New Investments in US Manufacturing Keep 14-Year ‘Reshoring Renaissance’ Going

Companies have reshored 2 million manufacturing jobs since 2010.

Line workers spot weld parts of the frame on the flex line at Nissan Motor Co's automobile manufacturing plant in Smyrna, Tenn., on Aug. 23, 2018. William DeShazer/Reuters

The recently enacted tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China, together with announcements of hundreds of millions to be invested in building U.S. plants, are all intended to bolster America’s return to the days when it was a global manufacturing powerhouse.

Experts call it the “reshoring renaissance,” and some say that, for all its costs, disruptions and false starts, the trends are looking positive for American manufacturing capacity.

Harry Moser, president of the Reshoring Initiative, an advocacy group for domestic investment, says that offshoring, or shifting manufacturing out of the United States to low-wage countries, became the dominant trend at a time when industry prioritized cost-cutting.

Now, in the wake of the COVID pandemic and the Ukraine war, executives are thinking less about savings and more about being able to get supplies when they need them, or in some cases, getting them at all.

“Bringing the work back is a form of insurance,” Moser told The Epoch Times.

According to the Reshoring Iniative’s 2023 report, that year was the second highest year on record (after 2022) for new jobs announced in the manufacturing sector due to reshoring and foreign direct investment. And despite the fact that 2023 showed a downturn from 2022, it was still up about 191 percent from 2019, and up 2,500 percent since the offshoring peak in 2010, the report stated.

In the years between 2010 and 2023, the United States added a total of almost 2 million manufacturing jobs, or about 40 percent of what had been lost to offshoring, the report found.

“It took 11 years to add the first million jobs, but only 3 years to add the second million,” the report stated.

This trend appears to have continued to the present day.

Among the recent plans to boost U.S. manufacturing are a Feb. 24 announcement from Apple that it would invest $500 billion on the development of artificial intelligence, silicon engineering, and skills development.

“From doubling our Advanced Manufacturing Fund, to building advanced technology in Texas, we’re thrilled to expand our support for American manufacturing,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement.

This follows separate announcements in January from Samsung and LG Electronics that they were considering moving some of their appliance manufacturing from Mexico to South Carolina and Tennessee, respectively.

Also in January, German car brands Audi and Porsche said they were contemplating shifting some production to the United States to avoid tariffs.

In February, Japanese carmaker Nissan announced that it, too, was thinking of moving production from Mexico to the United States, potentially adding to the more than $7 billion it has already invested in its Smyrna, Tennessee, manufacturing plant.

The number of new jobs added in the U.S. each year from reshoring and foreign direct investment (Courtesy of the Reshoring Initiative).

Tariffs, Tax Breaks, and Subsidies

These announcements are coming at a time of escalating threats of tariffs, but the extent to which possible trade wars are adding to long-term investment within the United States is unclear.

“I think it’s too early to tell in many cases,” Jonathan Williams, chief economist at the American Legislative Exchange Council, told The Epoch Times. “People’s expectations are really all over the map in terms of how long-lasting some of these tariffs will be.

“A lot of this is ‘Art of the Deal,’ and making sure the United States gets a fair shake; that we’re not being discriminated against by trading partners,” Williams said, referring to President Donald Trump’s negotiating tactics as outlined in his 1987 book of that title.

Some of the recent 25 percent tariffs imposed on Mexico and Canada on have already proven to be temporary, as they are ostensibly being put in place to compel America’s neighbors to tighten border security. This could make the tariffs too tenuous for executives to rely on them when deciding on multi-year capital allocations.

In an aerial view, shipping containers are organized at the Houston Port of Authority in Houston, Texas, on Feb. 10, 2025. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

But even with long-term tariffs, such as those Trump placed on steel and aluminum on Feb. 11, it is unclear if they will ultimately spur domestic manufacturing. These tariffs may encourage domestic production in aluminum and steel, but could prove costly to manufacturers such as auto and appliance makers that use those products, making them less competitive against foreign competitors.

“If you choose tariffs as your mechanism, you should tariff everything, from everywhere, forever,” Moser said. “We recommend a border adjustment tax or value added tax because it fits with all those characteristics.”

Among the industries leading the reshoring trend in recent years were electric vehicle (EV) batteries and semiconductors, he said, attributing much of this to legislation passed under the Biden administration, including subsidies and tax breaks provided in the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act and incentives for EVs in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

According to the Semiconductor Industry Association, since the CHIPS and Science Act was passed, there have been almost $450 billion in new investments in semiconductors in the United States up to Jan. 22 of this year, creating more than 56,000 jobs.

On March 4, Trump directly called for an end to these government incentives, arguing that companies don’t need them. And while he may or may not succeed in getting laws repealed it seems highly unlikely that there will be additional government support for these industries during his term.

Creating Environment for Investment

Over the long term, analysts say, the United States should focus on creating a more positive environment in which to do business rather than putting up trade barriers or paying companies to invest.

“The key to keeping those investments here in the long run is lowering taxes, cutting regulations, and getting the government’s fiscal house in order,” Thomas Savidge, an economist with the American Institute for Economic Research, told The Epoch Times. “We see this as a recipe for success among states like Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.

“Federal policymakers should look to the states to see how to attract and retain residents and businesses.”

The American Legislative Exchange Council’s 2024 “Rich States, Poor States” competitiveness index compares states’ economic performance with their legislative, fiscal, and regulatory conditions. According to this report, the top-performing states—including Florida, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Nevada, Washington, Georgia, and South Carolina—generally have enacted policies that are more favorable to private investment.

“It’s no secret that the states that have kept taxes low and regulations limited have had a much better economic outlook and better performance over the last 20 years,” Williams said.

Regarding manufacturing, states in the southeast and the “mountain west” have succeeded in attracting much of it in part because they are “right-to-work” states that do not require unionization of factory workers, he said.