America Is Back in the Factory Business

【美国制造业的回归】


Production at U.S. factories rose last year, but few things were produced at a more furious pace than factories themselves.

去年，美国工厂的产量上升，但很少有产品的生产速度比工厂本身更快。

Construction spending related to manufacturing reached $108 billion in 2022, Census Bureau data show, the highest annual total on record—more than was spent to build schools, healthcare centers or office buildings.

人口普查局的数据显示，2022年与制造业有关的建筑支出达到1080亿美元，是有记录以来最高的年度总额--比建造学校、保健中心或办公大楼的支出还要多。

New factories are rising in urban cores and rural fields, desert flats and surf towns. Much of the growth is coming in the high-tech fields of electric-vehicle batteries and semiconductors, national priorities backed by billions of dollars in government incentives. Other companies that once relied exclusively on lower-cost countries to manufacture eyeglasses and bicycles and bodybuilding supplements have found reasons to come home.

新的工厂正在城市核心区和农村田野、沙漠平原和冲浪小镇崛起。大部分增长来自于电动汽车电池和半导体等高科技领域，这些领域是国家的重点发展目标，有数十亿美元的政府补贴支持。其他曾经完全依赖低成本国家制造眼镜、自行车和健美保健品的公司也找到了回国的理由。

The pursuit of speed and flexibility prompted sock manufacturer FutureStitch Inc., which has factories in China and Turkey, to open a new one in Oceanside, Calif., last summer—the company’s first in the U.S.

对速度和灵活性的追求促使在中国和土耳其设有工厂的袜子制造商FutureStitch Inc.于去年夏天在加州Oceanside开设了一家新工厂，这是该公司在美国的第一家工厂。

Chief Executive Taylor Shupe said retailers don’t want to carry excess inventory in their stores, and the U.S. factory allows the company to quickly replenish stock. Time is also of the essence to sell socks commemorating events like the NBA Finals or the Kentucky Derby, he said.

首席执行官泰勒·舒佩(Taylor Shupe)说，零售商不想在门店里积压过多库存，而美国的这家工厂能让该公司迅速补充库存。他说，若是赶上NBA总决赛或是肯塔基赛马大会这类活动，时间问题对于袜子销售也至关重要。

He said the company is keeping its overseas factories but is adding a second in the U.S.—and maybe eventually a third—as it develops new products.

舒佩谈到，公司将继续保留海外工厂，同时在研发新品的过程中，还会在美国建第二家工厂，最后说不定还会有第三家。

“There is more and more equity around ‘Made in the USA,’ ” said Mr. Shupe. “To me, this is here to stay.”

“‘美国制造’变得越来越有价值了。”舒佩说，“在我看来，这里值得留下。”
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Manufacturing has always been an integral part of American life. Paul Revere opened a foundry that produced bells and cannons following his famous midnight ride. Henry Ford’s assembly line made cars affordable to the masses. And U.S. industrial might helped win World War II, when nearly half of private-sector employees worked in factories.

制造业一直是美国人生活中的必要组成部分。保罗·里维尔(Paul Revere)在那次著名的骑马夜行后（译注：美国独立战争时期人物，曾在午夜骑马告知各地民众英军来袭的消息），开设了一家铸造厂来生产钟和大炮。亨利·福特(Henry Ford)的装配线让汽车进入了寻常百姓家。美国工业或许还为二战的胜利做出过贡献，当时私营行业中近一半的人都在工厂工作。

That portion plunged after the war, thanks to automation and U.S. companies seeking lower costs overseas. Production capacity, which had grown at about 4% a year for decades, flattened after China’s 2001 entry into the World Trade Organization.

二战过后，在自动化的影响下，加之美国企业为降低成本将业务转向海外，这一比例大幅降低。过去数十年里每年约4%的产能增幅，也在2001年中国加入世界贸易组织(WTO)后，慢下了脚步。
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But last year U.S. production capacity showed its strongest growth since 2015 after pandemic-driven shortages and delays caused manufacturers to rethink their far-flung supply chains, said UBS industrials analyst Chris Snyder.

但瑞银(UBS)产业分析师克里斯·斯奈德(Chris Snyder)指出，美国去年的产能增幅创下2015年以来的最高水平，此前，新冠疫情造成的供应短缺与延迟促使制造商对以往那种远距离的供应链进行了反思。

“Covid kind of pulled the covers off and showed everybody how much risk they were exposed to,” Mr. Snyder said.

