stay tuned for future reports on this large projects.
Perhaps you would like candidates to improve your supply chain. We are ready whenever your are—and a call will begin the process: (513) 489-5252
Here’s the link: The article from the Reshoring Institute.