#147 – Inside Our Industry – Construction Boom Beginning to Reshape the Manufacturing Sector

Two weeks ago we shared the Wall Street Journal article “America is Back in the Factory Business.” This week we are sharing the Key Findings and Conclusion of a more in-depth report from the Economic Innovation Group that explores where the manufacturing construction boom is occurring. Click on the link at the bottom for the full report, along with the very informative charts and maps they have put together.

Construction Boom Beginning to Reshape the Manufacturing Sector
Economic Innovation Group, April 18, 2023

Key Findings

• The nationwide boom in manufacturing construction continued into 2023. In February, the value of manufacturing construction in dollar terms was nearly 80 percent higher than three years prior.
• Some geographic regions are seeing much larger relative increases in manufacturing construction than others, with the Mountain West, East North Central (Upper Midwest), and East South Central (AL, KY, MS, TN) Census divisions leading the way.
• The Mountain West region’s rise has been particularly striking. The value of manufacturing construction activity in the region is now six times higher than in 2017, powered in part by the burgeoning expansion of semiconductor manufacturing in Arizona and Utah.
• Though post-pandemic growth has not yet fundamentally shifted American manufacturing’s historic center of gravity, new investments promise to at least tilt it further towards the South and Mountain West.

Conclusion

• The resurgence of investment and construction in the manufacturing sector has been one of the defining storylines of the economic recovery, pushing both into new industries and regions not historically home to the American industrial base. While still in its infancy, the post-Covid build-out—shaped in part by tight labor markets, supply chain disruptions abroad, economic and national security concerns, decarbonization goals, and new forms of activist industrial policy at the federal level—has the potential to eventually rearrange the geography of a vital sector of the American economy.

Full report.