“新冠疫情就好像是揭开了那层面纱，让每个人都看到了他们面临的风险有多大。”斯奈德说。

Today U.S. manufacturing employment is holding steady at about 10% of the private sector, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, with nearly 800,000 jobs added in the sector over the past two years. The total number, 13 million, was virtually unchanged in the latest BLS jobs report.

据美国劳工统计局(U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)，目前美国私营领域中，制造业的就业人数稳定在10%左右，过去两年间该行业新增近80万个岗位。在美国劳工统计局最新公布的就业报告中，该行业从业总人数为1,300万，几乎没有变化。

The industry is actually hurting for workers—about 800,000 more are needed, according to the National Association of Manufacturers—leading to concerns that labor shortages and other bottlenecks could short-circuit the boom.

从用工角度看，该行业其实正身处困境——据全美制造商协会(National Association of Manufacturers)，它存在约80万人的用工缺口——这不禁使人担心，劳动力短缺及其他瓶颈或许会让这场繁荣戛然而止。

“I can bring back all the orders I want; there will be no one to make them,” said Harry Moser, president of the Reshoring Initiative, which advocates for bringing manufacturing jobs back to the U.S.

“我想拿回多少订单都可以，但问题是没有干活的人。”Reshoring Initiative总裁哈里·莫泽(Harry Moser)说，该机构提倡让制造业岗位回到美国。

Huge government incentives are stoking the frenzy. The Biden administration, seeing electric vehicles and semiconductors as matters of national security, has devoted billions of dollars to expanding those industries in the U.S. States are kicking in billions more.

规模庞大的政府激励措施助长了这股狂热。拜登政府将电动车和半导体视为关乎国家安全的重要领域，它已投入数十亿美元来发展国内这些行业。除此之外，各州也正投入数十亿美元。

One result of that push can be seen in Lansing, Mich., the town where Oldsmobile got its start in the late 19th century. In a field adjacent to a General Motors Co. SUV factory, a vast skeleton of steel beams marks the coming of the automotive industry’s next phase.

这种层层推动的效果在密歇根州兰辛(Lansing)得到了体现。19世纪末，通用汽车(General Motors Co. )子品牌奥斯莫比(Oldsmobile)就是从这里起步的。在通用汽车一家SUV工厂旁的空地上，一座巨大的钢梁骨架标志着汽车业进入了下一个阶段。

The plant under construction belongs to Ultium Cells, a joint venture between GM and LG Energy Solution Ltd., and it aims to start producing EV batteries in late 2024. The factory shares a $2.5 billion federal loan with sister plants in Ohio and Tennessee. It has also received $666 million in state grants and a bargain rate on electricity from the city’s utility.

这座在建的工厂属于Ultium Cells，它是通用汽车与LG新能源(LG Energy Solution Ltd.)的合资企业，计划2024年底开始生产电动汽车电池。它与俄亥俄州及田纳西州的姊妹工厂共同申请了一笔25亿美元的联邦贷款。此外，它还获得了6.66亿美元的州拨款，并从所在城市的电力部门拿到了优惠电价。

Ultium said the factory will create more than 1,700 jobs. That’s not a huge number by local standards—the state government, Michigan State University and local hospitals each employ far more people—but Bob Trezise of the Lansing Economic Area Partnership said the suppliers that cluster around factories create a multiplier effect, making them worthy of public support.

Ultium称，上述工厂将创造1,700余个就业岗位。按照当地标准，这不是一个庞大的数字——州政府、密歇根州立大学(Michigan State University)以及当地几所医院解决的就业人数都远远超过这个数字——但经济发展组织兰辛经济区伙伴关系(Lansing Economic Area Partnership)的鲍勃·特雷齐斯(Bob Trezise)指出，聚集在工厂周围的供应商可以产生乘数效应，从这个角度说，为它们提供公共支持是值得的。

Hundreds of workers have swarmed over the site since construction began last year. That inspired Debi Cheadle, who lives nearby, to buy a food truck to serve burgers and burritos.

自去年开工以来，已有数百名工人涌向工地。这让家住附近的黛比·钱德尔(Debi Cheadle)想到一个点子——买一辆餐车来卖汉堡和卷饼。

“I saw all the people coming and going and thought, ‘Let’s do something that’s profitable and good for us, too,’” she said in mid-March as lunchtime approached.

