America Is Back in the Factory Business
Record spending on manufacturing construction heralds a made-in-the-U.S. rebound, stoked by green-energy incentives and concerns about foreign supply chains.
www.wsj.com
"Construction spending related to manufacturing reached $108 billion in 2022, Census Bureau data show, the highest annual total on record—more than was spent to build schools, healthcare centers or office buildings.
New factories are rising in urban cores and rural fields, desert flats and surf towns. Much of the growth is coming in the high-tech fields of electric-vehicle batteries and semiconductors, national priorities backed by billions of dollars in government incentives. Other companies that once relied exclusively on lower-cost countries to manufacture eyeglasses and bicycles and bodybuilding supplements have found reasons to come home."
"Today U.S. manufacturing employment is holding steady at about 10% of the private sector, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, with nearly 800,000 jobs added in the sector over the past two years."
California-based eyewear vendor Zenni Optical Inc. exclusively used its own Chinese manufacturing facilities during much of its 20-year existence. In May, the company opened its first U.S. plant near Columbus, Ohio, to better serve the Midwest and East Coast, where most of its sales originate.
