From Covid-19 and labour shortages to sanctions, tariffs and energy shortages, global supply chains are being tested on multiple fronts. The risk of sourcing from far-flung locations is being priced into boardroom decisions at a much higher premium than anything seen for decades. Just-in-time has transformed into just-in-case.
In response to these challenges, companies are geographically realigning their supply chains to be more regional or hemispheric. In North America’s (relatively) free market, companies are typically left to their own devices on whether to integrate or not. But this new reality has empowered governments to proactively offer incentives to companies to expand their domestic supply chains more rapidly.
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Companies are geographically realigning their supply chains to be more regional or hemispheric
Surprisingly, though the semiconductor was invented in the US, only around 12% of chips are manufactured domestically. Many products that are made in the US, from washing machines to automobiles to LED lights, depend on semiconductors to make them work. Never was it more apparent that US manufacturing depends on chips than the sight of thousands of new cars sitting idle in parking lots waiting on the essential part. As recent as July 2022, GM reported nearly 100,000 cars were waiting on semiconductors.
In what some would say was a delayed response, in August the US Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act into law, providing billions of dollars to promote domestic research, development and manufacturing of semiconductors. Without these incentives, it's unlikely that many of the recent chip plant announcements — from the $29bn Intel facility in Ohio to the $17bn Samsung plant in Texas — would be economically feasible.
Alas, decoupling from the rest of the world is easier said than done. Depending on your product requirements, your only option might be to import from overseas vendors. For example, nearly 70% of the world’s supply of neon, integral to the production of integrated circuits in semiconductors, is (or was) made in Ukraine as a byproduct of Russian steel production. This example radiates across various industries and reminds us of a simple notion: if one link in the supply chain is broken, the entire system collapses.
Didi Caldwell is the president and founding principal of Global Location Strategies, a global site selection consultancy, and also a member of the Site Selectors Guild.
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E-mail: didicaldwell@glsconsults.com
This article first appeared in the October/November 2022 print edition of fDi Intelligence.
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