“我看到这么多人来来往往，心想，‘我们来做点既能赚钱也对自己有好处的事吧。’”3月中旬的一天，她在临近午餐时说。
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Lansing Mayor Andy Schor said the city is also wooing companies that make semiconductors. Richard Branch, chief economist of the Dodge Construction Network, which tracks building projects, said that industry, along with EV battery companies, accounted for nearly half of all U.S. manufacturing construction starts in 2022, as measured in square footage.

兰辛市市长安迪·绍尔(Andy Schor)表示，兰辛也在招徕半导体制造企业。追踪建筑项目的Dodge Construction Network的首席经济学家理查德·布兰奇(Richard Branch)说，以建筑面积衡量，2022年开工建造的美国所有制造业项目中，来自半导体和电动汽车电池制造企业的部分占到近一半。

Other new manufacturing lines are popping up in the Lansing area, taking advantage of a well-trained local workforce. The Shyft Group Inc., which makes specialty vehicles, is expanding its factory southwest of the city to build a new line of electric trucks and vans. Neogen Corp., which makes food- and animal-safety products, is building a three-story manufacturing facility near the city’s downtown.

眼下，兰辛地区正陆续诞生新的生产线，当地训练有素的劳动力也成为可以利用的一大优势。特种车辆生产商The Shyft Group Inc.正在兰辛西南部扩建工厂，希望建造一条新的电动卡车及厢式车生产线。食品安全与动物安全产品制造商纽勤(Neogen Corp.)则正在兰辛市中心附近修建一座三层楼高的制造厂。

About 20 miles north of Lansing, in the small town of St. Johns, an Ireland-based maker of dairy products has built a plant that each day turns 8 million pounds of milk into sacks of whey protein and blocks of cheese as big as dishwashers.

一家总部位于爱尔兰的乳制品生产商在兰辛以北约20英里（32公里）的圣约翰(St. Johns)小镇建了一座工厂，它每天可将800万磅（合3,630吨）牛奶变成一袋袋乳清蛋白和洗碗机大小的奶酪块。

The factory is a joint venture between the company, Glanbia Nutritionals, and two cooperatives representing local dairy farmers. The facility opened in late 2020, and since hitting full capacity, processes a quarter of the milk produced by Michigan’s cows.

这家工厂是哥兰比亚营养有限公司(Glanbia Nutritionals)与两家代表当地奶农的合作社组建的合资企业。工厂于2020年底开业，自满负荷运行以来，密歇根州产的牛奶有四分之一都是在这里加工的。

Site director Manish Paudel said many of the factory’s 266 employees have a manufacturing background that allows them to quickly understand its heavily automated processes. Tyler Klein, who was monitoring a vat in which lumps of cheddar were forming, said he joined the company after making piston rings in an auto-parts plant.

现场负责人玛尼希·鲍德尔(Manish Paudel)说，该工厂的266名员工中，许多人都有制造业背景，这使得他们能够迅速了解高度自动化的流程。泰勒·克莱恩(Tyler Klein)负责监测为切达奶酪定型的大桶，他说入职这家公司前，他曾在一家汽车配件厂生产活塞环。

“This is the most technologically advanced factory I’ve worked in so far,” he said.

“这是迄今为止我工作过的技术最先进的工厂。”他说。

St. Johns Mayor Roberta Cocco said the factory has invigorated her town’s shopping district, where once-empty storefronts now host new businesses. Emily Baudoux, who started a clothing boutique called Rise Up Co. a year ago, said she’s thinking about putting a rental apartment above her shop to cater to visiting executives.

圣约翰镇镇长洛贝塔·科科(Roberta Cocco)说，这座工厂为镇上的商业区注入了活力，曾经空荡的店面如今也进驻了新的商家。艾米莉·鲍杜克斯(Emily Baudoux)一年前开了一家名为Rise Up Co.的精品服装店，她说，眼下她正考虑在服装店楼上盖一间出租公寓，服务那些来访的高管。

Much of the nationwide manufacturing buildup aims to shorten the distance products travel between being made and sold. Danish toy maker Lego A/S, which supplies the Americas primarily from a factory in Mexico, said that is why it is building its first U.S. plant near Richmond, Va.

全美之所以掀起这股制造业浪潮，很大程度上是为了缩短产品生产地与销售地之间的距离。丹麦玩具生产商乐高公司(Lego A/S)目前主要通过墨西哥的一家工厂向美洲地区供货，它说正因为如此，它才会在弗吉尼亚州里士满(Richmond)附近建造第一家美国工厂。

“This allows us to rapidly respond to changing consumer demand and helps manage our carbon footprint,” Chief Operations Officer Carsten Rasmussen said.

