'Reshoring' Event Highlights Return of Manufacturing to U.S., Southwest Riverside County

Recent articles in The Economist, the Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times have described the growing national trend where an increasing number of American companies are moving their manufacturing back from China and other countries to the United States. This trend is known as “reshoring.”

Many of these companies are relocating production facilities back to this country due to the higher total production costs they are experiencing in China and the need for stronger quality control. Some companies have indicated that when the costs of shipping, customs duties and the increasing cost of labor in China are factored into the equation, the cost of producing the products in California was only 10 percent more expensive than in China.

The Southwest Riverside County Cluster of the Riverside County Manufacturers and Exporters Association hosted an event today in Murrieta at which industry leaders described how this trend is affecting Southwest Riverside County and the Southern California region. The event was sponsored by the San Diego Daily Transcript, San Diego’s daily business newspaper;  the City of Murrieta; RKR Marketing; JFM Global Associates; and Continental East Development in Murrieta, at which the event was held.

George Chamberlin, Executive Editor of the San Diego Daily Transcript, interviewed a panel of area manufacturers and businesses about their experience in bringing production back to the local area. Speaking to the packed room of 40 businesses and other attendees in Murrieta, Larry Campbell of Suhr Industries, a guitar manufacturing company in Lake Elsinore,  explained that they brought their manufacturing back from China to Lake Elsinore to insure better quality control and because the Southwest Riverside County workforce has a stronger “attention to detail.” The company had difficulty controlling production processes in China. 

Patrick Billman with Cryoquip Manufacturing, an international company based in Murrieta, indicated that they produce a highly technical product line. Due to their need for sophisticated quality control, they manufacture their large industrial machinery in Murrieta -  which they then export to China and throughout the world.

Susan Long of Diving Unlimited International in San Diego stated that they are a world leader in high performance diving equipment. They tried to contract some of their manufacturing to China but they found that the quality control of their product was a concern and that they needed the flexibility of manufacturing locally to serve their customers. They brought all of their manufacturing back to San Diego.

Kellie Aamodt of UPS told the gathering that local government can help to grow manufacturing in the region by continuing to assist small businesses to become aware of export, manufacturing, financing and other resources available to existing companies in the area.

—Contributed content