Is the tide turning
for reshoring?
’Reshoring’ is a much-mentioned word in the manufacturing industry, especially amongst
engineering component suppliers that took part in Ventilator Challenge UK. Andrew Allcock
takes a look at the history of such talk and considers current events. He asks: Is it different
this time? His answer is ‘yes’, but it will still require organisation, direction and support
R eshoring. A term not much used till this century,
Middle Kingdom and elsewhere. Suppliers were at it, too
(Machinery: www.is.gd/yufi ye ). Stockport-based Mini
Gears was an early mover, having set up an operation in
Shanghai around 2003 with the aim of sourcing gears in
volume. Ely-based Shearline Precision Engineering and
Techno Group were others that went looking for partners
in China/Asia around the same time.
The direction of travel was clearly all one way at this
time. In Machinery’s centenary issue of 2012, we quoted
Chancellor Gordon Brown, who said in 2005: “The global
economy is undergoing the most rapid and extensive
transformation the world has ever seen – in pace of
change, in scale of change, in impact of change.”
He added that China produces a quarter of the world’s
washing machines; 30% of its TVs; 50% of its cameras;
70% of all photocopiers; and 90% of its toys.
In 2006, we noted that Chinese manufacturing had
grown a staggering 12% every year between 1998 and
2002, and the country’s exports from outsourcing were
expected to grow 45% over the next ve years.
Warnings were being made about this rush, though.
really, until the rush to China gathered pace in the
rst decade of the 2000s. In 2004, Airbus said it
planned to further increase its procurement from China,
raising it to $120 million a year by 2010, double the
target the company already has for 2007 (Machinery:
www.is.gd/osoqub ). The bene ts of overseas
procurement were also highlighted. IMI said in 2004 that
its 50% increase in product development over the last
three years was supported by funds released by offshore
manufacturing. However, there wasn’t any choice but to
join the exodus. Globalisation was no longer an option,
but an imperative, said Boston Consulting Group the
same year. The migration of sourcing, manufacturing,
R&D, and service operations from high-cost countries to
low-cost countries is well under way and is accelerating,
it said. And a new report on the future of the UK
aerospace supply chain of that same year said we’re
increasingly losing out to low-cost countries in the race
to supply machined components.
And it wasn’t just the large OEMs hot-footing it to the
SHUTTER DIN /stock.adobe.com
For 20+ years,
the UK, along
with many other
industrialised
nations, has
sought out
suppliers far
away in an effort
to maintain
competitiveness.
Following
the Covid-19
pandemic and
a changed
geopolitical
lanscape, the
tide seems to
be turning, with
supply chain
resilience now a
key concern
10 September 2020 | www.machinery.co.uk | MachineryMagazine | @MachineryTweets
/osoqub
/stock.adobe.com
/www.machinery.co.uk
/yufiye