“这让我们能够快速响应不断变化的消费者需求，也有助于管理我们的碳足迹。”乐高首席运营官卡斯滕·拉斯穆森(Carsten Rasmussen)说。
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Tennessee-based nutritional supplement company Vireo Systems Inc. imports one of its key ingredients—creatine, an energy-boosting natural compound popular with weightlifters and athletes—from China. After the Covid-19 pandemic interrupted the flow, Chief Executive Mark Faulkner decided to build a plant in Nebraska.

总部位于田纳西州的营养品生产企业Vireo Systems Inc.有一种关键原材料要从中国进口，这种名为肌酸的天然化合物可以补充能量，在举重选手和远动员当中很受欢迎。在新冠疫情阻断供应链后，该公司首席执行官马克·福克纳(Mark Faulkner)决定在内布拉斯加州建一座厂。

“We want to be masters of our own destiny,” he said.

“我们想把命运掌握在自己手中。”他说。

The facility, scheduled to open in two weeks, will make creatine with ingredients sourced from nearby, including ethanol processed from local corn crops. The final product, a supplement called CON-CRĒT, will be sold at Walmart Inc. stores in packaging that highlights its domestic origin, he said.

新工厂计划两周后启用，它将用采购自附近的原材料来生产肌酸，包括由当地谷类作物加工而成的乙醇。福克纳说，这款名为CON-CR?T的补充剂制成后将在沃尔玛(Walmart Inc.)店里销售，届时，包装上会突出显示该产品产自美国国内。

Executives who have already reshored their manufacturing caution that challenges await their peers.

然而，那些已将制造业务搬回国内的企业管理人员提醒说，他们的同行依然面临挑战。

Arnold Kamler, chief executive of bicycle maker Kent International Inc., said he imported stock from China until his largest customer, Walmart, indicated it preferred to sell goods made or assembled in the U.S. Kent opened a factory in South Carolina in 2014, where the local workforce had little expertise in building bikes, Mr. Kamler said.

自行车生产商Kent International Inc.首席执行官阿诺德·卡姆勒(Arnold Kamler)表示，他原本是从中国进口原材料，后来他的头号客户沃尔玛指出，它更愿意销售在美国制造或是组装的商品，于是2014年，Kent在南卡罗来纳州开了一家工厂，而当地工人对于如何生产自行车几乎一无所知。

A high level of automation partially solved that problem, but for now, Kent’s South Carolina workers paint imported frxs and assemble bikes from components that mostly are made in China, too. Mr. Kamler said while he plans to start manufacturing rims at the factory soon, followed someday by frxs and forks, his company will still rely on overseas suppliers.

好在高度自动化的生产过程部分解决了这一问题，但目前，Kent南卡罗来纳州工厂的工人们仍在给进口车架喷漆，他们组装车辆所用的零部件也大多产自中国。卡姆勒说，尽管他计划不久后就开始在这家工厂生产轮框，将来还要生产车架和前叉，但公司还是会依赖海外供应商。

“We are hoping some of our competitors will join us in producing bikes here, which would encourage more companies to make the component parts here,” he said.

“我们希望一些竞争对手也能加入在本地生产自行车的行列，这会促使更多企业来这里制造零部件。”他说。

Stanley Black and Decker Inc.’s chief executive, Donald Allan Jr., has also lauded the benefits of automation in U.S. plants. “You’ve gone from a situation where if you did a power tool assembly in China or Mexico, you might have 50 to 75 people on a line,” he said during a September investors event. “The automated solution that we’ve created in North Carolina, current version, has about 10 to 12 people on that line because of the high level of automation, and the 2.0 version looks like it’s going to get down to two to three people on the line.”

工具制造商史丹利百得(Stanley Black and Decker Inc.)首席执行官小唐纳德·艾伦(Donald Allan Jr.)也称赞了自动化给美国工厂带来的好处。“以前要是在中国或墨西哥建一条电动工具装配线，你可能需要在装配线上配备50-75人。”他在去年9月的一场投资者会议上说，“而我们在北卡罗来纳州创造的自动化解决方案，也就是现在的版本，由于实现了高度自动化，装配线上大约只有10-12人，到了2.0版本，可能只需要两三个人就够了。”

Gary Gereffi, director of the Duke Global Value Chains Center, said despite the surge in factory building, many industries are unlikely to create entirely homegrown supply chains.

