Are US manufacturers quitting China?
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Joshua M. Brown Guest blogger
LOL, I don't know, sorry, been a long day and I'm not getting enough servings of carbs on this new Paleo thing I'm doing....
But was kind of interesting on how American companies are finding better manufacturing locales than China here in the States:
鈥淭en years ago, everyone thought Mexico would be the place for expansion,鈥� says Pete Selleck, who heads Michelin鈥檚 North American operations. 鈥淏ut we can鈥檛 tolerate the level of instability there.鈥� As for China, labor costs are rising quickly, he says, and 鈥渢here鈥檚 still concern about protecting intellectual property.鈥� A new survey of 106 big U.S. manufacturers by the Boston Consulting Group, to be released Friday, picked up a similar sentiment. Thirty-seven percent of the companies said they plan to bring production back to the U.S. from China, or are actively considering it. Seventy percent said sourcing in China is more costly than it looks on paper. BCG also sees some additional interest in the U.S. from manufacturers in Europe. It says they are attracted to higher productivity here and a cheap U.S. dollar.
