Writing for Industry Week magazine, Dan Burrows, CEO of Xtream Trucking, explains why he is reshoring a majority of its manufacturing back to the United States.

Like many others, one big reason for their decision to re-shore is profitability. The 2018 trade war between the US and China highlighted the fact that small disruptions outside their control could have a huge impact on running their business. Furthermore, many of their customers are in North America. International freight creates extra steps, including unpacking and inspecting for damage. If parts are damaged, they must powder coat for the shipping damage, repack, and ship again. With a domestic supply chain, they also can eliminate unexpected delays due to clearance at ports.

They are even saving money by bringing manufacturing back. They trimmed costs by about 20% and cut lead time from 8 weeks to 4 weeks on their aluminum mount system. And, they had a 10% reduction in costs and a reduction in lead time from 8 weeks to 5 weeks for their paneling system.

Then, of course, the pandemic hit, throwing supply chains into disarray. The benefits of having no supply chain disruptions have been huge.

Reshoring has become a popular trend in the past 5-8 years. However, companies like Xtream Trucking will only re-shore when the costs of offshoring outweigh the benefits. I think this trend will continue as further supply chain problems arise.