杜克大学全球价值链中心(Duke Global Value Chains Center)主任加里·格雷菲(Gary Gereffi)谈到，尽管最近出现了“建厂热”，但许多行业都不大可能建立起完全植根于本土的供应链。

He pointed to an automated shoe factory Adidas AG built in suburban Atlanta so it could get its products to market faster. The company shut it down in 2019, two years after its opening, and moved production to Vietnam and China to achieve what it called “better utilization of existing production capacity and more flexibility in product design.”

他提到，为加快产品上市速度，阿迪达斯(Adidas AG)曾在亚特兰大郊区建了一家自动化制鞋厂。运营两年后，2019年阿迪达斯关闭了这家工厂，并将生产业务转移至越南和中国，按照阿迪达斯的说法，此举是为了“更好地利用现有产能以及在产品设计方面拥有更大的灵活性。”

Adidas didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.

阿迪达斯没有回复记者寻求置评的电子邮件。
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Mr. Gereffi said companies bringing their manufacturing to the U.S. should understand what they do best.

格雷菲说，那些把制造业务搬到美国的企业应该了解自身最擅长的领域在哪里。

“If some of the assembly or lower-tech production can be done elsewhere, that would keep costs down to some degree,” he said. “I think that’s certainly in manufacturers’ minds when they’re thinking about these sourcing issues and where to locate production.”

“如果某段装配线或是技术含量较低的生产环节可以安排到其他地方完成，这会在一定程度上降低成本。”他说，“我觉得，当制造商在考虑这些采购问题以及为工厂选址时，他们肯定会去想这一点。”

California-based eyewear vendor Zenni Optical Inc. exclusively used its own Chinese manufacturing facilities during much of its 20-year existence. In May, the company opened its first U.S. plant near Columbus, Ohio, to better serve the Midwest and East Coast, where most of its sales originate.

在成立至今的20年间，总部位于加州的眼镜销售企业Zenni Optical Inc.大多数时候都只使用自己设在中国的制造厂。去年5月，它在俄亥俄州哥伦布(Columbus)附近开设了第一家美国工厂，以更好地服务于中西部和东海岸地区，这里也是该公司大部分销售额的来源地。

Rob Tate, the company’s U.S. director of manufacturing, said the new plant has allowed Zenni to deliver glasses within 48 hours of a customer placing the order. The facility, which employs about 100 workers, processes 2,000 pairs a day and aims to boost that to 14,000 by the end of the year, he said.

Zenni美国制造业务主管罗伯·泰特(Rob Tate)说，新厂使得Zenni能够在客户下单48小时内交付眼镜。他说，这家美国工厂约有100名员工，每天加工眼镜2,000副，公司计划年底前将这一数字提高至1.4万副。

Zenni’s original plan was to make the Ohio factory a finishing lab that put the final touches on lenses sent from China, Mr. Tate said. Supply-chain snarls that arose during the pandemic led Zenni to turn the Ohio operation into a full-service manufacturing facility.

泰特说，Zenni最初的计划是将俄亥俄州的这家工厂作为精加工实验室，对来自中国的镜片做最后的修饰。新冠疫情扰乱供应链后，Zenni索性将其变成了一家“全能”工厂。

“The reason we do that is to add a little bit of redundancy and a little bit of disaster relief to whatever may disrupt our supply chain from China,” he said.

“我们之所以这么做，是希望不管是什么原因破坏了我们在中国的供应链，我们都可以多一点替代选择，也多一点应急准备。”他说。

The company says it costs about $3 more per pair to manufacture glasses in the U.S.

Zenni称，在美国，每副眼镜的生产成本要高出3美元左右。
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David Mindell, a professor of the history of engineering and manufacturing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who co-founded a venture-capital firm investing in industrial transformation, said major cycles, from the development of interchangeable parts to the rise of the microprocessor, typically play out over several decades. The factory boom signals that the U.S. is at the start of a new cycle, he said.

麻省理工学院(Massachusetts Institute of Technology)工程与制造史教授大卫·明德尔(David Mindell)谈到，从可互换零件的研制到微处理器的兴起，重要的周期通常会在数十年间逐渐铺开。他说，此轮“建厂热”预示着美国刚刚踏入一个新的周期。明德尔与人共同创办了一家投资于产业转型的风投公司。

“Manufacturing has been part of the American story from the beginning,” he said. “I see what’s happening now as a return to a more traditional way of doing things.”

“制造业从一开始就是美国故事的一部分。”他说，“在我看来，如今的这一幕是在回归更加传统的做事方式。”