Qualify, currency and logistics buoy US parts makers' case

摘要

The bottom line: rising material and logistics costs, along with currency factors and speed of turnaround, are dimming the shine of offshore sourcing by U.S. parts suppliers. But whether an all-out shift in gear is looming remains to be seen. In a trend whose progress has been marked mainly by anecdote and example, one recent experience by Jerry Zeitler, president of Die-Matic Corp., §. serves as a typical illustration that "re-shoring" is for real, at least for part of U.S. industry. Zeitler late one Friday received a request for quotation (RFQ) from a so-called Tier 1 automotive supplier for work then being sourced in Asia for one of the Detroit-based Big Three automakers. But "escalating material, logistics and currency" factors were prompting the supplier to review the possible recall of the work back to the United States, and it was asking for domestic companies to bid on the job.