Faith in U.S. Manufacturing
Add comment June 13th, 2008
Here is a detailed rundown on Caterpillar’s $1 billion investments in lllinois factories.
Rock River Valley customers of Cat should see some benefit to this action.
Archive for June 13th, 2008
Manufacturing Jobs Come Home
1 comment June 13th, 2008
Soaring transportation costs are forcing manufacturers bring jobs home.
In a continuing coverage from a previous edition of Daily Executive Briefing, the Wall Street Journal (6/13, A1, Aeppel) reports in a page-one article, “The rising cost of shipping everything…is forcing some manufacturers to bring production back to North America,” while “freezing plans to send even more work overseas.” According to Claude Hayes, president of the retail heating division at DESA LLC, the “cost of getting a shipping container” in the U.S. from China “has jumped about 15 percent, to about $5,300, since January and is set to increase again next month to $5,600.” DESA “recently moved most of its production back to Bowling Green, Ky., from China.” Hayes asserted that “the company was lucky to have held onto its manufacturing machinery.” Edward Monser, Emerson’s CEO, noted that his company’s “larger strategy is to regionalize manufacturing, producing as much as possible within the part of the world where its sold.” Yet, “moving production closer to markets won’t avoid all the problems associated with rising transportation costs.”
