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To paraphrase Mark Twain, rumors of the death of American manufacturing have been greatly exaggerated, and 2022 proved why.
Editor’s note: The Alliance for American Manufacturing team is counting down the top manufacturing news stories of 2022 all this week. Read No. 5, No. 4, No. 3 and No. 2.
We hate to say we told you so. But we told you so.
For years and years and years, we heard the naysayers. American manufacturing is never coming back, they said. It’s all in the past, they said. It’s over, they insisted.
But then came the COVID-19 pandemic, in which the United States found itself without many basic supplies. That was followed by the global supply chain crisis, which made it hard to get the things we need. And amidst all this, policymakers from both sides of the aisle began to realize the folly of depending on a top geopolitical rival for critical things we need for our national and economic security.
Crucially, that led to the enactment of actual industrial policy, like the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, which incentivized domestic manufacturing. And in 2022, it began to work.
From electric vehicles to batteries to solar panels to semiconductors, corporations big and small invested billions upon billions of dollars this year into planned factories and manufacturing facilities, putting the pieces in place for a truly Made in America future.
And while manufacturing jobs aren’t likely to reach their peaks of the 1950s, the industry is hiring again — 750,000 new factory jobs have been created since President Biden took office in January 2021.
It’s the type of manufacturing revival that we long were told was impossible, but always knew could happen if America got the policy right. It’s also hopefully the start of something much bigger, in which the United States finally gets back to actually making and building the things we need to thrive. If policymakers stay the course, they will lay the groundwork for a stronger, fairer and more productive United States.
Below, we highlight just a few of the critical industries that saw major factory announcements this year.
Throughout the past year, numerous companies have announced their investments within the EV industry, enhancing domestic manufacturing. Companies such as Ford, General Motors, Mercedes Benz, TeraWatt, Stellantis, Samsung, Panasonic, Toyota, and Piedmont Lithium have all pitched in to contribute to the up-and-coming EV boom. These investments were made in key states like Alabama, California, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, North Carolina, and Tennessee, resulting in tens of billions of dollars in investments.
As President Biden said:
“It used to be — used to be that to buy an electric car, you had to make all sorts of compromises, but not now. Thanks to American ingenuity, American engineers, American autoworkers, that’s all changing. Today, if you want an electric vehicle with a long range, you can buy one made in America.”
The United States remains behind globally when it comes to EV production. But the policy put in place has allowed for investments that are helping American industry play catch up, and the groundwork is here to dethrone China from the top spot. Here are just a handful of 2022 announcements:
As we noted in our No. 2 manufacturing story of the year blog post, one of the most vital pieces of legislation passed in 2022 was the CHIPS and Science Act, which allocated $52 billion in direct funding for production of advanced computer chips called semiconductors and an additional $170 billion more for research and development.
If you fund it, factories will come. According to the Semiconductor Industry Association, the legislation already has yielded $200 billion in privately-funded investments for U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. More than 40 specific projects have been unveiled, expected to create around 40,000 new jobs. And they’re good jobs, too. A planned Intel facility in Ohio expects to pay its workers an average annual salary of $135,000.
Here are just a few of the major semiconductor plants announced in 2022:
We outlined the saga of America’s solar industry in our No. 3 post, but it was such a rollercoaster ride that it’s worth repeating here. While the Biden administration made the puzzling move to delay tariffs on solar imports for two years, there’s no doubt that the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act provided a much-needed boost to this critical industry.
As with electric vehicles and semiconductors, the enactment of industrial policy led to factory announcements. Here are a few:
Despite all the excitement, and even though it’s about to be the New Year, we aren’t popping the champagne quite yet. Lots of promises were made about factory announcements in 2022, all good signs of things that could come. But this is a marathon.
Policymakers need to see this through. Both the Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS and Science Act must be the start of a larger industrial policy, one that prioritizes the growth of American industry and allows U.S. workers and manufacturers to compete in an increasingly competitive global landscape.
Meanwhile, the United States must enforce its trade laws. China and other countries have proven time and time again that they are willing to break trade rules and play unfair. We must ensure our industry is given a level playing field.
But despite the challenges, the future of manufacturing looks bright. If we get this right, 2022 will be long remembered as the start of a new American manufacturing renaissance.
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