IndustryWeek has an article about something we are seeing quite a bit: the US needs to prepare for reindustrialization.

This is happening for many reasons. Supply chain issues surrounding the pandemic is one.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Chinese President Xi Jinping telling the Communist Party Congress that he is prepared to invade Taiwan is another. Meanwhile, U.S. multinational corporations realize how vulnerable they are because of China’s willingness to weaponize and politicize supply chains.

The author thinks it’s time for the United States to begin accelerating reshoring, rebuild American industries and put reindustrialization into overdrive.

Shortages of critical components have led many politicians and corporations to take a hard look at America’s vulnerabilities. They have to face the fact that the U.S. is now at the mercy of rogue nations like China. The Coalition for a Prosperous America’s Domestic Market Share Index (DMSI) also shows that domestic producers’ share of their home market fell to a record low of 63.8 % in Q2 of 2022. If the U.S. is to be less vulnerable to shortages, trade disruptions, natural disasters, war and blackmail, we must develop a strategy to accelerate reshoring production and jobs.

Furthermore, globalization and the decades-long multinational corporation rush towards finding the lowest price anywhere may be weakening. Larry Fink, of Black Rock Financial, said in his 2022 letter to shareholders that “supply chain disruption caused by the pandemic and Russian invasions of Ukraine has put an end to globalization we have experienced over the last three decades.”

Here’s another issue we are seeing. Besides losing our technology and inventions to our competitors, we have lost the skilled workers, the know-how, the suppliers and the capital investment that come with investing into production at scale. Reshoring the industrial commons is going to take an investment in basic industries that are ubiquitous to manufacturing processes.

Read more here.