NEW YORK—The United States sits just behind China in terms of manufacturing competitiveness in 2016, and is expected to overtake the country by 2020, according to a study by consulting firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.
It is too little and too late to keep writing “manufacturing matters.” Everything else in the economy is secondary to manufacturing, mining and farming. Only these activities build wealth.
GREENSBURG, IN—Honda Manufacturing of Indiana is investing $52 million and creating 100 jobs at its assembly plant here. The jobs and investment will support the production of the Honda CR-V, which the company announced in January would be moved to Indiana from Mexico.
BOSTON—More manufacturers are bringing production back to the U.S. in an effort to cut costs and move closer to customers, according to the latest figures from the Boston Consulting Group. Seventeen percent of manufacturers are moving operations back to the U.S., up from 13 percent in 2013.
DETROIT—Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump slammed Ford Motor Co.’s plans to invest $2.5 billion in Mexican assembly plants and vowed to tax any vehicles made there.
HAMBACH, France—Daimler wants workers at its Smart Car assembly plant here to put in more hours and has hinted that it may shift production if it cannot reach an agreement.
ZHENGZHOU, China—An employee at Foxconn’s electronics manufacturing operation here committed suicide by jumping off a building at the complex. The death comes after Foxconn had worked to improve labor conditions following a series of suicides in 2010 and 2011, mostly at the company’s Shenzhen factory.
VICTORIA, TX—Caterpillar will move its vocational truck manufacturing operation from Mexico to its assembly plant here. The move will bring 200 new jobs to the facility.
Here's a good bar-bet question: What is the most American-made vehicle in the United States? The Ford F-150? The Chevrolet Corvette? Close, but no cigar.